I don’t know if it happens to
you, but sleep has always eluded me whenever there is a need to wake up early
in the morning. At around eight in the evening, I had received a phone call
from Srinagar. A pleasant voice at the other side introduced himself as Firdaus.
He would be our driver and guide for next three days, till the time we reach
Leh. He assured us that he would be waiting at Srinagar airport at seven in the
morning, which was the time when we are expected to reach. I had understood
this during my last visit to Kashmir, tourism business in the valley has been
hugely affected, and the locals do not leave a single opportunity to earn some
money. Otherwise, how could you explain that on the morning of Eid-ul-Zuha,
Firdaus had happily agreed to transport us to Sonamarg. The only condition he
had kept was that he would return to Srinagar immediately after, and would
escort us towards our onward destinations only from the next morning.
The cab was expected at
quarter past three in the morning, and I was still tossing and turning in the
bed past midnight. Only when I had given up all hopes of getting some sleep, I
fell into slumber very briefly, only to be awakened by the shrill sound of the
alarm. Groggy from getting only a couple of hours of sleep, I stumbled across
to start what promised to be a very exciting holiday. Breakfast was the only
reason we called the cab so early. Completely reluctant to spread butter on
toast, and then to wash the plates before we leave, we decided that the
insanely priced watery tea at the airport lounge would be a better alternative.
I should have known that the trip would be too good, when I bumped into Somen
at the airport when we had just ordered the tea. Somen and I used to be
roommates twelve years back, but our friendship withstood the test of time. A
sip of tea and a goodbye later, we parted ways… Somen was on his way to
Guwahati, and we were going to Kashmir.
Firdaus was there at the
airport, as promised. Dressed in a brown jacket and a smile, his first words
were, “Eid Mubarak, Sir”. He also told us that the situation in Srinagar was
slightly tense, and curfew was imposed on some parts on the city following a
moderately violent protest over beef ban the previous day. We did encounter
some barricades and detours, along with a quite a few army and police men, but
we had to leave the city limits as early as we could, just to stay ahead of the
Eid prayers. Till yesterday, I had believed that the place was called Sonmarg,
only to realize today that it was actually SonAmarg, with an A. The
pronunciation, however, is Sonmarg, the A is apparently kept silent. Sonamarg
is 100 kilometers away from Srinagar, and it takes three hours to reach to our
destination. All along the way, whenever we passed a tiny hamlet, we could see
the crowds of men dressed in white gathering up for the Eid prayers. Because
everyone prays on Eid, the local mosque falls short of place, and the praying
congregation extends itself till the highway. Lucky were we that the flight was
on time, we were always just ahead of the prayers.
We had in our mind,
shortlisted a hotel, only to realize that it was fourteen kilometers away from
Sonamarg. Sonamarg is a tiny hamlet on the Srinagar-Leh highway. Barring the
various hotels, Sonamarg has little to offer for itself. As per the 2011
census, less than 400 people stay in Sonamarg during winters, when the hotels
are all closed and tourism is suspended. We decided to look out for another
hotel in Sonamarg itself, and Firdaus guided us to Hotel Snowland. We were made
to wait for a while before getting to our rooms, as the entire staff was away
for the prayers. Overlooking the green meadows and mountains on the front, and
the Sindh river at the back, the location was great. The river Sindh that flows
through Sonamarg is a tributary of Jhelum, and not to be confused with the
Indus river that flows through Ladakh before reaching Pakistan. The names
brought back the memories of school, when we were made to remember the names of
the five rivers of Punjab. Ma also correlated the colloquial names with the
Sanskrit names. So, Jhelum (Vitasta) and Ravi (Iravati) join Chenab
(Chandrabhaga). Beas (Vipasha) join Sutlej (Satadru), and then Sutlej and
Chenab join to form Panchnad, which then merges into Indus.
Firdaus had very kindly waited
for us till we got into our rooms, and then he introduced us to his local
acquaintance Ijaz before leaving for Srinagar to celebrate Eid with his family.
