Evening 12th April

I was 3 years old when I first climbed the hill of ‘Shankar Acharya Temple’ in Srinagar. I probably didn’t look down when I reached the top, otherwise there is no way I could have possibly forgotten the view that it offers. So, when I was surprised at the surprise the view offered, I realized I should have looked down when I was 3, I would have spent my childhood with a much relished memory. The temple located atop a hill in the middle of the Srinagar offers a panoramic view of the whole of Srinagar, as if nature wanted someone to stand in the middle of Srinagar & admire it. Unfortunately for nature & Kashmiris the place is probably used more for surveillance than for admiration.
While we were climbing the hill, a South Indian women was complaining & thanking the Lord Shiva at the same time for always establishing himself at all the difficult places (she had either heard about or been to Amarnath). So after some time when she got tired, Lord Shiva heard her complaints & sent my Mother to help her; with a face as tired as the audience of the 8hr speech that Krishna Menon gave in UN in 1957 defending India’s Kashmir stand, she still somehow managed to express gratitude that the audience of that speech didn’t. Why does India need 8hrs to defend its Kashmir stand & 1.1 million soldiers to hold on to that is questionable, what is not is that the ‘Shankar Acharya Temple’ has been damaged, no not by vandals but by the apathy of people responsible for its maintenance.
It was now time to do what everyone who visits Kashmir( everyone not hydrophobic that is) does; take a Shikara ride in Dal. I am sure which movie it was but this is what Amitabh Bachhan once said “Why do they call it the dull lake, it is the most interesting lake I have ever seen.” Highly encroached, so very beautiful & witness to more violence than any human would have, If Kashmir is a beauty contest Dal Lake is the winner, and Gulmarg is a runner-up with a different color. Pehalgam is the favorite who lost. In fact we dropped Pehalgam from our itinerary & gave it a snub, I am not sure how she feels about it, and I guess she doesn’t care. Right after we came back, Ram had raised the flag on car dashboard again.
It was the time to visit the ‘Shakti’ sweets shop, a place whose name I had heard all through my adolescence but had hardly any memories of. It feels so good to see the places about which you have hazy memories & have formed vivid imaginations. At night we rested at the guest house at the Zestha Devi Temple, fairly good facilities & very beautiful place.