Meadows of Gulmarg

How green was my valley! That summer.
Gulmarg. June, 2008.

Giving it out in big Wallpaper size.

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Some people may recall its former glory.

Funny thing is that in year 1906, Francis Younghusband, then resident of Kashmir, was already documenting how ‘modern’ tourist spot of Gulmarg came into being and how some people (though he was not one of them) Gulmarg was getting ‘spoilt’. He preferred the festive electric environment. In his book Kashmir (1911)  he wrote:

WHAT will be one day known as the playground of India, and what is known to the Kashmiris as the “Meadow of Flowers,” is situated twenty-six miles from Srinagar, half-way up the northward- facing slopes of the Pir Panjal. There is no other place like Gulmarg. Originally a mere meadow to which the Kashmiri shepherds used to bring their sheep, cattle, and ponies for summer grazing, it is now the resort of six or seven hundred European visitors every summer. The Maharaja has a palace there. There is a Residency, an hotel, with a theatre and ball-room, post office, telegraph office, club, and more than a hundred ” huts ” built and owned by Europeans. There are also golf links, two polo grounds, a cricket ground, four tennis courts, and two croquet grounds. There are level circular roads running all round it.There is a pipe water-supply, and maybe soon there will be electric light everywhere. And yet for eight months in the year the place is entirely deserted and under snow.

Like Kashmir generally, Gulmarg also is said by those who knew it in the old days to be now ” spoilt.” With the increasing numbers of visitors,with the numerous huts springing up year by year in every direction, with the dinners and dances, it is said to have lost its former charms, and it is believed that in a few years it will not be worth living in. My own view is precisely the opposite. I knew Gulmarg nineteen years ago, and it certainly then had many charms. The walks and scenery and the fresh bracing air were delightful. Where now are roads there were then only meandering paths. What is now the polo ground was then a swamp. The ” fore ” of the golfer was unknown. All was then Arcadian simplicity. Nothing more thrilling than a walk in the woods, or at most a luncheon party, was ever heard of.

And, doubtless, this simplicity of life has its advantages. But it had also its drawbacks. Man cannot live for ever on walks however charming and however fascinating his companion may be. His soul yearns for a ball of some kind whether it be a polo ball, a cricket ball, a tennis ball, a golf ball, or even a croquet ball. Until he has a ball of some description to play with he is never really happy.

So now that a sufficient number of visitors come to Gulmarg to supply subscriptions enough to make and keep up really good golf links, polo grounds, etc., I for my part think Gulmarg is greatly improved. I think, further, that it has not yet reached the zenith of its attractions. It is the Gulmarg of the future that will be the really attractive Gulmarg, when there is money enough to make the second links as good as the first, to lay out good rides down and around the marg, to make a lake at the end, to stock it with trout, and to have electric light and water in all the ” huts,” and when a good hotel and a good club, with quarters for casual bachelor visitors, have been built.

All this is straying far from the original Arcadian simplicity, but those who wish for simplicity can still have it in many another valley in Kashmir at Sonamarg, Pahlgam, or Tragbal, and numerous other places, and the advantage of Gulmarg is that the visitor can still if he choose be very fairly simple.

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I was told my maternal great grandfather used to work as a keeper in a tourist club at Gulmarg. My nani recalls her samawar tea parties held on these green meadows. She also recalls how angreez used to excitedly taking their photograph – kashmiris and their samovar. She also recalls how the fertile land here offered great crop of potatoes. She recalls the luxuries that the job offered – water, electricity, fine cloths and great perks. My great-nana, one Tarachand Raina, worked in Gulmarg right till 1947, right till the kabayli attack after which the club ceased to exist.

Kashmiri Bakery, Noida

Sector 53. In middle of rows of car repair shops.
Roshan Lal Kashmiri Bakery
Tuesday Closed

Took these photographs one early Sunday morning.
 

As I walked towards the delivery counter of the bakery, nearby, their previous customer – a balding, portly well-past middle age gent wearing checkered Bermudas (or what resembled Bermudas), a T-shirt horizontal striped in two hues of blue and sporting a pair of rubber chappal, who (I noticed) had bought a bagful of girdas and lavasas, kick started to life his turquoise painted, JK three-digit number plated, late 1980s model Bajaj Chetak scooter and left; bag of girdas and lavasas packed safe in the front dicky.

