Kashmir has always felt dreamlike. Snow resting lightly on rooftops, lakes reflecting the sky, and mountains standing like ancient guardians. 

Today, this beauty has reached new audiences. Travel videos, glossy guides, and curated itineraries have turned Kashmir into a trending destination that feels rediscovered.

But beneath the surface lies another Kashmir. A place shaped by decades of fear, loss, and resilience. 

A Kashmir not everyone remembers or even knows existed. 

As the world romanticizes its landscapes, the stories of its people risk fading into the background. This is why remembering matters.

For many Kashmiris, memory is held with care. It carries tenderness and grief. It recalls curfews breaking childhood games, families gathering through tense nights, and familiar roads that once felt unsafe.

These memories are not preserved in textbooks. They live in conversations between neighbors, in the pause before someone says things were different then, in the soft sigh of a mother remembering the 1990s.

For Kashmiris, remembering is not nostalgia. It is a declaration: We were here. This happened. Do not erase it.

It is no denying that modern progress brings possibilities such as work, stability, and the hope of a future that feels less fragile. But modernity can also blur history. What happens when a place is celebrated for its beauty while its pain is overlooked?

With rising tourism, Kashmir’s story is increasingly retold by outsiders. Travel narratives focus on scenery and adventure while sidestepping political tension, trauma, and loss. What remains is an edited version of the valley, a vision of paradise without context. 

For outsiders, listening becomes an act of respect. It means recognizing that behind every scenic view are communities who have lived through complexity. Travel is temporary. Its consequences and the stories left out are not.

To remember Kashmir is not to dwell on sorrow. It is to honor the truth. It is understanding that beauty and struggle coexist, that qahwa can comfort even when memories remain heavy. It is seeing Kashmiris not only as hosts but as humans with histories that deserve space.

Here are ways to honor Kashmir beyond admiring its scenery:

• Acknowledge its history even when it feels uncomfortable
• See the valley as a lived home, not simply a backdrop
• Let the stories of its people guide how you understand it
• Remember that healing takes tenderness, time, and truth

Tourists may arrive, new buildings may rise, and global attention may shift, but the deeper stories remain woven into the land. To truly see Kashmir is to hold both truths at the same time: breathtaking beauty and lived struggle. 

Because behind every view is a community that has endured, hoped, and continued.

As VELA’s Solidarity capsule honors, Kashmir’s pain is not lost to time. It lives in every fabric woven with remembrance, in every gesture that honors the past, and in every thread of story that shapes the Kashmir of today.