Kashmir – Paradise or Pandemonium ?

(Map courtesy www.wikipedia.com)

I step out of the airplane. I’ve finally reached my destination – Kashmir, a land which many reminiscence with much nostalgia and fondness but many more shudder when they think of the dreary fate such beauty could have undergone.

I am in the paradise at last. I breathe in the pure, unsullied air. The sky is the canvas, the snowcapped mountains the subject my eyes paint on it.

My heart swells with joy. It is paradoxically, an uneasy one……

I cannot expunge my knowledge of the grotesque fate this paradise has suffered. I however feel happy to finally step onto the land which has for years been distant and deferred on account of the harrowing militarism.

Every moment here i s worth the r i sk of be ing in such a volati le p lace . The icy blue water of the Lider r iver e l ic i ts overwhelming r ipples of joy within my being.

The awe-inspiring mountains which seem “alive with a sound of music” epitomize nothing short of the sublime.

I spend my last day at the Dal lake which stands as a testimony to the paradise that Kashmir was and probably is even today.

© Putul Gupta

The lake is a lucid illustration of the beauty and serenity that many think of when reminiscing the Kashmir of yesteryears.

The soothing water reflects the sky……

…….and all that lies between them with a mirror-like fidelity.

© Putul Gupta

Shikaras, aimlessly floating past more of their k ind

…..and a myriad houseboats and tiny shops on the lake, give me a sense of it being a world in itself.

Even in the midst of the overwhelming splendour….

(Photo courtesy www.nancarrow-webdesk.com)

…..it is impossible to miss the Central Reserve Police Force men standing on guard the boulevard outlining the lake - a constant reminder of the fact that things are still not fine.

Yes, things are NOT fine. A thorny web obstructs the beauty and grandeur that the landscape has to offer. I leave the land with a lot more desired.

I am finally back home.

Maybe I romantic ized too much about the place. The beauty of this heaven on earth as it is so

often cal led, has been marred on account of its being r idden with

conflicts and confrontations, making it a l iving hel l for many.

As I look back, I think…..

(Photo courtesy- http://eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html)

(Photo courtesy- focuspakistan.blogsome.com/2009/01/ )

What is it then?Paradise or Pandemonium?

I know the answer………

I however, refuse to accept it .

(Photo courtesy- http://eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html)

(Photo courtesy- focuspakistan.blogsome.com/2009/01/ )

As I go through the photographs taken in the course of the trip, I conveniently overlook the unnerving reality. These photographs, for me, become the means for a sweet escape - the means to shut out the ugly sight of the uniformed men waiting to counter terror; they become symbolic of the last few slivers of tranquility that Kashmir once had in abundance; they become constant reminders of the paradise that it was…….

As much as I may evade it, the question continues to haunt me.

Kashmir-Paradise or Pandemonium ?