Ijaz promised to take us for sightseeing on the pony. The prime attraction of
Sonamarg is the Thajiwas glacier. Bajrangi Bhaijaan has done wonders to tourism
in Kashmir, where the shooting locations are now marked as tourist attractions.
Thajiwas glacier was the spot where the climax scene of the movie was shot.
Though in the movie, the location was named as Narowal, whereas in reality,
Narowal is another border town in Punjab, which is not at all mountainous, and
definitely not snow-covered as shown in the movie. Traveling and sightseeing in
Kashmir is quite expensive as compared to rest of the country, and the reasons
are many. First is the lack of other earning avenues in places like Sonamarg,
and the entire village relies on tourism to survive. To add to it, the quantum
of tourist inflow does not seem sufficient to sustain the economic requirement.
And to top it all, the tourist influx, irrespective of the numbers, only
continue for six months, which targets for sustenance round the year. As a
result of all these, the government rate for a three hour pony ride is fixed at
3000 rupees; the individual owners do agree to give you a ten percent discount.
Our last trip to Kashmir had
introduced us to the wonders of Kahwa, the green tea of Kashmir made with
spices like saffron, cinnamon and cardamom, and served with almonds and
walnuts. We had made it a habit to ask for Kahwa whenever it was available. To
our immense happiness, the staff at the Hotel Snowland served us Kahwa as a
welcome drink. Meanwhile, Ijaz had politely requested us to proceed for the
pony ride as early as we can, as there would be a shortage of tour guides after
lunch due to Eid. After a bit of unsuccessful haggling on the price (both of us
are extremely poor at it, be it at Sonamarg or Sarojini Nagar), we mounted the
ponies. For the city-bred like us, a simple thing like riding a pony seems to
be a tall task, and you have to call for support to climb the animal. The
locals are all aware of the ways of the tourists, and gladly offer a supporting
shoulder to help you be comfortable. The only saving grace is that when you
look around, the other tourists behave just as oddly as you, so you do not feel
lonely while acting stupid on the horseback. The natural beauty on the way to
Sonamarg from Srinagar was truly enriching, and we expected nothing less when
we started on the pony towards Thajiwas glacier.
Soniya, a former colleague of
mine, had taught me a few good things in the form of English vocabulary. It was
she who told me that catwalk is actually the ramp on which the models walk, and
should not be confused with the titillating sway that the ladies adopt while
walking. She also told me that vertigo is not the fear of heights, and that the
correct name for this fear is acrophobia. Vertigo, on the other hand, is a
disorder in which people tend to think they are moving when they’re actually not.
So now I know that I actually suffer from acrophobia, and I do not appreciate
riding a horse on the edge of a cliff. Though Salim, the young happy boy who
was our guide through the ride, repeatedly assured us that no horses have ever
slipped off the cliff, nor they have managed to shake any rider off, the fear
remained. Luckily for me, the terrain was such that through most of the
distance, the horse and I were away from the edge. It was only a short while
before we reached our destination; a particularly treacherous section of the
ride actually forced me to close my eyes. The horses, since quite some time,
were showing their reluctance to move ahead. And a few hundred metres before
reaching Thajiwas glacier, they actually put their feet down, all eight of
them, and refused to move an inch further. Salim was duly embarrassed, but
meekly asked us to follow him on foot, while he tied the horses together,
hoping that their mood will improve by the time we come back.
Well, the city-bred couple
once again proved their physical prowess; huffing and puffing to finish off the
five hundred metre trek. To further complicate things, we had to cross the same
stream thrice by walking on makeshift bridges made up of tree trunks. And so we
reached the glacier. I was a bit disappointed at the look of the glacier; it
failed to match the image of glaciers that I had pictured in my mind since
childhood. But yes, it was a chunk of slowly melting ice, at the bottom of
which started a stream, which, I’m not sure, may turn into a river at a
distance. By this time, an old man walked up to us, and tried to convince us to
take a sleigh ride with him along with promises of a great adventure. I duly
refused; both out of tiredness and skepticism, but my darling wife was in the
mood for some thrill. The gentleman helped Somodatta sit on a sleigh, dragged
her around for a hundred metres, and then expressed his desire that Madame
Santa Claus pay him one hundred and fifty rupees. Not left with a lot of energy
to haggle, we promptly gave in, and also asked him to prepare two bowls of
Maggi for us in his nearby shack. The Maggi brought back some of the lost
energy, and we started on our way back, hoping that the horses would now be
willing to carry us to the hotel.
