#Kashmir is a great place to help remind anyone of the privileges of life that one takes for granted. While everything is political in Kashmir, what I am talking about is not the visible lack of freedom and well-being, but the systemic denial of basic human needs.

The lack of accountability in Kashmir is such that you can get away with literally everything. For example, as soon as winters approach, Kashmiris have to deal with what is called “waerri”. Every locality is offered a load-shedding schedule.

My locality, for instance, was scheduled for an electricity cut from 9:30-11 am, and then 2 pm to 3:30 pm, but power went off at 11:30, only 30 mins after it was restored. It is 3:15 pm, and there is no sign of it.

There is a scheduled cut of 4.5 hours during 12 hours of the day, at least that is what the timetable says. While electricity is never restored before time, the power goes off almost every single day, before the scheduled cut, with half an hour- or hour-long unscheduled cut.