Travelling into nothingness......

I have travelled a lot during my life. In family, we are travel freaks. There are numerous places to talk about, numerous experiences to write about, but I will begin with Kashmir.

My first visit to Kashmir was in 1990, a few months before the doors to valley were closed to visitors, for about a decade. We had gone to Vaishno Devi, and My father decided to take us to the mountains. And thus our, first visit to Kashmir happened by road. The valley unfolded its miracles after we had passed through the Jawahar Tunnel. I have visuals of water falls, pastures, flowers, mountains, and myriad colors - different hues of green, pink, blue, brown and yellow.

Every waterfall, falling beside, National Highway 1, had a name. We were shouting with joy as we passed through them. There were 'Sharmili Falls', 'Nakhrili Falls', and so on. My brother and I were teenagers, bubbling with energy. We travelled slowly, had rajma-chawal at a road side dhaba, and reached Srinagar when it was about 8 PM. The first quest was a lookout for a vegetarian eatery, for dinner. We finally found a South-Indian restaurant, where we stepped in to eat. The owner was a person from Kerala. Soon, he became a friend and offered us a stay in a small guest house, that he had upstairs. I think there were merely four rooms, newly constructed. But the fact that the restaurant food was yummy, and we were just a few meters away from Dal Lake, we decided to stay there. For the next four days of our stay in Sri Nagar, we enjoyed the 'Mallu', hospitality. Mera Bharat Mahaan !

Our first Kashmir trip was an impromptu road trip. We had gone to Delhi and from there to Meerut and Dehradoon. We had a plan to go to Mussoorie and on our way back, meet my teacher Sir N.C.Sharma, who was staying in Dehradoon. My uncle at that time was posted in Shimla, and a plan to go Shimla was made. In Shimla, Uncle recommended Dalhousie and Chamba. From there, Pathankot was close by and since we were so close, we thought of visiting Vaishno Devi. From there finally a plan to go to Srinagar was made. So a trip which was for a week, got extended to three weeks. One fallout of this kind of an impromptu trip was that we had not carried our camera with us.

We were in Kashmir, the most beautiful place on earth. We needed to click photographs, so a photographer from a nearby shop was contacted. He turned out to be a wonderful man, and he traveled with us in our car for the next three days, clicking our photographs. I am refraining from sharing those photographs here, for my own reasons. Don't want to expose my gawky teenager self.

I do wish to share the photographs from the next trip to Kashmir, that we took in 2014, a month before the devastating floods happened. This time we reached Srinagar by air, and from the airport took off to Pahalgaon. On our way to Pahalgaon we stopped by a river to relax, have some tea and snacks. I will not explain the picturesque river or the stones, or the sound of the water. I will just relate the experiences we had with people. The photographs and videos, I post here will speak for themselves.

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It was about evening, when we reached Pahalgaon. The view of the mountains from the hotel lawn was beautiful - azure, blue and voilet. We decided to cross the road and walk up to the banks of Lidder river, flowing through Pahalgaon. There are many artisans who insist on showing their artefacts, when you sit by the river. I wanted to avoid that, and concentrate on the sound of the flowing water and enjoy the beautiful evening, but two young boys came and insisted on showing some embroidery - shawls, dress material, etc. As they spread their pieces, I was blown away by the beauty of what was in front of me. Familiar patterns of lotus, lilies and flowers that you find in Kashmiri embroidery, but what color combinations! Ochre and pale green on white, shades of pink, magenta and purple, with a tinge of yellow on Navy blue.

'Bhaiya, kaun karta hain ye design aur embroidery', I asked.
'Hamari behene karti hain', he replied.

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'Aapki behene to bohot talented hain', I could not help but mutter. Not to mention the fact that I ended up buying things for myself, some friends, Mom, took their number, came back to Jaipur, and gave it to a friend, who has a boutique to directly source from them.

The next day, I decided to do white water rafting in lidder river. Reached the place where it was to be done. Stood at the roadside and looked down at the river, and found some boats with people, the boats moving with the flow of the water. This was going to be fun, I thought. But when I went to take the tickets, I could not find anyone. Its good to have some one else on the boat too. Then a couple came, a little scared and reluctant to try it. I convinced them and off we went towards the boat.

When we were right in the middle of the river, they had a conversation -

Husband to wife, 'Maine to mana kiya tha, tum hi zidd kar rahi thi ki jana hai'

Wife,'galti kar di nahi aana chahiye tha'.

I was sitting in the middle of the boat, quietly enjoying river rafting, in the middle of their banter, in the middle of the river. Have a look at their faces in the photograph that I post. But it ended well and they were very happy to have completed it, they congratulated each other and me, while enjoying a warm 'kahwa'. Just two months later, when I saw the images of the flood, I realised the power of flowing water, the power of nature, and how vulnerable the three of us were, against the mighty flow of the lidder river. Pahalgaon had usual attractions of chandanbari base camp to Amarnath, and aru and betaab valley.

This is where we were stranded

The next was a visit to Jojila pass. Our plan was to go uptill kargil, but had to return back because of a landslide. We were stranded on the road, and that was when I began my conversation with the driver. I could not but appreciate the fact that he was a very good driver, and Jojila pass was a very tough drive. He told me that he had been driving on the route for about five years. Earlier, he used to take chicken to leh, during summer, and drive nonstop for 24 hours, so that the chicken did not die on the way. He did this twice a week, to and fro, and got about Rs. 300, one way. Each time he risked his life.
I was sad to hear his story. Kashmir is heaven, but people live in abject poverty. Political turmoil has further worsened the condition of the people and the economy. Tourism was the main source of occupation for the people. In my mind, I was trying to draw a parallel, with swiss economy. Tourism, luxury goods, dairy, banks - could Kashmiri economy follow the same model? We could add agriculture and horticulture to that. Infrastructure will need to be developed and peace will have to be restored. What could be done to uplift the life of these lovely people?

We went to Kokranag, to see the Kokranag botanical garden, and then went to see Diksum falls, which has medicinal waters. The locals claim to cure many diseases, drinking that water. We filled up our water bottles from there. From Diksum, one can go to Sinthan top, which has snow all the year round.

We stayed in the houseboat, and for a picnic went to Manasbal and Wular Lake, which is full of lotus flowers, while visiting Kheer Bhawani temple on the way.

We did try to find out the restaurant and the photographer. The restaurant was there, but not the owner, we had met. A big five story hotel, had come up on the restaurant, the tiny guest house was gone. We could not find the photographer, nor his shop.

I remember we had met an Irish couple in the same restaurant, on our first visit. At the breakfast table, the second morning, my father had pointed at them, saying, how quietly they were having their breakfast, while we were so noisy. I realised that I had seen them at the dinner also, very quiet, the evening before. So when my family was settling down in the car, I had gone up to them to say hello, and enquire if everything was fine. They had joined us at our table during the dinner, with a big smile, and we had shared the day's happenings, not to mention that they were very talkative. This continued till we were in Srinagar.

Kashmir, has a charm, an unexplainable pull, besides breath taking beauty. I felt a connect, which I cannot describe in words, or find reasons for. I love Kashmir!

Some of the best pictures I took in Kashmir are here -