Kashmir: Not A Fairytale

My girlfriend and I matched our kundali and only 19 and a half gunas matched. We thought it was an acceptable number when proposing an inter caste marriage to your parents despite their disapproval.

We finally marked a day for our marriage on 7th July 2016. Moreover, we decided to acknowledge our marriage with a perfect honeymoon at the sacred Gurudwara in Amritsar followed by the natural valleys of Kashmir.

The d-day arrived and our marriage was completed with the requisite rituals. On 9th July, we had started the post-marriage vacation. Firstly, we traveled to Amritsar to behold the holiness and spent two pleasing days there.

The evening before we would start our journey towards Kashmir, I heard the news about a curfew that had started in Kashmir after Indian security forces killed Kashmiri millitant Burhan Wani three days ago. I called my honeymoon planner Rafeeq in Srinagar.

He said,"The situation is critical but only in Srinagar city. You don't have to be worry at all as you have planned to visit nearby places outside Srinagar city."

Reassured by Rafeeq's words, we reached Srinagar from Amritsar through a connecting flight via Leh. The driver, Maqbool picked us up from airport to drive us directly to the hotel 'The Comrades'. While in transit, we saw that the entire city was closed. Not a single person was on the road except the security forces personnel deployed to every road and square of city.

We were welcomed in the hotel with the traditional drink of valley i.e. Kava. We rested for a few hours. Later on, we visited places close to city. We went to 'Shankaracharya temple' placed over Zabarwan mountain. After that, we were on the mesmerizing 'Dal lake' to enjoy the natural landscape. We savored the Tulip garden and the Pakiza market. At night, we enjoyed our dinner at the hotel.

At around 10 p.m. in the night, Rafeeq called,"The situation is quite critical to travel in the morning, so you have to plan your trip at night to avoid any problems. Be ready at 3 a.m. in the morning to begin journey to Pahalgam."

It took us sometime to wrap our heads around the fact that our first night in Kashmir would be spent travelling in a car. Finally, we left at 3:30 a.m. in the morning for Pahalgam which was about 80 Km from Srinagar. In the middle of journey,our driver told us about the spot where the militant was shot dead. We were in a sketchy expression thinking about the direction in which our trip was headed. Then after a few kilometers, the security forces stopped the car. Our driver talked with the officers in Kashmiri.

He said, "I have a couple with me heading for Pahalgam and they have come for their honeymoon."

The officer asked us to take a U-turn as no vehicle was allowed beyond the check point.

It was 4:15 a.m. in the morning. Our driver called Rafeeq and told him about the whole situation. Rafeeq asked us to begin journey to Sonamarg instead of Pahalgam as a solution and assured us that he would take care of all the accommodation arrangements.

We began our journey towards a new destination 'Sonamarg' opposite to the direction of way to Pahalgam. Again, we were supposed to pass the same nerve-wrecking route back to Srinagar before dawn and further 90km journey to Sonamarg.

The driver told us that he wouldn't stop the car and ride speedily till Sonamarg to escape the oncoming situations. At around 7:15 in the morning, we reached 'Sonamarg'.

My wife and I both were tired and required rest. But we had no choice as we had come to catch the sight of the beautiful mountains in Kashmir. We took a horse ride to visit a place around Sonamarg which was surrounded with beautiful golden mountains covered with ice.

The journey was very charming and delightful. We enjoyed the horse riding and reached the point of Glacier. The sight made us forget all our fatigue and we beheld the appealing panorama of the valley. We spent sometime at the Glacier point and came back to the source.

We thought of leaving Sonamarg and go back to the hotel to get some rest. But, news broke out that the security forces have ordered all the vehicles to stay wherever they were as there would be chances of bomb shelling through the mountains to the vehicle passed on those roads that day. So, no one was allowed to travel in the light until dusk.

It was a very hot day in Sonamarg and we had no place to stay. We sat in our car itself that was roasting us since dawn.

Maqbool, the driver said, "These sort of situations happen every day in Kashmir. I have endured every second of it since my birth."

He started sharing an incident with us about his fiancee.

"Few years ago, the curfew marked the whole of Kashmir due to terrorist activities that occurred in the valley. Every civilian was asked to be in one's house and restricted to come outside of it. One day, my fiancée just opened the window to see the outside situation. In a second, a security officer showed up and shot her dead with a cannon." He continued in a very low tone. "Sir, we have seen the kind of Kashmir you have never thought of seeing in dreams. Even today morning, while I was leaving home for the journey, my two little daughters held my hand to stop me from going outside."

After a long wait, we were allowed to leave the Sonamarg at around 11 p.m. in the night. On the way back from Sonamarg, my wife suffered this problem of vomiting while travelling in cab because of fluctuating and bumpy roads. We told Maqbool to stop the car.

Maqbool replied, "It is very risky to stop the car in between roads, Sir."

I requested him again.

Maqbool relented but asked us to only open the windows and not the doors.

My wife did the same and we left in half a minute. At around 2:30 a.m. in the morning, we reached Srinagar. We noticed that the roads were filled with broken dividers and burnt tires all around. People were on the roads looking for transportation to leave the city and avoid the agitation. Security personnel were all around taking care of the situation. We went straight to the hotel and waited till 6 a.m. in the morning to catch our flight back home.

Unwillingly, we had decided to conclude the remaining journey of Kashmir to refrain from travelling in the night in fears and witnessing terror. We realized that Kashmir had two facets- 'The Known Kashmir' and 'The Actual Kashmir'.