Dr. Aadil Zeffer

There is a familiar question that precedes many life choices in most of our homes or any major decision of life- “Hamsai kya wannan, rishtedaar kya wannan?” (“What will the neighbours and relatives say?”).

Spoken so casually that it scarcely registers as an intervention, the phrase acts nonetheless as an invisible law. It prescribes the dimensions of homes, the scale of weddings, the schooling of children, and even the allocation of hard-earned savings. What should be a personal choice- guided by means, conviction, and reason- often turns into a public performance where the audience is society, and the cost is one’s individuality.

Stories from across the valley give this phenomenon both texture and consequence. Examples like young men who had saved for years to launch a

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