Srinagar, April 25 -- Reflecting the people who have shaped and influenced my early life, one person stands at the top in my mind Syeda Sakina Gilani, my late grandmother. Born in the year 1930 at 'Yarkand House', Malarata, Srinagar to S.Syed Ahmad Gilani, who had left Srinagar to join his father Syed Ghulam Mohammad Gilani, already settled in Yarkand (Central Asia) for carrying on the carpet business. Despite being a top business man Syed Ghulam Mohammad Gilani, was also appointed as a political representative by the British imperial government in Yarkand.

S.Syed Ahmad Gilani, my grandmother's father could not return back becausehe died at Muree, (now Pakistan) due to cardiac arrest in 1964 .My grandmother never saw her father in her li...