Srinagar, Sept. 26 -- By Dr. Akhtar Purvez

The Kashmiri version of hookah, the jajeer sat in our house in Gotilpur like a fireplace in a farmhouse: simple, permanent and woven into the fabric of an evening.

An older guest would sit with the family while someone prepared the hookah. Soon, the bubbling water would become the sound beneath talk of crops, weather and politics.

Nobody in that room used words like carcinogen or chronic bronchitis, and nobody needed to.

The smoke belonged to the visit just as did noon chai and makai czot.

A child growing up in such a room learns the architecture of a place before he understands what any of it costs.

And I was that child, and sometimes the task of preparing the jajeer fell to me.

I walked ...