I must have known of the terrorist bombing in Kashmir through a social media platform, and gradually as some details became available, a narrative began to build. Nevertheless, I remember feeling oddly ambivalent as details were still surfacing, in part due to an early childhood in the conflict-riddled north-eastern region. Political tension in the Kashmir province was no secret either; photographs of security forces, protesters and the not-so-rare incident when the two ends came head-to-head were routinely circulated by journalists and agencies in the area. But that it would reach this precipice, came as a shock, one that I let sink in slowly with a lukewarm coffee in the absence of an outlet. It would take a few more cups to drown out the toxicity that Facebook is in these circumstances.

Cut to a few days later and the phone buzzed under a stream of updates about air-strikes launched by India. Are we in a state of war, is my first thought. No! Reports of increased shelling and retaliation by the air force from across the border. Are we fighting? Not yet, at least. Turns out that’s how my country responds to terror attacks now, part of its 'Cold Start' doctrine. But even the slightest misstep may be a mutually assured destruction; imagination wanders about at the extremes as anxiety makes up for the distance.

A chunk of the modern-day conflict is (mis)information and perceptions, and as has been shown time and again in the last few years, being inventive on social media is politically effective. And so went the erratic discourse this last week too, hot on hatred and high on chest-beating patriotism, interrupted only by brief reliefs of humanly conduct and the oft glimpse of reason and restraint. A fighter pilot downed, held, returned, celebrated; marches amassed on the streets and on Twitter. Some scored points in international diplomacy, some stashed them away to age before the upcoming national elections. Many short bursts of misinformation and the forever Facebook-er not losing time in being offended by late-night satire.

Now, there is quiet, which just a few days ago seemed impossible.

All of this felt from a safe distance in Europe, or at least distance in the physical sense of the word.