Mission Kashmir

I'm writing about my 6 day trip to Kashmir which I undertook with my friends a few months back. I know it has been quite a while but the memories of that place are afresh as if it was just yesterday.

I had the good fortune of visiting Kashmir in the end of July, a few months before the catastrophe that struck the true heaven on earth. For long, our band of 4 - Hussey, Maggie, Prince Little and I were planning a trip which never seemed to materialise. One day Hussey (A Kargil native) and Prince Little, who's a hotshot expat working in a multi-million dollar corporation in Doha, put their foot down and coerced us into making plans to explore Kashmir and so, we made arrangements to make that happen.

Day 1 - SRINAGAR

We arrived in Srinagar Friday morning in two different flights (I'd tried to book tickets through "promotional offers" and got the last available ticket that a dirt cheap flight while the the others booked the next cheap flight). At least, I was spared from Prince Little's obsession with clouds as he snapped uncountable and virtually indifferent shots from the window seat).



The tiresome travels of the day - an early morning flight, delayed a couple o'hours, followed by an hour long cab ride to the Houseboat that we had reserved for the day didn't muffle our enthusiasm to go dive headfirst into the beauty that is Kashmir.

We dropped our bags, picked up Tandoori rolls and Shawarmas from a nearby joint and hopped on to yet another cab to reach the infamous Dal Lake. It was still July but instead of any monsoon rain, we were midst a cool breeze mixed up with a pinch of heat from the sun in a clear sky as we walked by the lakeside, facing the mountains, often called upon by the parked Shikara owners.

We finally gave in to their constant bickering and took one around the lake, stopping at cloth shops and small huts on the way and capturing yet again, numerous snapshots of the day.

Next up, our guides Hussey and his cousin, Parwana, took us up to the Mughal Gardens, claiming to show us the best ever sunset point there is.

After spending hours on end on the edge of the stone garden wall, sipping freezing mountain mineral water and munching chips, we finally witnessed the ethereal beauty of the setting sun, clearly the highlight of our first day.

With an authentic Wazwani feast and some bedtime poker, we bid adieu to Day 1, settling into our beds inside the ever rocking cradle that was our houseboat on Lake Nageen.

Day 2 - KARGIL

We barely got 5-6 hours of sleep that night. Hussey and Prince Little were fast asleep but a rooster and a dog owned by the houseboat woman woke up me & Maggie at 4 am. If my stomach hadn't been full of Wazwani chicken, I would've broken my fast on this one.

Complaining and grumping, we got ready for a 6 hour long journey to Kargil, where Hussey was born and brought up.

The cab ride was quite comfortable and the sights outside the window were worth staying awake and snapping the camera button for. Moreover, the cab driver's stereo had but one cassette that played only a handful of songs. "Ai jaate hue lamhon" from the Border, a classic war movie that recounts the 1971 Indo-Pak war, kept playing as we soaked in the serenity of the mountains and coincidentally, keep seeing army camps here and there.

Soon enough we reached Hussey's abode. We entered the 3-storied home built upon a small hill and the first thing we saw on passing the house gate was a small garden in the front lawn, with a giant apricot tree in the centre. We entered the house, put our luggage down and slumped on the comfy couch while Hussey went to meet his family.

Except Hussey, all of us hail from New Delhi and nearby areas and it was the first time we were meeting his next to kin. They understand only a bit of Hindi but they were really warm and welcoming, as everyone from that region is.

Our breakfast was a mere Frooti and Uncle Chips (courtesy our Prince, who's on a diet these days) and by the look of the food that was set in front of us, we were really glad we had totally empty stomachs. 

Chicken and Rajma, served with rice. Seems a pretty normal lunch menu but only the people there can tell you how amazing it was. Chicken is a delicacy eaten the Punjabi way or Halaal but I presumed there was only one way to make Rajma. I was so very wrong.

Everyone says it's the mountain water that gives it that irresistible taste but whatever it was, we barely looked at the chicken and devoured the rajma as if it was our last day on earth.

Next up, we got into Hussey's hatchback and went around Kargil. He recounted stories of his childhood and the various small wars that found their way to into their lives.

