Srinagar, May 30 -- In a small village of Kralapora, just as the frost begins to melt off the rooftops in early spring, a stirring story unfolded inside a modest home. It was the kind of story people don't like to talk about, the kind that happens behind closed doors when no one is watching. But someone always remembers. And this time, it was Rukaya.

Her mother, Fatima, never asked for much. Not when her husband died suddenly, leaving her with four children under the age of ten. Not when she began working sunrise to dusk-planting paddy, cleaning other people's kitchens, sewing neighbours' clothes-just to make sure her children were fed and schooled.

"She never took a day off," Rukaya said softly, brushing invisible dust off the corner o...