Jul 02, 2001 08:39 AM
4550 Views
Kashmir- ''the paradise on earth'', used to be the honeymoon destination in the past.
Its blue skies, high mountain ranges, green grassy meadows,flower filled gardens,luscious fruits, gurgling streams and brooks, meandering rivers, placid lakes, haunting lilting folk music,simple peace and nature loving people,beautiful lasses, snow covered peaks, forests,hills and valleys, the Char Chinar trees, saffron fields, houseboats,shikaras,temples,mosques and many other such things weaved together to form the dreams of love and romance in a natural paradise, the mix of culture,lifestyle and nature at its best.
There were a large number of movies which used the beautiful Kashmir as the place for their stories and locale for filming songs and dances.
Films such as ''Kashmir ki Kali'',''Junglee''
All that has changed over the last few years.
Now the films are like ''Roza'',''Fiza'',''Mission Kashmir''.
Long back when we were children, Kashmir was our dream destination.
However, we got the opportunity to visit only in October,1983.This was before the problems started there.
We landed at Srinagar Airport after flying over the Himalayan range with snow on some peaks and ridges. We perhaps saw the Wular lake too-the largest fresh water lake.
In Srinagar,we got the only vegetarian restaurant-a Gujarati Hotel,next to the tourist Centre.
The first view of Srinagar,with its roads lined by the Chinar trees
and surrounded by fields was interesting.
The Jhelum meandered across in a serpentine path through the city of Srinagar.
On top of the hill stood the Sankaracharya temple.
On the other side was the sacred and famous Hazratbal Mosque.
The Dal Lake and the Nagin lake were vast and picturesque.
We travelled along the road, by the side of the lakes and bought some green, juicy apples, plucked straight from the trees.
We spent some time floating in the ''shikara'' boat on the Dal Lake.
We remembered the various romantic scenes of various movies filmed in Kashmir-especially on the Dal and Nagin Lakes of Srinagar
The flower girls passed us offering to sell their beautiful flowers. In the distance were lined up the various houseboats,made of wood and with different names and some beautifully carved.
The mountains cast a shadow on the lake.
the Char chinar was visited.It had four Chinar trees and a place in between for enjoying the sights around.
The gardens-Chashme Shahi,Shalimar and the Nishat were full of trees, flowers,hedges,lawns,streams and fountains. It was a riot of colours and splashing water.
Outside on the road the fruit stalls had luscious and delicious apples,pears,babbugoshas and other fruits.
The market was visited for buying the Pashmina shawls,wicker ware,chestnutwood items, chestnuts,almonds and other dry fruits.
The people were nice,simple and good.
We had excursions to Gulmarg with its ski slopes and rope trolleys. We had horse ride up a narrow path to Khilanmarg meadows surrounded by dark green alpine type forest trees.
We also went to Pahalgam and Chandanwadi and saw snow.
On return we experienced snowfall in Srinagar. But the snow melted fast.
Next day morning the peaks around Gulmarg were seen covered with snow.
The return flights were all full but somehow we managed to get tickets for the next day.
We left Srinagar and Kashmir-real natural paradise on earth-with wonderful memories of the week spent there in October, 1983.
If I am to recommend Srinagar and Kashmir to someone these days, then he has to be prepared for a real adventure tour under constant fear because of all the terror and guerilla warfare,attacks and deaths taking place.
