The first difficulty that lay forth was to get to dry land......and when I did eventually manage to hitch, the ride wasn’t very ideal!
but I must admit....the best of things come in unique ways....
The Boulevard road is by all means the nerve of Srinagar....
it is the most commutable road in the area and connects the city from end to end
running all along the Dal lake, it is a centre of mass tourist attraction, a convenient en route to commercial setups and an obvious choice/recommendation for anyone who wants to get the essence of the city first hand
but little did I realise my fancied ‘walk’ would be all of 10 kms!....
Bringing me to my next destination- The Nishat Bagh.....
built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jehan , it definitely encompasses all the aesthetics and symmetry of fine architecture during its time or even now....
But my appreciation did have its limit....primarily because of the ruckus of tourists taking a stroll themselves....
so soon I found myself taking an auto to the base of the one of the most revered religious sites in the valley: the Shankaracharya temple.....out of security concerns taking photographs inside the shrine wasn’t permitted
but that didn’t negate the pleasure I got from the spot I discovered to get a bird eyes view of the valley.......
As I took the concrete back to the base, the thought of still not doing justice to the place stuck me- I hadn’t gone off-beat as yet!
yes it is always this virtue that overpowers me and pushes me onto rough terrain...and in this case I was literally hopping my way down merrily....
till I was brought to an abrupt, and very realistic halt by this!!!....the message was clear- I was trespassing.
.....but alas that bravado!....I went on and on.....discretion suddenly got the better of valour only when I found myself here....and the human anticipation of finally getting on to a recognizable path ended.....I was doubtful....and just as this seeped into my cranium, I felt something cripple under my feet....something metallic...bullet shells!
I was in Kashmir!....as beautiful and irresistible as the place was, my liberties as a tourist were legible only till I restricted my whereabouts to the ‘pakka’ roads!....but by being a little more adventurous, I had broken norms and very voluntarily got myself into a dangerous predicament.....My friends’ words reverberated in my head- I was merrily walking in a high security area with a camera and was blissfully unaware of where the trail would lead me to....
....But the effort did pay off...as I emerged from the wilderness, I set my eyes on one of the most beautiful pieces of land I have come across!
with the problem now at the remotest corner of my mind, I wasn’t too happy when I finally spotted a faint vehicle trail.....that led me straight to the Boulevard!...
as I thanked all my stars that I had made it out without as much as a scratch, I was apprised as to where I had merrily strolled!- it was The Almond Villa, Dr. Karan Singh’s property- a very well reputed political figure in Kashmir!....and was in the CM’s compound!
A well deserved reprimanding from my friend awaited me....but I was also in time for a beautiful shot of the twilight on the Dal!
I would again like to thank my prime host and friend, Ata Mohammed for putting up with all my eccentricities and driving down whenever he got news that I was back to scaling landscapes on foot! ....the experience couldn’t have been better without your doses...and also Sabiya, for promptly calling up every day and sharing my diary entries...
P.S: All the material published in this blog has copyrights reserved exclusively with Shaz Syed (blogger)
Any plagiarism or distribution would be legally offensive and dealt with appropriately.
No comments:
Post a Comment