by Manali Rohinesh
[box]Kashmir – the place that has been in news for many years now, brings to mind many images – both pleasant and disturbing. Manali Rohinesh shares her thoughts on Kashmir – the way she saw it.[/box]Kashmir – the word conjures up images of unparalleled beauty and the reality more than lives up to those images. If anything, it’s so mind-blowingly lovely that when the locals quip about not wanting to leave ‘jannat’ to even visit Mumbai, I know the feeling. After just 10 days there, Kashmir has now entered like a narcotic in my bloodstream.
The people are very polite and their blend of Kashmiri-Urdu-Hindi patois is pleasant on the ears. And they seem genuinely happy to have people come visit Kashmir because tourism and selling of handicrafts is the only income stream for them as of now, as things are slowly returning to normal there.
Everywhere I went – Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Udhampur, Anandpur, Jammu, Srinagar – had a lot of military presence, so ironically instead of creating an environment of fear, I never felt safer in my life than when I was there! There are five different paramilitary forces there maintaining law and order – the Army, the Indo-Tibet Force, the CRPF, the BSF and the Jammu & Kashmir police force. So, with so much show of force, it is only advisable that tourists respect their efforts and adhere to rules and any spot checks that they may conduct.
For instance, there were some places where we were told not to shoot photographs, in other places, we were told to keep our bus windows shut. In many places, we were asked to get out, so the bus could be searched because if a local Kashmiri was found travelling with us, we could find ourselves in prison! One is not allowed to stop on the National Highway 1 and dilly-dally. Even near Dal Lake in Srinagar, we had to be prepared with our belongings and wait in the aisle before the bus stopped, so we could get out as soon as possible.
It’s patently clear that the army rules there and I for one saw the difference! The roads were far better maintained – much cleaner and broader. In the mountains coming from Jammu down to the valley, the roads are frequently washed away by massive landslides and the armed forces painstakingly rebuild it again and again. If one sees the massive boulders that have been flung down into the Tawi river, one knows that the task is very commendable. And of course, there are men standing in full combat gear even high up on those mountain ledges, where as far as I could make out, they just had clouds and some stray goats for company!
I didn’t hesitate to appreciate their courage to a soldier who was only too pleased and touched. He said he was glad that their contribution to the country was being recognised by us. I did also ask him how things were going between the civilians there and the armed forces and he said that trust was being built slowly and people were offering help such as bringing medical facilities to them. He did admit that dispelling suspicion that has accumulated over so many years was also not an easy task because so many families have been at the receiving end of strong arm tactics from both sides – the terrorists looking to recruit locals through an atmosphere of fear and intimidation – and the armed forces who had to get information out of these recruits once they were nabbed.
This is really the Catch 22 situation that Kashmiris find themselves in. But with unemployment levels being high, I saw many men loitering around in front of abandoned shops, market junctions and bus stops on weekdays, when they should have been at work. So, it is really obvious why such men are ripe for picking by terrorists. I wish Indians would start investing in their own way in Kashmir’s future and not wait for the government to do it all. We could do something simple like start travelling to Kashmir and create opportunities for people there to start earning money. Even if you did something enjoyable like booking a holiday on a houseboat (and I know this is a memorable experience because I tried it and loved it) and follow it up with some shopping(which everyone loves doing), you’ve spread your money around in a state that needs it, despite the massive subsidies.
At the moment, Kashmiris get a subsidy of Rs 4,000 per family member, so if people are not weaned off this, they will have no incentive to work. The women have a hard life but since they live in such a beautiful place with such wonderful climate, they hardly seem worse for wear. During the spring-summer season, they farm and maintain vegetable gardens, apple orchards, flower beds, kesar (saffron) fields and during the colder autumn-winter season when tourism dries up almost completely, they bring out their sewing kits and do the intricate resham work on dress materials. They embroider everything from large bedcovers, complete hisaris to tiny kurtis for children. The Pashmina shawls, Pashmina saris and Kashmiri carpets which are handwoven are expensive but worth every penny. Pashmina shawls can be priced as high as Rs 15,000.
I also tried Kashmiri pulao and qahwa, a drink that has no milk but an amazing amount of other ingredients like green tea leaves, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, honey – all of this boiled in hot water and served. I loved it, especially in the cold (we Mumbai-ites considered it cold but it was really spring there in April, but the temperature in Srinagar hovered at 17 degrees and it never gets much hotter than that!) weather – this was a really ideal way to soak up some warmth.
And what’s more, I had this in the home of a Kashmiri. They welcomed us with open arms and let us wander through their beautiful lakeside home, which we people in Mumbai can only fruitlessly dream of ever owning.
That home was a simple but spacious wooden cottage but it just might have been a mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Actually, because it’s our own dear Kashmir, it’s even more precious to me than Switzerland will ever be.
Pics: Tony George – http://www.flickr.com/photos/drtonygeorge/
Himalayan trails – http://www.flickr.com/photos/himalayan-trails/
[box type=”info”]DID YOU KNOW? The post you just read is also a part of a PDF that can be downloaded! Don’t miss the colourful edition and also the chance of reading it all in one place! To download the May 2011 issue as PDF or to flip and read it like a magazine on the e-reader, please use the buttons below.[/box] [button link=”https://sparkthemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/spark-may-2011.pdf” color=”red”]click here to download the May 2011 issue as a PDF[/button] [button link=”http://issuu.com/sparkeditor/docs/spark-may-2011?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml&backgroundColor=000000&showFlipBtn=true” color=”green”]click here to flip and read the May 2011 issue like a magazine[/button] [facebook]share[/facebook] [retweet]tweet[/retweet]
[…] Eternal and Ethereal Kashmir […]