Srinagar, Dec. 14 -- In the annals of human civilization, few figures embody the perilous cost of knowledge as vividly as Socrates. His life and death remain not merely a chapter in Athenian history but a timeless parable of the fate that awaits those who dare to disturb the stagnant waters of ignorance. To speak truth in a society unprepared to hear it is to invite execution, exile, alienation, or incarceration. Socrates bore this burden with unflinching courage, and in his martyrdom, knowledge itself was crucified upon the gallows of fear. It was not Socrates alone who was condemned by Athens; it was the very spirit of inquiry he personified. Knowledge, by its nature, unsettles complacency. It creates ripples in the ocean of insularity,...