Learning from Daughters

A routine hospital visit in Srinagar becomes a reflection on daughters, care, and growing older in Kashmir.

- Muntashir Kifayat Hussain

I have four daughters. Saying that still fills my chest in a way nothing else does.

Life in Kashmir rarely moves gently. News, worry, and work crowd the days. Inside all that, my daughters bring a kind of ease.

When they walk into a room, the air changes. Voices soften, tea tastes better, and the house feels held together.

I teach at a boys’ high school. My days are spent with young men learning how to take space in the world. My evenings belong to my daughters.

We talk about books and poems. They ask questions, they correct me, and they remind me of things I forget.

Over time, I have come to see them as many people at once: mothers who worry, teachers who explain, and guides who push me forward.

One early morning, I left home with my eldest daughter for Karan Nagar in Srinagar. I had an appointment with a cardiologist.