Kunal Kemmu’s Family Revisits Kashmir Ancestral Home

Karishma’s mother continued to identify spaces that once belonged to different members of the family. “This was our house… This was my bedroom. This was my room. This was dad’s room.” The once sprawling home has since been divided into smaller rented units. “This house is now divided into rooms. Each room is someone’s home on rent,” Karishma noted, adding that the staircase lacked electricity and most rooms remained locked.

As they moved through the house, her mother revisited further fragments of the past. “Dad used to study here… This was your room… We used to sit here… My sister had once fallen from these stairs. Every room is a childhood memory.”

In the accompanying caption, Karishma wrote: “Bahut gayi thodi rahi. 9 seedhiyan thi kabhi, ab sirf 3 reh gayi hain. Zameen badal gayi, ghar badal gaya — par jo yaadein reh gayi thi, woh aaj bhi wahin thi. Saalon baad apna ghar dobara dekhna… alag hi feeling hai. It would have been so much better if it was maintained but ab woh humara toh raha nahi. Every time my parents visit, it’s a mixed feeling – most are memories of childhood and some haunting. Kashmiri pandit home, Kashmir.”

The post resonated widely. Producer and activist Ashok Pandit, himself from Kashmir, responded: “I am speechless & numb. This is a story of each & every Kashmiri Pandit. Thank you Karishma for reliving our roots.”

Kunal Kemmu and his sister have spoken on earlier occasions about their Kashmiri roots and the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits in the early 1990s. The actor was born in Srinagar before the family migrated from the Valley.

The family’s return to the house, now fragmented and altered, brought both the warmth of childhood recollection and the lingering weight of sudden departure. Karishma’s documentation of the visit captures a personal story that mirrors the larger experience of many Kashmiri Pandit families who left their homes under duress more than three decades ago.