Hello from Kashmir!
Our journey to get here began early last Friday. We roused from our sleep at 7am and made our way, groggily to Mumbai airport.
It's never fun to be at the domestic airport in the mornings. It's busy and chaotic, with long lines for check in and security that are made worse by confused seniors and first time flyers. But it makes for some great people watching and my favorites are
Two old Sikh women and an elderly gentlemen trying to enter the secure departure area and catch a flight without proper IDs. Only one amongst them has any ID and that too is a laminated photopcopy of a black and white printout of her Aadhar card. Other two have nothing but confusion to offer, and she insists it's enough and strangely, after what felt like eternity, all 3 are allowed through. Only in India
Lady in the security check area blocking the men's line. Despite numerous protests by male passengers, airport staff and X-ray machine operators to join the women's line and allow the men to keep moving, she insists " main kuch aur kaam ke liye khadi hu" and holds her ground adamantly. Eventually to everyone's relief, her work, whatever it was, is done and she unblocks the X-ray machine and lets the men through.
while the plane speeds down the runway tilted at 45 degrees with its nose up and
despite numerous verbal warnings and pleadings by the air hostess to sit down, the mother and son seated behind us decided to execute a mid-takeoff seat switch. Both jumping over the middle passenger at the same time and they even ask the air hostess to be quiet so they can complete their acrobatics. Hilarious.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we arrived in Srinagar, to blue skies and sunny weather. The fresh air and mountain views greet you right from your first steps off the plane. Srinagar airport is small and highly militarized, there's guns and security forces everywhere you look and that continued for kilometers outside the airport, but slowly the army faded away as we made our way further into the city.
It seemed unsafe at first, only because your mind begins to wonder why they're armed to the teeth, and what's going to happen, but soon we got as used to it, and now I can completely ignore their presence.
Srinagar is the capital and the busiest city. It's where a lot of the politics of Kashmir is conducted and there's a large army presence all over the city, with large concentrations around the sensitive spots.
The city itself is small and charming, with large trees and big roads that lead to lots of narrow winding lanes also dotted with trees. It has many water bodies and parks and there's plenty to gaze at while you wander about.
You could say it's underdeveloped in parts and construction is visible everywhere. Many roads and houses are in need of repair. I think it might have to do with the monstrous floods that engulfed the city a few years ago. But they've done a great job of rebuilding what broke and I'm surprised at how little water damage is visible on the outside. Kudos Kashmir!
We made our way to Nageen lake, a smaller quieter lake than the much busier Daal Lake. Here we left our car and hopped aboard a small paddle boat, known as a 'shikara' with our luggage and a sweet old boatman slowly paddled us across the lake to our houseboat, waiting on the other side.
Kritika works with these houseboats and the staff gave us a royal welcome at arrival. When Kritika had said houseboat I imagined sleeping on a rickety old fishing boat and had been dreading the cold wet experience. I'm glad to say I was completely wrong about the houseboats. They are magnificent, and larger than most family homes in Mumbai.
Ours was a beautiful 5 bedroom boat, that we had all to ourselves. Centrally heated and fully furnished it was better equipped and decorated than our home in pune, and we would spent the next few days pampered in luxury that's usually reserved for royalty. Proof of which was the photos of Mick Jagger and other celebrities who had also been guests of this houseboat.
Our caretaker on the houseboat, called the Captain, was a cheerful young man named Jaaved, who wouldn't stop smiling, even in his sleep. And with his help we quickly settled into the houseboat.
After a lovely lunch we decided to venture into town and meet up with our friend Hashim, who was also in Srinagar at the same time visiting his parents who live here.
Thanks to Hashim we got to meet many local people and learn about the joys and challenges of living in Srinagar. It's a dynamic town that's equal parts of gorgeous and glum.
He introduced us to a sweet bookshop cafe in Srinagar and anybody who knows us, can fill in the rest of the story. We've been camped at this lovely cafe day and night, it's a great place to meet locals and get an idea of what young people in the city are up to. It's a lot more vibrant and casual than the news would let you believe and young people here are like young people everywhere, laughing, smiling and drinking coffee.
Life in Kashmir seems quite normal. I can't even imagine how it might have been last year when there was protests and retaliations.
I'm surprised to see the large Sikh population and initially assumed that they were the families of army officers. But I was quickly corrected and informed that this state was ruled by a Sikh king before independence and the Sikhs have been here for generations, and are as local here as any other Kashmiri.
The different communities here seem very respectful of each other and there isn't much communal tension to be seen on the surface. Most of the people's anger seems to be directed towards the police, army and government, but not each other.
I've seen lots of graffiti here, not the artistic type. Mostly political with "Indian dogs go back" being the key message. But people on the street are all smiles and nobody spoke politics to us or made us feel unwelcome ever. I should say the men are all smiles, i haven't tried smiling at the women, out of respect and also because they seem shy and more reserved than women elsewhere in India.
Kritika has been trying to make eye contact with the women and smile at them, with the hope that someone will smile back, but no response yet. We will keep you posted if she succeeds to crack a smile back somewhere.