There are so many things about Kashmir that you might think you know and yet you don't. There is so much more to its culture than the terror struck residents and yet the picture that comes to mind is first of suspected terrorists and only then of the beautiful locations.One of my friends recently visited Switzerland. She met a local who recognised she was from India and told her in their conversation that Kashmir is as beautiful as Switzerland, but Bollywood has slowly shifted to Swiss locations to avoid the turmoil and excessive security of militants in Kashmir. Now, every now and then, you would see helicopters shooting Bollywood movies in the Swiss Alps.
Well, the added security from the Militants is what keeps Kashmir terrorism free all these years. The fact is, that the land had been under constant conflict for about 12-14 years. It will take its own sweet time to develop. During our entire journey, our tempo traveller was stopped about 2-3 times a day at checkposts and our entire luggage was checked. And here, if you flunk a red light, you may not get a ticket, but you might become a suspected terrorist.
Our driver, Yasir was a fourth generation Muslim. His Great-grandfather converted to Islam. When they converted, they changed their first names, but retained their last name, Bhatt. Yasir officially worked in the Forest Department, but he worked as driver to earn more, and used some of that money to bribe officials to keep him on roll the Forest Department. We hardly met any local who was a Hindu in the Kashmir valley. Reminds me a little of the movie Khamosh Pani starring Kirron Kher.
On a separate note, why don't people understand that their convenience for a second is going to cost nature a 100 years to compensate for it. The availability of chips and bottled water has increased and so has the litter on picturesque places. People should understand that the people in Kashmir are not rag pickers, and neither is the Govt. going to follow them every where like a superman carrying a broom stick, cleaning up behind them, everytime they enjoy the beauty of a river side and throw used bottles and chips' packets there. Ask the people, and all they have to say is, this place is beautiful, but it is dirty, and then they casually swing off the used water bottle right there with the other trash, trash that has been there for years, and will be there, reminding us of the hypocrites that we are. More so, I saw people throwing empty wrappers into the Dal lake, even when they could see a dust bin installed by the Municipality of Srinagar, just meters away from them.
On a separate note again about Kashmiri men, they are so handsome. Every restaurant that we ate in, had a handsome Kashmiri waiter waiting on us, every horseman that we hired, had handsome angular features.
Some people would argue that Kashmiri women are also beauties. I cannot argue against or for it, as I didn't see a lot of women on my trip. First, as is the case with most Indian states, due to the skewed sex ratio, there were obviously lesser women on the streets. Secondly, some of them were covered in a burqa, others in a hijaab, so their beauty was not evident on the first sight. Hardly you would find a woman dressed like Sharmila in Kashmir ki Kali, flaunting her beauty. That, according to locals, is the outfit worn by brides in their weddings.
I took special notice of a horseman who took me to Aru valley. I was on the horse back and he was guiding the horse. I got to know a lot from him. He had just completed his 12th from Pahalgam and had enrolled in Srinagar university for an undergraduate medical course spanning three years. He said that times were different when the 'hukumat' belonged to Ghulam Nabi Azad. Aru (the village), before Azad, had schools only upto 5th, and Pahalgam had schools upto 10th. With his onset, the schooling advanced upto 10th in Aru and upto 12th in Pahalgam. But since Omar Abdullah acquired the 'hukumat' the education scenario has been stagnant. There are more disturbances everywhere.
Well, one thing to note, the official language in academics in Kashmir is Urdu, so all the locals were very well versed with Hindi, Kashmiri and even understood and could speak understandable English.
Another notable character we met was Gul Chacha. He was our local guide at Gulmarg. He was an old man with a limp. More about him later....
