Chenar tree in a park along the Jhelum river near Zero bridge. Chenar trees are protected by state laws.
Dead and dying Chenar trees.
Walk in a Park
Kashmiri Shawl Seller
At Qazigund bus stand.
kaajwat, dooyn, bat, wokhul
Famous stuff from Qazigund
Hotel
A colorful hotel at Qazigund. It’s evening time.
Move Out, Move In
Photograph: Paddy fields of Kashmir. June 2008. Just before Qazigund.
The bus was a video-couch, and that wasn’t the only reason for my happiness. We were going to Jammu, and unlike the last time, on this particular trip, almost everyone was going. I had been to Jammu the previous year with my parents. It had proved to be a good vacation, my first vacation, the first move out of the valley. Was it a summer vacation or a winter vacation, I don’t remember…it must have been summer, I prefer it that way. And now we were going on another vacation. But, no one looked happy about it. Everyone was glum and edgy. Anyway, I made sure I got to sit in a window seat. It was a seat in the left aisle and just near the front gate. Between the two aisles, just above the door to the drivers spacious cabin, at a head level, seated in a box, a cabin of their own with a glass window, were a Colour TV and a VCR. As the bus moved, I got to see things that a had never seen before. Outside the window, there is beauty everywhere. Willows and fields. All Green. And inside the bus, the movie show starts, o joy, o joy, it is Naseeb starring Amitabh Bachchan naar log zachchan. I was praying for a screening of his Toofan, I had recently seen the poster pasted, on the next door medicine man’s next door drugstore cum video parlor shop. The red of the poster, the crossbow, it was all so enticing. But for now, for this journey, Naseeb seemed just as good. ‘At least it not B&W’, I told my very excited self. So, the Video coach really lived up to its promise and name.
Now, I look at the 14 inch color TV screen through the glass, what plays: the songs, the comedy, the dialogues, the fights, the symbolism of three holy rings, the brave heroes, misunderstandings, the monologues, the morals, the beautiful heroines, everyone dancing and the evil villains. Now, I look out the glass of the 20 inch slide window of the bus and I see the beautiful paddy fields for the first time . They look mesmerizing. (Now I know, we must have crossed Qazigund). ‘Farmlands in Kashmir! What do they look like in winter?’What do these farmers do then?’, I wonder. And then, for some reason, almost on cue, every in the bus starts to draw the folds of the window curtains. I am told to do the same. I protest. No use. Windows are duly covered. Not a single beam of sunlight inside the bus anymore. The video coach is completely dark, like a film theater. Temperature starts to drop, the uphill mountainous part of the journey had started. I start to feel glum. At least the film is still playing. Now, it’s that hilarious scene: A very much drunk and beaten-up Amitabh applies Band-Aid on the mirror and consoles himself. He’s not the only one in need of a repair. With every bump and jerk, the VCP seems to throw a fit, the screen starts to freeze and roll. The bus conductor starts hammering the TV cabin. He has been at it the whole time. But his treatment is not working anymore. But him is hitting the TV cabin all the more.The driver is now screaming about something. And just before we cross the Banihal tunnel, the movie is abruptly stopped, the cassette taken out, the TV switched off. Not a word. No one protests. Am I the only one watching this movie. The bus crosses over to the other side of the tunnel, but the TV is still dead and black. Video coach is a fraud played out on simple people.
For the rest of the journey, the movie wasn’t played again. We reached Jammu in the evening. For the longest time, watching Naseeb all over again was the only thing I wanted . For the longest time, green paddy fields were my last memory of Kashmir. I was eight. And then, about eighteen years later, I got my new last memories of Kashmir.
paddy fields
Paddy fields of Kashmir, past the check point at Lower Munda.
An Army officer, posted in this region, once told a cousin of mine, “You Kashmiri men are no good! Look at at your field, only your women do all the work!”
Paddy cultivation is said to be a very delicate process. In Kashmir, unlike most other places in India, mostly women work in paddy fields and sow, harvest and stack paddy. And they sing while work. They sing a type of Kashmiri folk song known as Naindai Gyavun. They sing and ask for the kindness of their prophets and Gods, Nabis and Bharavs. And to their lover they sing:
Reaping and reaping, my hands are now tired,
And yet, my love, the end of this field is in no sight.
Cutting and cutting, my hands are now bruised,
And yet, my love, the end of this field is in no sight.
