By Dr. Ashraf Zainabi

They say love is blind, but that’s hard to believe in a place where a boy’s heart is weighed by his job grade and a girl’s worth is measured in kanals.

Today, in Kashmir, love walks into living rooms not with flowers or poetry, but with a sealed envelope from the SSRB or a certificate from JKAS.

In a Budgam borough, where the breeze still smells of damp earth and sun-dried apples, I recently asked a mother about her son’s marriage plans. She smiled, almost apologetically, and said, “Woh abhi PSC ka intezaar kar raha hai. Pehle naukri lag jaye, tab baat aage badhegi.” He’s waiting for the Public Service Commission list. Only after that, she said, would they begin thinking about love.

This is no longer a personal worry. It’s the collective rhythm now.

In villages from Tral to Kupwara, in Srinagar’s well-lit drawing rooms and Budgam’s almond groves, the first question in any matrimonial conversation is not what kind of person, but what kind of job.

If it’s a government post, especially a permanent one, the rest follows easily.

Matchmakers across Kashmir are flooded with forms listing designations like “Junior Engineer (R&B),”........

© Kashmir Observer