From the moment I came across Postbox Kashmir by Divya Arya, I knew I wanted to read it. The title, the cover and the subtitle - 'Two Lives in Letters' - everything appealed to me. I knew little about the book, and the little I did know was gleaned from random social media posts. Soon after I started reading it, I knew that it was a book for keeps.We're inundated with information. Sometimes, with a mild sense of panic, I realise that details of events I've quickly researched have become hazy again. For instance, I knew about the exodus of Kashmiri pundits, but vaguely. When I read Paro Anand's Nomad's Land, I read up about the history of Kashmir once more, but my research was cursory at best. Dates and details slip by, especially when we don't contextualise facts. What was happening in Kashmir when the Babri Masjid was demolished? Did the protests at Shaheen Bagh have any effect on … [Read more...]