Srinagar, May 15 -- By Shereen Naman

I sat on the floor of my grandmother's room as winter sunlight filtered through the lattice windows and settled softly on a folded pashmina shawl in her lap. She ran her fingers slowly along its border before stopping at a tiny tear that escaped my notice entirely. Her expression shifted with the gravity one reserves for something deeply personal.

"This needs a rafugar," she said.

That moment introduced me to a world I would spend years trying to understand.

Rafugari, the centuries-old art of invisible mending, stood at the center of Kashmiri domestic life for generations. A rafugar repaired tears in shawls, pherans, silk robes, and treasured garments with such precision that the damaged area vanis...