My experience in Kashmir

Shikara in Dal Lake

Whenever the word ‘Kashmir’ struck in mind, we always call it ‘paradise on earth’ or ‘Switzerland of India’. We are nearly right but not completely. There exists two Kashmir one is for inhabitants of Kashmir and the other is for Tourists. For tourists, Kashmir is beautiful snow peaked mountains, frothy rivers, lush landscapes, Dal lake Shikaras & Houseboats, Lakes, Crocheted carpets, apples orchards and beautiful flowers, old Bollywood movies scenes featuring Rajesh Khanna, Shammi Kapoor along with heroines in traditional Kashmiri dresses. But for Kashmiris, Kashmir is almost hell. Indian armed force’s hegemony coupled with the brutal militancy has crushed the inhabitants of Kashmir in between. Last two decades have degraded its image in eyes of tourists, tourists started finding alternate destinations. This deviation of tourist interest further worsened the life of Kashmiris destroying their livelihood. Heavy losses were suffered regarding human casualties as well as Handicrafts Industry. But situation has improved in last 7-8 years; militancy is at all time low. We expect that currently Kashmir is at silence but some consider this silence is just a lull. Some People have different views about Kashmir oblivious of the current circumstances.

A short visit in the Valley revealed a different story against my anticipation. People are neither satisfied nor they accept the so-called democratic regime at the gunpoint of the Indian armed forces. They are expressing their ire in different agitational forms and on some occasions with their own initiative the people are taking struggle path without any call given by any organization in the valley.

In August 2009, I visited Kashmir valley for first time. I told my parents that we are going on a trip to Vaishno Devi Shrine, Patnitop and some adjoining tourist spots. Considering about terrorism in Kashmir, Parents would have never approved of visiting Kashmir valley.  I was accompanied by my two friends. We reached Jammu after a 12- hour rail journey. We faced many ordeals during our brunch in Jammu and then our 9 hour long journey to Srinagar started on a TATA Winger. Serpentine Jammu-Srinagar highway along with breathtaking beautiful sceneries made our Journey really awesome and always kept us away from slumbers. We accompanied two kashmiri students whose declaration of being Anti Indian stunned us and raised a surge of fear and suspicion in our minds for kashmiri people. While we were nearly mid-way, dangerous Pir Panjal Pass, rugged roads, rain along with dusk also showed their presence. Famous Jawahar Tunnel, nearly 2.75 Kilometers long, excited us all and driver along with fellow Kashmiri students said “welcome in Kashmir”.  Rain made weather more coldly and forced us to wear warm clothes. Then at nearly 11.00 PM, we reached deserted roads of Srinagar and driver took us to Hotel Kohinoor. Hotel owner resembled Yasin Malik, I was eager to ask but refrained fearing another Anti-Indian reaction. Then along with driver, we went to a North-Indian restaurant. Hot coffee after dinner in this cold weather gave us a nearly world-beating satisfaction. We all came and immediately surrendered to sleep.

Next morning, when we came out of our hotel, watching some locals fight ferociously further terrorized us. After moving some distance, we were highly mistaken in interpreting Mosque flag as Pakistani flag and our terror was at its peak. We Declared Kashmiris as pro-Pakistani. At Lock gate, only few Kashmiris in pheran(traditional Kashmiri dress up to knee length)  but no tourists were visible. All the shops were closed. Then a Kashmiri boatman approached us and we booked a Shikara in Dal Lake. We started cursing people for the pathetic condition of Dal Lake. World famous House Boats lined in a row rushed an adrenaline flow in our body. Our boatman, a convivial man in his 50s, started telling about kashmiri people and diminished our fears regarding Kashmir. Some boatsman were selling vegetables, kaesar & other herbs, precious stones & Jewellery items in their boats. Different places came like Nehru park, motor bike point, golden area, kabutar-khana(ancestral property of Dr. Karan Singh, son of last ruler of kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh), local market, floating land, and few others.

Later in the day, we visited famous gardens of Srinagar, Chasmeshahi. After dusk we again joined Shikara ride. Next morning, newspapers headlined complete shutdown observed in response to Hurriyat call, main reason being the Indian PM Dr. Man Mohan Singh declaring Separatists as irrelevant in Independence Day speech. Also 15^th August, 26^th January and 27^th October (Raja Hari Singh signed accession to India) are declared as black days and complete shutdown is observed. In next few days we visited Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Aru.

On our scheduled last day in Srinagar, after dinner we sat by Dal lake side, and accidentally met two locals. One was Tariq, a lean & sober man in his mid 20s, selling wooden handicrafts items made of Walnut. Other was Raja, a short & athletic man in his late 20s, selling crocheted clothes. They were very nice, decent, friendly and hospitable to us. They told us about the real Kashmir, its current circumstances, pro-independence stand, protests, strikes, wrong image of Kashmir is projected by outside media, ban on local media, fearful militancy days, crackdowns, torture by armed forces, custodial killings and rapes. But they accepted situation has significantly improved after 2005. Meanwhile Tariq introduced us to his father. Raja enquired about places which we visited, and not finding Hazratbal Shrine and Sheikh Makhdoom Sahib Shrine in our list made them disappointed. They requested us to delay our return journey by one hour and they will show us these places in their car. After this hot, intriguing and memorable interaction that lasted nearly two hours, we exchanged our numbers and bid good-bye. Before felling prey to sleep, I was engrossed in real Kashmir.See more..