Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir Province 28 December 2014 ============ Hello from Kashmir---a land trapped in grayscale. The valley is covered in thick, thick fog, and so there are no colors, and no sharp lines---just endless blurry gray. On every street corner are soldiers with AK-47s, and coils of barbed wire tangled up like denatured proteins. The city has a universal 6 AM alarm clock: the morning call to prayer. There's no alcohol, anywhere, but in the park old men with hookahs sit and smoke hash. Monkeys and feral dogs roam the streets---both afraid of humans. The men all wear long gray woolen cloaks, under which they carry a wicker/clay pot full of burning coals---personal, portable heaters. They bring them even inside and no one worries about carbon monoxide poisoning. I'm staying on a houseboat with a Kashmiri family with an eight-year-old son who speaks perfect English and is adorable. Andrew