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Updated: Mar 27, 2019 14:42 IST

Kashmir’s strife-torn small towns, where night life has been missing for the past three decades, are witnessing a slow but steady transformation.

Despite the continuing violence, many educated youths have come up with cafes and food joints where younger generation socialise and discuss the restive life in the Valley over a cup of coffee or green tea. Book reading and soothing music provide the perfect background.

Three friends from north Kashmir, Faisal Bhat and Irfan Bukhari (both completed Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia) and Abid Ahmad (Jamia Hamdard pass out), set up a cafe which now is in its second year. The place has become hub for young men and women who want a place where they can discuss things in a solace.

“There was a dearth of a premium cafe in north Kashmir. In fact, there wasn’t any. At Baramulla, our home town, we would often crave for a place where people would love to bring their friends, family, and spend quality time,” said Faisal, who is also an avid photographer.

They designed a themed cafe on Pirates of the Caribbean film series. “Our sole purpose was to offer an experience, a place away from mediocrity. This demanded huge investment as people in Kashmir now care about authenticity, decency, quality, hygiene and various factors that make a place premium,” he added.

Irfan Bukhari, a music buff, said, “We have a dedicated stage for events and live programmes. We conduct storytelling and poetry sessions and music events and make sure only quality content comes out from our stage or social media handles,” he said.

Five years ago, Javeed Parsa, who completed his masters in business administration (MBA) from Hyderabad, had an aim to “create a space for youth” by setting up a small food joint in the city and today he has around 10 joints in different parts of the state, including Jammu and Leh.

“At our outlets, we have more than 10,000 books and our aim is to revive the dying culture of reading among youths. They come to our place, drink tea, coffee and read books. Here books are available free-of-cost,” he said.

Javeed, who uses social media to attract the young generation, has named his outlets Parsa. “I always wanted to create a place where youths could discuss everything without any fear over lunch, dinner or cup of coffee,” he said.

He said he always dreamt of giving a platform to artists, writers or musicians, especially youths, to promote their art and talent.

Computer science graduate Laieq Khan has set up a unique food joint-cum-café, Level 6 Resto, in restive south Kashmir’s Anantnag town.

“My place is located on fourth floor of a Mall and provides scenic views,” he said.

In north Kashmir’s Sopore town, Jibran Khan, 30, who did his MBA from Chandigarh, said his cafe Zero Miles is travel themed. “We have a wheel cart, a portrait of fruit market as Sopore is home to Asia’s second largest apple market,” he said.

“We have conducted two workshops on photography and cyber crime and the place attracts many youths though we are only seven months into the business,” he added.

Hilal Ahmad, who set up similar cafe in Pulwama, said his place also attracted good number of youths. “People come to my place, they eat and discuss several things,” he said. Cafes and food joints have come up at far-off places like Uri and Kupwara, which are known as garrison towns.

“In small towns of Kashmir, there was no place where we could sit and chat on issues, but its changing now. Many new places setup by young people have come up,’’ said Tariq Ahmad, a student of Degree College, Baramulla, who has frequented many new cafes.