A tour to the heartland of terror- Day 6- Srinagar return

I wake up drenched in sweat. Not a nightmare- it's cos of the bed heater. It takes me about 15- 20 minutes to get ready and head for breakfast at around 8 am. The rest of the group's ready and munching away on aloo parathas and toast. As usual, I force the food down my throat and escape before the group finishes.

The bumpy ride to Srinagar begins in the next few minutes and doesn't end until about 3 hours later. We are then brought to a hotel, whose entrance gives the feeling of an Army base(of course, there was an army base next door) There were sandbags and guns arranged near the main gate of the hotel. ;) I certainly missed the boat house :( .

Lunch, then off we went sight seeing. First point was a Shankaracharya temple, which overlooked the Dal lake. Nice temple and very well maintained. Was I happy to spot a BSF (Border Security Force) personnel with a Tamil name. Had a little chat with him and moved on.

Then, we went on to visit 3 gardens. One of them being the cheshmashai, which is located right near the Governor's residence. Then, after about half an hour there, we went on to the shalimar gardens and another garden, whose name I don't remember.

At around 7 30 pm, we were dropped off at the main street to go shopping. As usual, you know the ladies... need I say more? Finally, we returned to the hotel at around 9 30. Way past my dinner time. I was extremely hungry, but my mood was just a shade better than what it was at Pahalgam. I managed to stuff a couple of naans and finally went off to doze a little after 10 pm.

PS: There was some problem in Jalandhar, through which the train from Jammu to Delhi had to pass. We were concerned about it as a train had already been burnt. We were hoping that the problem would be settled soon.

We start to Katra early tomorrow morning. Why Katra? That s where the Vaishno Devi temple is.

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)