New Delhi, May 3 -- As a child I visited Kashmir on a family vacation.

I remember that trip well, the line of houseboats on Dal Lake, a thrilling cable car ride in Gulmarg, the pine trees and green meadows of Pahalgam. I don't remember if Baisaran, the site of the recent deadly terrorist attack, was on the itinerary. Perhaps it had not been developed as a destination then. For some reason no photographs have survived in the family albums.

Perhaps it's just as well.

Otherwise, I might well have been one of the thousands who rushed to share their Pahalgam pictures as soon as the news of the Baisaran horror hit the news cycle. Everyone was clearly well-intentioned. It was a way to express solidarity and shock, to tell the world how heartb...