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Met a few friends on Eid after years. Having studied with them for nearly 15 years, I can say with certainty that they are among some of the most capable people I know. They urged me to step out of the shadows and enter politics because, in their words, Kashmir “needs people like us.” I could see the concern in their eyes, and the sincerity with which they still wish to preserve the idea of Kashmir we grew up in. But the next morning, they had flights to catch back to London, New York, Dubai, Bangalore and elsewhere, to resume their lives and careers. So that was that. The silent emigration of Kashmiris is gradually weakening our hold over our own institutions and systems. At the same time, policies like excessive reservation that further shrink the already limited pool of opportunities for us, accelerate the immigration of others into those very structures. And as much as many would want me to remain silent or avoid opposing the present NC government at this moment, their complete unwillingness to meaningfully address the reservation and employment crisis in Kashmir is something I will hold against them forever. A society can't survive if its own people are steadily pushed out of opportunity, representation and economic relevance within their own system. The consequences of that may not become visible overnight, but history shows that such erosion eventually becomes irreversible.