We have been pronouncing ‘Srinagar’ incorrectly all along. This biography of the city tells us why

When I stepped outside, my contemplation was broken by a series of successive whistles from a military convey, and I was woken up to the present reality of Srinagar. As the cavalry passed by, several brightly coloured posters with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face and details of the G20 event peeked at me from the vehicles. Srinagar was hosting the G20 Tourism Working Group meeting under India’s G20 presidency in May 2023. Foreign delegates from twenty-seven countries were visiting Srinagar to participate in the meeting. This was the first such official international visit since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. Consequently, security was intensified, and the event was heavily publicized to mark “Kashmir’s return to normalcy”.

I walked along the length of the graveyard on the remnants of a footpath to reach the other side. I noticed the far end of the graveyard had enormous structures on both sides; one side was an under-construction multifloored concrete monstrosity that is supposed to be a nursing school, and on the other side stood a board that read “Makhdoom Sahib Rope Way by JK Tourism”. The ropeway was accompanied by a building which was decorated with hoardings of different coloured fish; it said “Kashmir...

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