Sharafat Ali, Indian, VII Photo Agency

This is normal is a personal project which talks about life amid pandemic. Kashmir valley was already under a lockdown like the situation when different countries across the globe decided to enforce lockdown in their cities and towns. People from the valley were coming to terms with what had befallen them on 05 August 2019, when they were stripped of its autonomy. With uncertainty and uneasiness, Kashmir was hit by COVID-19.

The first approach of administration was a more stringent military lockdown to a health crisis. People were confined to their homes by soldiers patrolling the streets of Kashmir, but military lockdowns aren't new to us. While the world was witnessing the lockdown and restrictions probably for the first time, people of the valley were coming out of the one and preparing for another. With a poor health infrastructure in the valley, people feared that the pandemic would wreak havoc here however they were accepting the new lockdown with the hopes that it will prevent a devastating spread of the disease.

Despite different backgrounds, cultures and diversities people across the globe were seen sharing solidarity to deal with the pandemic. But in Kashmir things were quite different. Even in the 21st century internet services were shut off, depriving more than 8 million people to access education, entertainment, livelihood and other important services, than any other democracy in the world. The repression is still their, razing houses to the ground fights between rebels and state forces never stopped.