Synopsis “The present book is the manifestation of inundating current of ferocious magnitude ebbing in may own psyche. I have not chronicled the history of atrocities meted out to Pandits, neither did I enumerate the gruesome killing of the people of my country at the hands of terrorists. My tales allude to circumstances of distinct nature, some strange, others intriguing. There stories are an attempt to depict how terrorism affected and influenced all of us, one or the other way. The last two stories were written for my own children, almost bragging about the bounties of nature. I enjoyed with my siblings, which they have been deprived of. My stories depict a celebration of life…a continuation of life. We are the children of legendary eleven families who tenaciously refused to accept anything, other than battagi (being a Kashmiri Pandit). I have an uncanny belief; the tyranny of bigots will abate, the contempt and conceit will end sometime, somewhere. The bruised and pulped up battagi will come out of the debris of ruined mansions, peep out of the heaped up rubble and stand erect again. Hence, We were and we will be.”