Next in line was a domestic help of some family, a ‘jeer bai‘, placing an order for rotis.While her order was getting ready, the shop help discussed weather and this and that with her. After she left, I had the entire shop to myself, so I took some photographs while my order for girdas and lavasas was getting ready.

Taking orders on mobile.
They are planning to open a branch at Greater Noida.

took noon/ Pakistani rock salt

Placed, on the metal, in the space between two burnt-black burners of the Gas daan, right in the place meant for a matchbox and just next to the weeks old crisp taher myet, was a lump of took noon – the rock salt that came from Pakistan.

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An upset stomach! Why that’s no worry at all, Kid. Have some rice with zaamdod la’yiss and a piece of took noon thrown in on the side. Add la’yiss to rice, place took noon in the middle and rub it on the plate surface. Eat. Rub some more. Eat. Strike the crystal on the plate surface. Took. Took. Took. Eat

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A pandit signboard in Kashmir?

On way to Ganpatyaar temple, traveling in a mini-van, spotted a signboard with a pandit name – Dr. S. Raina. M.B.B.S. M.D

I pointed it out. They missed it. I was told it’s just a signboard – there is a greater chance that no pandit actually lives there, the locals have just left that signboard be. Show. 
But it didn’t seem like an empty house.

Some how it all seemed strange and the signboard seemed out of place.

Kashmirispotting

Kashmirispotting: In which we scan the credits and screen  for Kashmiri names and faces.

Exhibit : Kashmiri spotted in the wonderful credit track of Merchant Ivory’s year 1970 film Bombay Talkie (1970).

The man spotted here is this painted frame is Awtar Krishna Kaul. In 1973  Awatar Kaul went on to write and direct a film for NFDC called ‘27 Down‘. The film was shot in B&W and had Rakhee and M.K. Raina (his first major role) in lead. In 1974 the film won: National Award for Best Hindi Film and Best Cinematography; Ecumenical Award, Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland. Awtar Krishna Kaul died the same year in a drowning incident.

tahaer – Yellow Rice

 Tahaer tastes great with tcharvan -aulov, or Dum aloo, and it even tastes great with plain zaam’d’odh.
But this yellow doesn’t look right. What’s wrong with this turmeric. The yellow doesn’t come out right anymore. It’s all pale.
Koshur tamul was sweet. It came from villages, certain villages. You had to pay a sort of excise duty if you bought food items – rice, vegetables, or a duck and much else- from village to the city. But often, one could, with some planning, sneak them along.

Is today a bod doh? Did you survive something? Are you taking this to a shrine? Is it yellow enough? Do you know how to add the oil properly? Is this the oil? Is it oil of teel gogul? Is it mustard? Does tahaer give you heartburn?

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You may check out some Kashmiri cooking at A Mad Tea Party

National School, Karan Nagar

 And a cry went up in the mini-van, ‘National School, National School. Kus school ous.What a school, it was!’ A lot of them had studied in this school.

And I turned to see broken window panes painted on red brick walls and a traditional wooden electric pole.
English medium for Boys & Girls’

Kashmiri Folk Music, recorded in 1986 by Warren Senders

 Previously:

Continuing…

Warren Senders, the leader of the indo-jazz ensemble Anti-Gravity, is a talented composer/musician who has studied and rendered Hindustani music for over 20 years. [check out the Website of Warren Senders]

On March 21 1986, Warren Senders enjoyed some traditional Kashmiri music aboard the houseboat of musician Ghulam Mohammed Ahangar. By the end of the performance, Warren Senders had recorded around 90 minutes of pure traditional Kashmiri music.

Now recently, Warren Senders started uploading these recording at his wonderful Youtube channel.
In fact, has already uploaded around 60 minutes of the recording, setting them to beautiful photographs of Kashmir shot by himself.

Here’s a link to the beautiful recordings (have also embedded some recording that I really found amazing):

“Three Kashmiri musicians: Ghulam Mohammed Ahangar, Abdul Aziz Parvez and Moiuddin Bhat, recorded in Srinagar, March 21, 1986. This video is the first of a series of Kashmiri traditional music. The presentation begins with a 20-minute suite of four instrumental melodies for rabab, sarangi and harmonium.”

In which the musician set, tune and play their instruments.

Is that actaully a Heart beat in the background?

Kashmiri Traditional Melody for Rabab, Sarangi and Nuht

Amazing stuff to say the least!

And

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