One of the beautiful things about the devastating September 2014 Kashmir flood was, ironically, that it disillusioned many people. Mother said a great flood was imminent but I refused to believe her. I had no reason other than six days of non-stop rain to believe or not. But in all the panic, when people were desperately shifting belongings to upper storeys or running for their lives, I only tried to assert my reluctance, only tried to refuse to accept that in a matter of hours, the gre