They were ready indeed. The
return journey was largely uneventful, with the sole exception that I was white
as a sheet when the horses crossed the particularly thin part of track that
scared me on the forward journey as well. Salim told us that there is a shorter
way to Amarnath from Sonamarg. I had known till then that the only road to
Amarnath was through Chandanwadi near Pahalgam, but apparently there is a
shorter route from Baltal. Baltal is a small village, at a distance of fifteen
kilometres from Sonamarg. While the route from Chandanwadi takes two days for
the round trip, the journey from Baltal and back only takes around fourteen
hours on horseback. But what was scary and he pointedly looked at me while
saying this, was the kind of tracks that the horses walk upon. I, according to
him am getting scared at these little heights for no reason. I had once wanted
to go on the Amarnath Yatra, but later on decided against it in the views of
repeated threats of terror attacks. Now, after Salim’s revelation on the nature
of the journey, I completely dissociated myself on any further plans of the
holy pilgrimage. Sometime later, the horses safely ported us to the hotel
front. We were indeed grateful to Salim that he took us on the sightseeing on
the Eid day.
Before leaving for the horse
ride, we had ordered our lunch at the hotel, asking it to be delivered at 3 PM
or whenever we are back. Quite hungry and tired as we were, we asked for the
food, and it was promptly delivered to our room. Our experiences with hotels in
Kashmir tell us that the people are extremely warm and hospitable, and that the
food portions are abnormally large. Shamefully, we could not finish the entire
spread. After the heavy lunch, we were too full to move around and retired to
our beds for an untimely siesta. Somodatta had foreseen the lack of activity in
the evenings, and had intelligently packed her laptop and a few movies. That
evening, we watched Ganashatru, a movie by Satyajit Ray. The third thing that
we knew about hotels in Kashmir was that dinner was served before 9 PM. Before
leaving for Srinagar, Firdaus had asked us to be ready to leave by half past
nine next morning, so that we could reach Kargil by late afternoon. The first
day of the trip had been a happy one, and we went to bed looking forward to Day
Two to Kargil. Parents were quite unimpressed at our selection of a war site as
a holiday destination. We will share our Kargil story as well, very soon.
Till then, take good care of
yourself and your loved ones.
দারুণ, চমৎকার, ফাটাফাটি, দেবাশিস। এত ভালো লাগল পড়ে যে আমার এক্ষুনি অর্চিষ্মানকে ঘুম থেকে ঠেলে তুলে বেড়াতে চলে যেতে ইচ্ছে করছে। তাছাড়া শিক্ষামূলকও। ক্যাটওয়াক জানলাম, ভার্টিগোর ভুল জানলাম। কিন্তু যেটা জেনে সবথেকে ভালো লাগল সেটা হচ্ছে যে আপনারা দুজনও আমাদের দুজনের মতই দরাদরিতে অষ্টরম্ভা। একসময় এটা নিয়ে কমপ্লেক্সে ভুগতাম খুব, তারপর একজায়গায় পড়লাম যে চন্দ্রিল বলেছেন দরাদরি করার অক্ষমতা নাকি আসলে প্রমাণ করে যে একজনের মনের সুকুমার প্রবৃত্তিগুলো এখনও একেবারে ধ্বংস হয়ে যায়নি।
ReplyDeleteম্যাগির ছবিটা চমৎকার তুলেছেন। দেখেই খিদে পেয়ে যাচ্ছে।
ইয়ো ম্যান
ReplyDeleteআমার প্রিয় লেখিকা আমার প্রথম পাঠিকা... অন্ততঃ কমেন্টের দিক দিয়ে তো বটেই।
আমরা অনেক কিছুতেই অষ্টরম্ভা, দরাদরিও তার মধ্যে অন্যতম।
Awesome!!! You should write more :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much.
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