August 5, 2019. This day has been entombed with indelible ink in the inner recesses of my head. The preceding events of this day did not bode well. There had been a circular for tourists to leave the valley; people in long queues were stocking on food, fuel and cash; internet and mobile phone networks were snapped throughout the valley. Everything fell into its place when India’s Home Minister Amit Shah tabled a Bill in Parliament to scrap Articles 370 and 35A, and also downgraded the state of J&K to two union territories. With a curfew in place and deployment of additional tens of thousands of troops, people in Kashmir swallowed this bitter announcement and could do little else.