Srinagar, March 21 -- The youth in Kashmir are busy. Phones in their hands. Messages to read. Friends to meet. Life moves fast. It's easy to get lost in the buzz. But somewhere, in the quiet corners of homes and libraries, books wait.

They wait on shelves. Some are half-read. Others never opened. It's not that people don't love stories - they do. Stories are woven into Kashmiri culture. The folktales of Shireen Boi and Himal Nagrai, passed down from elders, echo the valley's rich storytelling tradition. The verses of Lal Ded and Habba Khatoon still hum in the air. But reading a book, truly reading it, takes something rare these days - stillness.

Kashmir's literacy rate stands at 68.74%, with men at 78.26% and women at 58.01%. Schools ar...