Srinagar, Nov. 14 -- Every year, as the new academic session approaches in Kashmir, a familiar scene unfolds. Bookshops become crowded, parents search for the prescribed textbooks, stationery shops witness a rush, and children prepare to step into another year of learning. Amid all this activity, something else catches my attention: the exchange of old books. There was a time when a textbook rarely belonged to just one child. It travelled from an elder sibling to a younger one, from a neighbour's child to another, sometimes even through several households. A book that had once been used by three or four students could still look surprisingly neat. Its pages were intact, its cover carefully preserved, and its corners perhaps slightly worn ...