Srinagar, June 29 -- By Syed Nissar H. Gilani

When I read about an eighty-two-year-old widow in Leeds who placed a chair outside her apartment for five minutes a day, I thought I was reading a story about England.

But by the time I reached the end, I realized I had been reading about Kashmir.

Rose had lost her husband. Winter had settled over Leeds, and loneliness filled the small flat where she lived.

One rainy afternoon, a schoolboy named Leo missed his bus and took shelter outside her door. Rose welcomed him inside, dried his soaked books, fed him, and sent him home.

That chance encounter changed more than one afternoon.

She began placing a chair outside her apartment door for five minutes daily. Anyone could stop, sit, rest or t...