By Gowher Bhat

The youth in Kashmir are busy. Phones in their hands. Messages to read. Friends to meet. Life moves fast. It’s easy to get lost in the buzz. But somewhere, in the quiet corners of homes and libraries, books wait.

They wait on shelves. Some are half-read. Others never opened. It’s not that people don’t love stories — they do. Stories are woven into Kashmiri culture. The folktales of Shireen Boi and Himal Nagrai, passed down from elders, echo the valley’s rich storytelling tradition. The verses of Lal Ded and Habba Khatoon still hum in the air. But reading a book, truly reading it, takes something rare these days — stillness.

Kashmir’s literacy rate stands at 68.74%, with men at 78.26% and women at 58.01%. Schools are full of students chasing grades. Facts to memorize. Exams to pass. But reading for the joy of it? That often gets left behind.

A book doesn’t rush you. It has no flashing notifications. No demands. Just words on a page. A world waiting to unfold. In that world, time slows. The noise fades. In the hush of turning pages, something shifts. Thoughts wander. Imagination soars.

Kashmiri author Akhtar Mohi-ud-Din once said, “A story is not just words; it is a world.” When you read, you step into that world. You meet characters who become friends, visit places you’ve never seen, and feel emotions you might not have known existed. And the best part? When you close the book, the echoes of that world stay with you.

In a conversation about the importance of reading, Akhtar further remarked, “Books are the reservoirs of our thoughts and experiences. Through them, we preserve memories, and through reading, we relive them. A society that reads is a society that reflects, questions, and grows.”

There was a time when libraries in Kashmir buzzed with readers. The Gani Memorial Library........

© Kashmir Observer