By Dr. Fiaz Maqbool Fazili

I was sitting by the bedside of a patient in Srinagar, watching her hands tremble over the thin hospital blanket. She had fought cancer for six long years. Her eyes were calm but tired, and she said softly, “I don’t want sympathy. I just want sensitivity.”

That moment cut deeper than any medical report ever could. Her words echo across thousands of rooms in Kashmir. People lie in pain but long to be treated as human beings, not as cases or curiosities.

Visiting the sick is a sacred act, far beyond a polite social call. It is a moral encounter. But, too often, well-meaning visitors stumble. Questions meant to show concern — “Did the operation fail?” “How many stitches did you get?” — land like small violations.

The patient, already stripped of........

© Kashmir Observer