Kashmir , India ... A dream which actually came true when my wife asked me to plan a trip to Kashmir , and i was like ... really ...
Kashmir was a dream which actually i was having since my child hood , In my 4th or 5th standard books there was a lesson named " Shalimar & Nishant " , two three pictures were there & i was so much fascinated that i kept on reading same chapters again & again ...
I am talking about 92-93 , when terrorism was just started & it was in almost every news that Kashmir has become a battle field for no reason ... , i was fond of reading news papers & India Today , which was actually the major source of News & information .
Always wanted , that God take me to Kashmir once before i leave this world ... & here it comes after almost 20 years later ...
I was recently married & Kashmir was the best location to start a new bonding ... although this was my 4th trip in only 8 months of our wedding ... Manali , Shimla , Mumbai-Aurangabad & then Kashmir .
Emperor Jahangir once said about Kashmir: "Agar Firdaws ba roy-i zamin ast, hamin ast-u hamin ast-u hamin ast," meaning, "If there is Paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this " aka " K gar agar iss Jamin par kahin Swarg hai , toh Yahin Hai ... Yahin Hai ... Yahin Hain " _ October , 2012
Started our Journey ...
Reached Dal lake , and could not yet believe that i am in Kashmir . This feeling of being in shikara with your partner made me feel like Shammi Kapoor of Kashmir Ki Kali ... what an experience .
Next day we started for Sonmarg on Leh-Ladakh highway ...have enough images to explain my journey by themselves .. this was the valley which was the dream of every superstar before 1990 ... Sonmarg & Gulmarg were the two bful valleys , Sonmarg means ... Pathway leading towards Gold , which means towards mesmerising Sunrise ...
This was the turning point of our trip ... I heard something ., which one local was saying to his tourist group that lets go .. this weather is going to be changed drastically lets reach our base ... which Hotel Sonmarg Glacier ... we started leaving the location wherever i was with my wife & fellow travellers ... but one family with two more kids went deep inside the Himalayas for Snowfall ... no one could inform them ... and we all waited for almost half an hour and weather as stated went real bad ...
Now mother of one kid started crying as there was no sign of the group , i went ahead & informed this with one local ... & this was the time , when i saw the real efforts ... don't from where but 5-6 more kashmiri local came in and started discussing about same ...within minutes two teams left from there & within 10-15 minutes , i got a call that there 's nothing to worry & they have seen the group coming with all the kids . Finally group came in and we all started breathing again .
But we were already late by almost 2 hours and it was too dark to drive , Srinagar was almost 90KM from Sonmarg & we started ... right after 10-15 minutes we experienced a sudden break & our vehicle was stopped because of the sheeps around... could not understand for next 50-60 seconds as we all thought this must be a con from terrorist .. couldn't even click pics of same but somehow i managed to click few ...
after two three minutes two more buses from opposite side came and we got to know that these are real people and they got that managed in next 8-10 minutes & we started driving back .
Third day , this was the day for Gulmarg ... nothing to explain much same , as my images are going to speak themselves ...
Day 4 , This was the day for those beautiful Gardens which compelled me to come & visit Kashmir since my childhood .
Made our first visit to Shalimar Bagh ...
Second was Nishant Bagh ...