Srinagar, Aug. 21 -- In my younger days, the Mohalla of a given urban agglomeration in Srinagar city and its environs was the microcosm of Kashmir.

This was a region or even space where innocence, in relative terms, mutual bonds, affection, amity and brotherhood was normative. These normative themes cut across social boundaries, classes and even sects.

A given Kashmiri was not a Shia, a Sunni, a waatul, a shaykh, or a wealthy person. He or she was from either Zaene Kadal, Aeil Kadal, Bohir Kadal, Maisum, Safa Kadal, Sheshgaeir Mohalla, Fateh Kadal and so on.

This was the operating socio-cultural dynamic of the famed City of Seven Bridges, as I recall it.

Yes, sniping at each other and the locality that one lived in was usual, but it w...