Drops of sweat, in drains, now run down my forehead.
And yet, my love, the end of this field is in no sight.
The golden harvest, this harvest a tease, dances with wind.
And yet, my love, the end of this field is in no sight.
Kashmir Valley as seen from Banihal Pass, 1928
Rice fields in the Kashmir Valley as seen from the Banihal Pass
Photograph dated 1928 taken by Swiss photographer Martin Hurlimann (November 12, 1897 – March 4, 1984)
[found via: columbia.edu]
A photograph taken by me in June 2008. View of Kashmir Valley after crossing Banihal Tunnel.
View of the Valley and An Atmospherical Phenomena
Image: View of the Kashmir valley on way to Qazigund.
June 2008.
Qazigund of Anantnag district, is the first major a town and a major road stop on way to Kashmir. Hence, it is often called the “Gateway to Kashmir”.
Karl Alexander A. Hügel (April 23, 1795 – June 2, 1870) born in Bavaria, Germany, was an Austrian army officer, a diplomat and a botanist. After experiencing rejection in love, he decided to roam around the world and became a explorer. He set out in 1831 and by the end of his journeys in 1836, he had visited lands as far and distant as Australasia, Far East, near East and much of Indian sun-continent including Punjab and Kashmir.
In late 1835, after visiting the plains of Punjab, Hugel traveled to Kashmir valley, entering it using the Muzaffarabad route – the then preferred route for Kashmir.
The account of his travel to Kashmir and Punjab can be found in ‘Travels in Kashmir And The Panjab By Karl Alexander A. Hügel’, Translated from German (Kaschmir und das Reich der Siek (Cashmere and the Realm of the Sikh), published 1841) by Thomas Best Jervis, published 1845.
On Tuesday, November 24th of year 1835, Karl Alexander A. Hügel was traveling in the area that is now known as Anantnag district and was on his way to a place that had already been renamed, only a couple of centuries ago in seventeenth century by Aurangzeb, as Islamabad. With a small entourage of servants and guides, Hügel, riding on a horseback, arrived at the ancient town of Bijbehara, a place whose ancient Sanskrit name, he thought, must have been ‘Vidya Wihara’, Temple of Wisdom. He rode across the ancient bridge built on the river Jehlum and noticed how “Large lime-trees overgrow the piers of this ancient bridge.” At Bijbehara, he found no ancient great ruins, no signs of this place being an old capital of a Kingdom. Instead, he had to content himself by buying some old coins “of a date prior to the Mohammedan dynasties” from the local bazaar and thought “bazars are the chief attraction in every place throughout India.” About half a mile up ahead from “Bijbahar”, on the either side of the Jehlum river, Hügel noticed the ‘Badsha Bagh‘ or the ‘Garden of High King’ – the ancient gardens built by Dara Shikoh, according to Hügel it was the “the residence of the luckless Dara, the brother of Aurungzib.” and was told that in ancient times a bridge used to connect the two spacious gardens of both sides. From here he decided to proceed for Mattan and have a close look at Korau Pandau. But, it took him so much time trying to find a guide for this place that by the time he reached the ancient “caves”, running late, he thought it best to leave immediately for Islamabad. Had he stayed longer at Mattan, maybe his guide would have mentioned that Kashmiris know these ancient structures as Pandav Lar’rey – Abode of Pandav and believed to have been built in around mid 8th century by King Lalitaditya (A.D. 693 to 729).
During this journey in Anantnag district, Hügel took note of an interesting atmospheric phenomena and made a very curious comment. He wrote:
I observed with much interest to day the optical illusions, at this season almost peculiar to Kashmir. There is so little transparency in the air, that places at a mile’s distance only, appear to be removed to four times that distance, and mountains only four miles off seem to be at least fifteen or twenty. If the weather be tolerably clear, one can see to this last distance, but the twenty miles appear twice as much. To these peculiarities of the atmosphere, I attribute the exaggerated terms in which many travellers speak of the extent of this country. It was dark when we reached our halting place but every thing was in the best order and a supper of trout from the sacred tank of Anatnagh was a great relish after the day’s journey.
soar
On way to Qazigund from Banihal tunnel.
Views that welcome you to Kashmir.
clouds moving down on pir panjal
Clouds moving down on Kashmir side of Pir Panjal Range and the distant moon.
