A tour to the heartland of terror

It all started on that fine day, May 21st. We boarded the flight from Chennai to New Delhi. A few hours later, bang- no, no.. no gunshots, don't worry. We landed in Delhi and then in the next 1 hour, we had to rush to catch the connecting flight to Srinagar. Pitiful, the flight duration from Delhi to Srinagar wasn't even as long as the transit time.

Finally, we landed in Srinagar. Before landing, I must say, it truly was a breathtaking view of the valley. No wonder, both countries are vying for that piece of land. Once I landed, all that I could see was army fatigues all over the place. Till that point of time, I didn't know that there were so many army personnel in Kashmir.

A short while later, I found out something that shocked me. The army had blocked out all prepaid signals. Ugh.. Oh no, I cant communicate things to people back home. However, there was some respite, since dad's phone would work as it is post-paid. Then finally we reached our boat house, Chinar. A very beautiful boat house. There was Hussain bhai, the caretaker, who took good care of us for the next 2 days of our stay in the boathouse.

I asked the caretaker "Are there any terrorist attacks happening here?". "No. nothing of that sort really. Srinagar's a very peaceful place." "Is the army presence always this much?"
"Yes. " "Despite of such heavy army presence, how do terrorists manage to attack?" I asked. He couldn't answer that. I'm sure no Kashmiri can answer that question.

Then came the romantic shikara ride. Pitiful, 3 couples (read- my mum and dad, 2 aunts and their husbands) over 50+ enjoying themselves amidst 3 guys who are 20+ years old. Oh, how we wished we had the company of our someone special.

The dal lake is a shopping complex in itself. Boats carrying merchandise everywhere. And there was this boat house where all the ladies settled down to buy sarees. We went in at around 6 pm and it was still light at 8 pm. 2 hours by all means is very very quick work by the ladies. Hats off.

Finally, we came back to the Chinar, to have dinner and doze. That was day 1 in Kashmir.

(pic- a shot of the dal lake from the Chinar)