Srinagar, May 17 -- Sameer doesn't like to talk about pain. He wears it like old wool: heavy, familiar, too close to be shed in public.

The way he walks, head down but sure-footed, tells you he's someone who's used to bearing weight. He works in a government department, keeps a low profile, doesn't talk much at work.

But if you follow him home, or rather to the room he rents now, you might find pages: tucked in drawers, behind the door, scribbled late into the night.

That's where the story lives. The one he kept hidden behind a closed door for years.

Sameer thought he had done everything right. He married Mehnaz because she seemed warm, intelligent, graceful.

In the early days, their life felt like the one he had always imagined: chi...