India, Sept. 12 -- For centuries, Srinagar was a cosmopolitan city where traditionalism and modernity coexisted side by side; a seat of learning where cultures of the East and West converged. In Yaadgah: Memories of Srinagar, academic Arshi Javaid and her team of women writers have undertaken the laborious exercise of bringing the cosmopolitan city to life for a new audience - one that is aware only of Srinagar's, and by extension Kashmir's, political identity. The essays in this intense memoir offer insights into the knowledge of families and their specific forms of living and working together in the Old City, popularly known as Shahr-e-Khass.

Yaadgah began as a memory project when Javaid joined the Gender and Media Studies program at H...