Srinagar, June 27 -- Cities are living things. They grow, but they also groan. They carry not just buildings and roads, but the weight of people's hopes, the pace of their mornings, and the silent strain of everything a city is asked to hold.

Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, is changing in ways that are easy to see but harder to fully feel.

New neighbourhoods rise. Old lanes grow tighter. Roads that once held morning cyclists now hold long rows of cars. There are more shops, more people, more houses, and yet, somehow, less space.

For years, Srinagar was a place people visited for a season or a purpose. It offered hospitals, schools, coaching centres, government offices, and a handful of jobs that villages and smaller towns could not...