Later, on the last evening of my visit, I stop at Lal Chowk, the main square in Srinagar, the heart of separatist protests, the most volatile piece of real estate in town.
The ghantaghar, the historic clock-tower in the middle, has acquired a trapping of modernity: flickering electronic advertisements. Shops are open on all sides, filled with goods -- a change indeed from the days of half-empty shelves and downed shutters. Gone is the ubiquitous paramilitary Border Security Force from the city, replaced by state and central police forces, and the intimidating bunkers -- you see fewer of those now, with some pulled down and others replaced by tidy, permanent structures, almost like little concrete huts, only with automatic rifles poking out of meshed windows.
Around me the square is crowded. Dirty, noisy. Buses named Star Transport and WMC and Ishaq pull up blocking traffic to take on passengers. People hurry along, jostling each other, but nobody cares.
At the far end two policemen, barely out of their teens, play-fights, one jumping on the other's back.
Srinagar has changed. It's like any other Indian city now -- almost.
Chindu Sreedharan was a former editor at rediff.com He currently teaches journalism at the Media School, Bournemouth Univeristy in the United Kingdom.
Image: Women from the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir perform in traditional clothes at the Independence day celebration in Srinagar. Photograph: Rouf Bhat/AFP/Getty Images
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