Alienation is fickle. There’s a moment on Pavement’s 1997 song ‘Shady Lane’ where frontman Stephen Malkmus sings, “You’ve been chosen as an extra in the movie adaptation of the sequel to your life”.

A placid summer and a peaceful Ramzan should have been the endgame of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir but the sense of "alienation is too deep", says former bureaucrat and now author Wajahat ...