What happens when you close your eyes? Does your mind get inundated by fond memories? Certainly! Over the past many years, my family has been bearing with my flashback moments. They have been kind by not bundling me off. They stay clear-off my territory when I collapse my eyelids. ‘The Kashmir That Was’ is a collection of those flashback moments. It is a point where the unseen, unheard and unimagined sides of Kashmir converge; to let the people in the world know that Kashmir was far more than what they know of her now. Kashmir was a cauldron of modernity, philosophy, spirituality, rich culture and progressiveness. Each story in this book is a page from the simple lives that Kashmiri’s lived, many moons ago. I wish that these stories bring smiles and joyous nostalgia to the readers.