Kashmir- The vulnerably glorious spectacle

But terrorists don’t discriminate and so when I visited Kashmir for the first time as an adult, not as a tourist per se but as a neighbor from the Jammu province, I found beauty beyond imagination. While crossing the Jawahar Tunnel, the main link between Kashmir and the rest of the world by road, I wondered how such a small tunnel could accommodate an umbrage of tourists that come pouring in during the winters for snowfall or during spring to see the gardens in Kashmir in their full glory.

My first encounter with the Dal Lake was during the evening and when my travel buddy suggested a tour of the Dal Lake after a long 8-hour road trip from Jammu to Kashmir, amidst traffic Jams, uneven curvy roads and shifting weather, I looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

(Important Information before you plan a road trip - Kashmir is located 276 km away from Jammu and on an average it should take one about 6 hours to reach Kashmir, even with small pitstops for tea and snacks. But considering that the Jammu-Udhampur National Highway is under construction and the Ramban road is the toughest one to travel upon, along with other hindrances of matching the time you leave Jammu with the travel advisories issued by the administration on when you can travel on the National Highway and when you can not. Just today, there was a landslide and the NH-44 was closed for all travelers.)

Upon little insistence, my curiosity won over my tired body and we were at the Dal Gate with me about to see what the hype was all about.

Let me tell you, readers. The hype is real. But the reality is much more glorious.

The lit-up houseboats and glowing neon signs of restaurant and 5-star hotels look like commercialization, if done right can add to the beauty of nature. Their reflection on the water of the Lake looked like plethora of shooting stars. The water reflected the evening sky firstly in hues of orange and later in charcoal black as night fell.

This experience I am sharing is of the month of June, long enough for Kashmir to leave Pulwama as a mark on history and way before the revocation of its special status. So in the middle of these security and political tugs-of-war, I visited Kashmir at its most vulnerable time. The need for mentioning this is because when I saw the Lal Chowk’s famous Watch Tower (as everyone should), it was surrounded by barbed wires. It showed me the reality of the place. How naïve of one to think they could control the uncontrolled. That they could bind time and bend it to will.

Instead, I spent my time in Downtown, Srinagar, seeing the cracked windows. I had my dinner enjoying Kashmiri Seekhs called “Tujji” of Khayam Chowk.

I walked down the lanes of Habba kadal imagining how hard it would have been for the Kashmiri Pandit community to leave their homes. Such two-storey, three-storey homes that had wooden-carved windows.

I eyed the Jamia Masjid and waited for Azaan to begin so I could think of whether the Kashmiri accent had any impact on the sounds or they were the same as any other Masjid.

The experience was not all fantastic though. I got stuck in a terrible traffic jam with a punctured car-tyre near 8pm and failed to find a single puncture shop. Apparently they are hard to find after 6 pm in the evening. I tasted Biryani at the famous Mughal Durbar and hated every bite of it. Their Tabakmaaz was much better though.

Yet during my last night in Kashmir when I stood on the Zero bridge admiring its beauty along with the night view, I found it hard to be able to convey everything I would have liked about the place. I sat with my phone in hand, starting to write this travelogue. Yet, it has taken so long for me to finish it.