By: HAJRA BANO

Time waits for no one, but what we do with time defines who we are. Twenty years — is it a short span or a lifetime? Is it enough to change someone’s destiny, to transform a struggling life into a success story? Or is it merely a number that slips unnoticed, leaving us in the same place as before?

Twenty years can build empires, nurture dreams, and rewrite futures. We are in the 21st century, people say proudly, pointing to Mars missions, AI-powered robots, and technological revolutions. But then, there’s another side of the same century—a forgotten corner that seems frozen in time, stuck somewhere in the 18th century with nothing but the same struggles repeating themselves. Have you ever thought about how a nation moves forward when one part is flying, and the other is left crawling? When cities beam with skyscrapers, and villages struggle for a school?

Take a step into the village of Jammu and Kashmir, —where I grew up. It’s a reality that feels more like a bitter irony, a region of breathtaking beauty but harsh realities. It’s a land where the 21st century feels like a distant dream. The education system, the foundation of any society’s progress, still lags far behind. Can we truly call ourselves part of this advanced century when some of our schools remain in the same condition as they were two decades ago?

A School Stuck in Time

I recently visited the school where I learned my first alphabet. The nostalgia was quickly replaced by awe. The rented building that housed the school 20 years ago is still being rented today. No proper infrastructure has been built; the school operates from a cramped house with just four rooms—one used as an office and the other three as classrooms. What’s worse, this building hosts not one but two........

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