A tour to the heartland of terror - Day 7 &8- The journey to Katra and Vaishno Devi.

One thing that I was happy about is that, it won't be long before we would reach Delhi. It was just a couple more days away. A couple more days, until I can use my phone again. :(

So. We started at around 8 30 am from the hotel in Srinagar. There weren't many stops in between. Just one stop at around 2 pm for lunch. Mum and my eldest aunt fell sick. Mum due to lack of sleep and my aunt due to some nausea. And that lunch stop was heavily debated by my uncles, as to when we should stop. I was very thankful for that lunch stop, as I was hungry myself.

We had lunch at a dhaba, where we were served with rajma-chawal and rotis. After about 20 minutes, we were on our way again. I do remember trailing a lot of army vehicles, after which I guess I dozed off.

It was around 5 30 pm when I woke up to find our qualis crossing through a major army district, Chandanwadi. An hour later, we end up in front of a hotel in Katra. It was still bright even at that part of the day and was very warm, unlike what we had experienced till then in Kashmir.

Through some contacts, a darshan for Vaishno Devi had been arranged for the next morning and we had even obtained helicopter tickets.

Now- certain things about Vaishno Devi temple.

1. Popularised by the owner of the T-Series cassettes company, Late. Mr. Gulshan Kumar, this temple has grown to become a very popular Hindu pilgrimage destination.

2. This temple has access only by 3 means of transport-
(a) By helicopter, which takes you to a helipad located at about 4 km from the temple. After which you either have to walk or take a pony, which costs a reasonable amount.

(b) By pony

(c) By walk.

Taking either of b or c, you will have a pathway which is about 14km long and it is very steep. It takes about 8 hours for you to climb, provided you dont stop for too long. My cousins and their parents decided to walk and just only managed it.

3. And it is believed that when you pray at this temple, your prayers are always answered and no one returns disappointed.

Alright, we had dinner at a hotel near to where we stayed and went off to doze for the night. Nice room really and for the first time in all of the last 4 days, I got a mattress of my own. Nice sleep for the first time in the last 4 days too. And yes, I really did miss someone. The someone was always on my thoughts though.

Yawn. Wake up at around 8 am. We were supposed to start by 9, which later became 9 30 and then finally 10 30. I was pissed by that time. Finally, we proceeded to the heli-pad. One more hour's wait. It was 11 35 am when we got into the helicopter and 11 39 when we got off at the other end. Just 4 minutes.

It took us a good part of over 3 hours to have the darshan and return to the heli-pad again. We were at the helipad by around 2 30 and by 3, back at the hotel, while my cousins and uncle and aunt were climbing up, to stay for the night.

Then, shopping after 6 pm. As usual, the ladies... And I was so very tempted by the sight of a nice kashmir willow. That was for my cousin, not me. I had this nice opportunity to interact with a Katra based bat maker. My god. All those pieces of willow, come from Kashmir. They cost about 3k here in Chennai, while it's less than half of it there.

Hit the sack, a little while after 10 pm. The last few hours in Kashmir. :)

A tour to the heartland of terror- Day3- Pahalgam

Yes, yes, day3. Off we go to another beautiful and cold place called Pahalgam. The long, arduous bus ride starts at 9 30 in the morning and doesn't end till about 2 pm. But, before we started, we bid adieu to our dear caretaker, Hussain bhai.

Long, long, bumpy ride. Trust me, you wouldn't want to follow an army convoy. You may think that I'm unpatriotic, but really, by the time you go past an army vehicle, you'll feel very relieved. Kashmir has no dearth for green painted Army vehicles carrying personnel, rations, arms and ammunition.

Poof, finally we land up at the resort in Pahalgam. Everyone's extremely hungry, me included too. So all of us dig in and dig in deep. So, wat's for lunch? Soup (some crap soup), fried rice, gobi manchurian, paneer butter masala, naan, roti, some sweet dish (my eldest cousin really loved that dish). burp.

Post lunch, some local sight seeing at Pahalgam. Usual stuff, roaming around here and there, some small gardens from where we could see the ice clad hills. And yes, the mighty jhelum flowing past these gardens.

Then, at around past 8, we returned to our resort. Dinner. Yet again, almost the same menu. My grandmother and her cousin who had come with us, got fed up of rotis and naans and sabzis, now they started demanding for curd rice. Understandable. I was feeling a little homesick myself. How much I yearned that night to watch the ipl match back at home, in my living room, screaming as loud and swearing for every missed chance and dropped catch, and yes of course, for my mobile to ring aloud with messages and calls from my loved ones.

Finally, there's nothing great to do here in this place, hit the sack at around 10 pm. Hit the sack only, but no sleep that night, due to my cousins, with whom I was put up for the night. Hell of a night really.

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)