A collection of photographs, receipts and postcards belonging to an anonymous British soldier who visited Kashmir in around 1944 during World War 2.
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Dance and Cabaret, 1944
Batt’e Bagh, Nagin Lake
A large ruined garden estate surrounded on three sides by Nagin Lake that belongs to a rich old pandit family. Hence the name.
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| Num. Nail. The front portion of a Kashmiri boat. |
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Nagin Lake
The deeper lake whose clearer water tends to take on bluish tint. Hence the name.
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Stayed at Yaseen’s Mascot Houseboat. He first started reading the blog back in 2010, coming for a post on origin of houseboats.
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Mohanlal Aima, 1964
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| Mohanlal Aima singing to a group of tourists on a houseboat on Nagin Lake in 1964. Found this photograph by James Burke at Life Magazine archive |
James Burke has caught this prolific Kashmiri musician at a delightful moment. It the classic stance of a Kashmiri singer. As the backing artists pick up the refrain, as the tempo picks up, the lead singer spreads out his arms like an eagle, doesn’t close his eyes, looks his audience, his patron for the night, straight in the eye, and trying to keep his neck unmoving, moves his head left-right-left-right even as his shoulders blades shove the arms, right-left-right-left. And then the arms drop.
Nehru in Kashmir, 1951
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| India’s first prime Minister, Jawaharlal nehru, daddling (R) surfing on Srinagar’s Nagin Lake in 1951. Seconds after the photo on the right was taken, the 62-year-old Nehru tipped into water. The pictures appear in photojournalist Sati Sahni’s just-released book, ‘Nehru’s Kashmir” |
from TOI dated 30th Jan 2011.
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Previously: Rare photographs of Nehru
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Update: TOI dated 13th Feb 2011.
