The chapter on ‘Talking to the People’, on Kumar’s experience as a government interlocutor, is a rich feast for potential envoys. Sadly, her team’s report, with its valuable feedback, went largely unheeded. Two facts emerge. Successive governments have used security forces to combat insurgency whereas the real problem is political, and when conditions amenable to political discourse were created, the opportunities went abegging. Political processes and round tables were launched, with their reports not acted upon. Kumar has reserved the best for the last chapter—looking back and into the future, encapsulating lessons for India, Pakistan and Kashmir. The mess in Kashmir is due more to central and state incompetence and misgovernance than Pakistani chicanery. The revival of a political process like that initiated during Musharraf’s time, though promising, appears unlikely as it is intrinsically against the corporate interests of the military elite. Kashmir, alas, will be left to be hoist with its own petard, with no one able or willing to help.