Last week, actor Sandeepa Dhar, a proud Kashmiri Pandit, took a poignant journey back to her roots in Kashmir after three decades. “I don’t think anyone can really understand what displacement feels like — to leave behind everything that you own overnight,” Dhar says, reflecting on the painful exodus her family endured. She was just two years old when they were forced to leave their home in Srinagar.

The return to Kashmir was not only significant for the actor but also an emotional journey for her parents. “I was young when we left, but my parents had spent their entire lives there. I felt like life came in full circle, and we never really left,” she says.

The 34-year-old reveals that the decision to return was driven by her parents’ upcoming anniversary: “I decided to give them this trip as their anniversary gift. I wanted them to be able to celebrate in Kashmir because this is where the journey started.”

Cousins and extended family members who had shared the joint family home in Kashmir also joined the reunion. “I’ve seen Kashmir through a lot of photographs. So now to connect with those photographs in real life has been so difficult to put into words,” the actor ends.