By Lt Gen. R. S. Reen (Retd.)

Ten days on the road changed the way I look at Jammu and Kashmir.

I travelled through Mumbai, several state capitals, major metros and Navi Mumbai’s industrial belt. Every stop revealed a country moving with astonishing speed. 

Tower cranes filled the skyline, metro lines cut through dense neighbourhoods, technology parks hummed late into the night, and construction crews worked with purpose and precision. 

India looked like a nation convinced that the future belongs to those who build it first.

Mumbai captured this transformation most clearly. New skyscrapers rise 80 or 100 floors into the sky. The Bandra Kurla Complex has turned into a global business district where Indian conglomerates and multinational companies compete for space. Roads connect efficiently, capital flows freely, and ambition sits in clear view.

That energy stayed with me when I returned home to Jammu and Kashmir. The contrast hit hard.

Our towns continue to spread outward through unplanned colonies lined with large independent homes. Many of these houses stand beautifully designed and lovingly built. Families pour decades of savings into them. Parents dream of leaving something substantial behind for their children.

Then reality arrives.

Their children leave for Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram or Mumbai because jobs, industries and opportunity live there. Elderly parents remain alone in oversized homes that demand constant maintenance and endless expense. A structure meant to symbolize prosperity turns into evidence of an economy that stopped evolving years ago.

This trend reaches far beyond individual families. Jammu and Kashmir built housing growth without building economic engines beside it. We never developed large medical hubs, technology corridors or modern tourism ecosystems capable of employing educated young people at scale. Every year, another generation departs in search of work that should exist........

© Kashmir Observer