Was really excited to visit heaven on earth, Jannat, Paradise… Kashmir, & as they say real Europe is not what you see out of the glass window of your Euro-rail but it’s the country side with winding roads, journey made on a gearless scooter. So I wanted to see the real Kashmir & not the Cash-Mir we all know.
We all were young wild & free, adventurous & obviously our folks thought our Journey ends in Himachal, but our journey began from there, we were these fearless birds who wanted to explore the paradise on earth, Kashmir irrespective of an obvious fear of being attacked, kidnapped or even killed by terror groups.
I am an outsider here, we decided to play safe & start up from Shrinagar, timing of our visit could not have been perfect it was evening of 13’th August & there was high degree of security alert & calmness, all we could see was army men & military vehicles, but we had a traumatic experience before this serene feeling, which we somehow survived. On our way to Shrinagar we hired a cab, hilly areas can seriously fire your belly from time to time, we stopped our Van at Dhabba (A local Indian Restaurant), again suggested by the driver hired by us, ‘Sharmaji’, Kashmiri Pandit, tall ,young, good looking smart chap, if groomed properly had the potential to beat the broad daylight out of Gladrags contestants. Oh we had a hearty lunch, there is something about this region, I don’t know if it’s the food served is sweet or hunger is insatiable, but you always tend to eat more than you normally would. After a satisfying lunch & Lassi we drove away, we were all full & drowsy & all wanted a good nap before our next destination, but Nilesh sprung up, “ Oh Shitt I forgot my sack at the Dhabba”, to which Sharmaji replied “ Shaab ussme kuch agar mehnga nahi hoga to rehne dijiye, wapas janna risky hai” ( If the sack has no valuables, its worthless & risky turning back), to which Nilesh replied “Shitt! Man, I had a LoveU Tshirt gifted by my girl, my camcorder & digi cam in it!, dude I am screwed!, she will kill me!”, after this incident I have hated Priyanka to gift this idot that LoveU T-Shirt. Moreover we really were more concerned about images of our exploits rather than Nilesh’s death, as he was already dead dating that female.
We all convinced Sharmaji to take a U turn, he reluctantly steered vehicle back to ground zero, we reached the place, we searched for the sack, suddenly a small Kashmiri boy came running towards us, these kids are blessed with everything, fair Russian complexion, sharp features, innocent little blue eyes, a Kashmiri Hindi which is very hard to decipher. The boy had Nilesh’s sack, we were so overwhelmed by the kid’s innocence, honesty, & that million $ smile on his face which lit up hundred lights, after looking at a Rs 10 note, we made his day, we didn’t bother to check our belongings, the honesty of the little boy was good enough, we all went into the Van, Sharmaji was quite, he started the ignition & we were on our way, he was speeding a lot, sweat was cracking & he was turning pink, and we were in a Kashmiri summer with temperatures of 17degree Celsius, for me it was much cooler than any average Mumbai winter. He pulled over all of a sudden, & screamed “Everybody Out of the Car Now!!!.... “, we were puzzled, confused, scared, we did as he instructed to stay out of harm’s way, I had this sticky feeling, this skinny little bastard actually took us for a ride, now may loot us, as we got out of the Van he screamed again “Everybody Run for your lives!”, I was amused, why this man wants us to run on full stomach, but he seemed to be the boss, so we followed his command with tight lip, I thought what all I could do with that Rs10 bill, which I gave to that chipmunk, it just bought me a headache & almost a near heart attack after few minutes of unexpected cardio, we were at a distance from the Van, I looked at Viral, Nilesh, Amit & Shrikant all looked more confused than I was, wait a minute how come script change in seconds, how can a potential Villan turn into a our Savoir?
The Army was called upon, we were scared to death, but also felt lucky to be alive, it was a bomb scare!, Pictures, videos & LoveU T-shirt was off our mind, we were so thankful,. It took them, 150 minutes to clear off the site & declare there was no bomb scare, Major Puri, wished Shyam (Sharmaji), shook hands, said “ Keep it up young man !”, we had WTF! feeling written all over our faces. But we thanked heavens and resumed our journey to Shrinagar, on the way Shyam ( Now Sharmaji was Shyam for us, our savior from a bomb attack which was never planned).
My romance with Kashmir & Shrinagar had just begun; I woke up to reality, the men marching up & down in the uniform, were there for a reason, my mother’s words reverberated in my ears, “ Beta promise me you won’t go to J&K, its dangerous”.
We decided to live in boat house, it was a beautiful & peaceful morning of 14’th August, oh! What a site! The lake, the calmness, this was the real Kashmir seen & talked about. The room service knocked the door, Bed tea (It was Kashmiri tea Salty to taste but was nice & refreshing), honey & toast were served, the boring mundane menu seemed so interesting, the view was mesmerizing.
Silence was broken by Arif the boy who delivered breakfast & newspaper, he said “ Saahab toh aap India se ho?, jara sambhal ke kal India ka flag matt kharidna ya, parade k liye Bakshi Stadium mein jaana matt, dikkat ho sakti hai”, ( Sir are you From India?,please avoid buying the Indian Flag or going to the Independence day ceremony, you can fall into trouble)
He smiled & left away, I was taken aback, I could not hear anything after his first sentence, “Are you from India?” I asked Nilesh did we accidently crossed the LOC?, Why does a fellow Indian ask me in such fashion, buying the small tricolor on I-Day was a non event, we use to buy & distribute amongst kids, fear gripped we felt things here are also similar to barbed wire, complicated, we hardly moved of the boat house, we enjoyed Kashmir as if nothing had happened, packed our bags on 16’th & caught a train for Delhi.
PS:
The events are true, & were experienced by y Friend Viral Desai.
The Photograph is taken from Neelesh Mishra's Blog
