If there is a paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here – Emperor Jahangir, on Kashmir.

Is it my ignorance of photography or is camera an inadequate device to capture the beauty of Kashmir? Wild horse in a Saffron field.

We had to take a 17.18 km diversion on Mattan Sakras Road. A road clearly less taken, and unimaginably beautiful. How much ever beautiful one thinks Kashmir is, it is twice as beautiful.

On the Srinagar-Jammu road. This road has great promise, as the the main 4 lane highway is coming up in a different alignment and by 2017 there will be train service from Jammu to Sri Nagar. This will be the way to Pahalgaum and Sonmarg, and these Chinar Shade will continue to amaze us for the next hundred years!

Speechless..

While the best of the bats are air dried before the treatment, Kashmir manufacturers store it in open spaces, adding moisture and weight. The best batsmen use the English willow bats, while Kashmir willow is used for the state level cricket in India and in Pakistan.

The english willow is softer, whiter and more grainy than the kashmir willow… with the ban of willow export by the Kashmir government, the manufacturing of the bat is done in Kashmir itself.

Who destructed the Avantiswara Siva Temple, Avantipura? Is a subject of major historical debate. Hindus ruled Kashmir until 1339, and then Muslims for the next 500 years, until the British took over… history has not been clearly recorded before Akbar’s period and is subject to conjectures…

“From Bangalore saab?” his smile widened, as he sent his boy to get me a kashmiri salted chai. “My son studies engineering there, will he get a job?”

Precious, intricatly worked silver ware? Or Ponds beauty cream? Seems to be the merchantizing dialemma of this young man.

“Shy lady, will you smile” said I. “Dont buy fish from the plains”, said she, “Kashmiri fish is good for your health”. “Shy lady, will you smile” said I. “Morning, five o clock, I went to the market to buy this, this was caught yesterday”, said she. “Shy lady, will you smile” said I. She smiled and how.

Dont understand the nuts and bolts of eating almonds, cashewnuts and walnuts. They say it strengthens the heart. They say you live a hundrend years. They talk omega3. I say, they taste good. Kasmir, the nut capital.

Saffron, flowers, walnuts, shawls, caps, pepsi – as you sail in your shikara, sales men of all variety accost. Just as we sales men do, all around the world! “You are simply wonderful, you happy me!” says a message on his boat. I bought his flowers.

As he looks back, Assadulla sees his 38 years of work at Hotel Highland Park very rewarding… he has risen to be the adminstrator. Most who started with him still work for the same hotel – a life long bond in a beautiful land of minimum opportunities.

“Like most houses, there are three floors in my house” said Driver Basheer, “The third floor is used only for family marriages”. Come live in Mumbai, I said. While the interiors are elaborately done, why do the exteriors feel unfished, and worn. @ a preimum colony in Srinagar.

As the fisherman goes back to the main lake from his house, using his “green” transport, there will be a thin water line he will leave on the green carpet. The moss will quickly regroup to hide the fact that the boat was ever present here. Where his oar stikes the moss, he will think, as the world has taught him to think, “when will i buy a bike?”

A sixth as thick as a hair, and twice as warm as your sweater! Pasmina submits itself to no machines, it is hand woven, with great care and love. Outrageosuly expensive, if you spot the real one, it is sold as a legacy you leave. Emperor Akbar sent a Pashmina shawl to the Queen of England in early 1400.

“What if I am stationary”, said the houseboat to the girl. “Boring, Same water, same land” said the girl to the houseboat. “Stay with me a year, girl”, said the houseboat, “for my mother slowly unfurls. Snow capets in white winter, shivering gold chinar leaves in autumn and flowers with a million colors in spring. You dont need to move to change. “

Until 2010, the houseboats were empty, the interiors decrepit with disuse. Now, there is a new verve in the industry. The fresh pinewood smell in this house boat is just the right sign of optimism. They say that the next 20 years will be good.