We spent the rest of the evening by a rivulet, sitting, throwing stones and talking. Me and Prince Little even got our shoes off and dipped our feet into the ice cold water just for the heck of it. I don't really remember what made us make a wager as to who can keep their feet in the water longer, or who actually won that bet but throughout the way back to Hussey's place, we couldn't feel anything from below the knees.

Day 3 - LEH

Early next morning we packed up and carried onwards. Another 6-8 hours to Leh but this time in Hussey's hatchback. Only a few minutes on the road and Hussey started where he left off with his stories of Kargil and Leh, how him and his cousins used to go on these routes on bikes and more important and intriguing for all of us, how he met his betrothed and future wife.

We made quite a few pit stops on the way, gazing at sublime scenery, watching rivulets trickle down to meet rivers but the most amount of time we spent was testing the theory at Magnetic Hill (that your automobile, even switched off, will drift onwards) which, even after trying a dozen times, didn't seem to hold true.

We reached Leh, freshened up and took a detour from our planned path to a village ~20 hours from Leh, known as SECMOL.

SECMOL - Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, is an organisation founded in 1988 aimed at reforming the educational system of Ladakh, by a group of young Ladakhis returning from university who understood the problems of the younger generation with modern education, their lack of focus and the cultural confusion. The brainchild of Mr. Sonam Wangchuk, the main campus building at SECMOL was inaugurated by His Holiness, The Dalai Lama himself in 1998.

Their activities include working to reform the government school system, helping village students in their education, awakening youth to the problems stemming from inappropriate and insensitive schooling, producing related videos and radio programmes, and designing and building solar-heated eco-friendly buildings.

Hussey's elder brother, a volunteer at SECMOL gave us a tour of the place, told us how the institute worked, how it is almost fully self-sustained. Almost everything is produced in-house, everything is recycled and reused, non-recyclable stuff is discouraged (chewing gum is banned) and whatever they can't make, is bought by selling apricot jam made by the volunteers and the students.

We also met the various teachers living on campus, most of them foreigners and the 20-30 young British girls who had just finished High School and were there for a 2 month volunteer program.

Day 4 - PANGONG TSO

Another early morning rise and addressing basic oral hygiene later, we were back on the road for the last and most exciting leg of our trip, PANGONG TSO. The infamous lake where the water is calm, serene and different shades of blue, green and purple at the same time. 

Pangong Tso is in disputed territory. The Line of Actual Control passes through the lake. A section of the lake approximately 20 km east from the Line of Actual Control is controlled by China but claimed by India. The eastern end of the lake is in Tibet and is not claimed by India. The western end of the lake is disputed between Pakistan and India as a part of the Kashmir dispute. After the mid-19th century, Pangong Tso was at the southern end of the so-called Johnson Line, an early attempt at demarcation between India and China in the Aksai Chin region.

The route from Leh wasn't exactly uphill but a mix of sub-stretches going up and down. Pangong is in a valley and only 30% of the lake exists in India while the rest of it behind the Chinese border. In the years that have passed, global warming and human intervention has led to evaporation and destruction of a major portion of this beautiful water body and it won't be long when it will become extinct and we would have mere photos to show our kids and grandkids that we had been there.

Trying to keep future worries out of my mind, we drove on. It was a cool summer morning with the sun shining bright. However, on our way when we reached the highest altitude of 17,590 at ChangLa where we got chilled to our bones but passed through numerous valleys as well where we were greeted with Kashmiri Kahwa which was the best I had ever tasted. Prince Little as always, had try something new, which, in this region, was Yak milk. You would have to ask him personally how it tasted coz after having a few sips, he barely talked the rest of the way.

Our patience was wearing thin as we inched closer to Pangong and the moment of first sight, we literally jumped out as if we had found Santa. Oh the joy on our faces. The rest of the day passed by admiring the serene view of the lake from different angles and views. We drove onwards till the point the car could take us and onwards still, on foot.

After walking for an hour we reached a portion of the lake that was entirely uninhabited. No human or fauna could be seen, except us and the rare duck on the lake. We clicked an infinite number of photos trying to capture the scene from every angle possible, lit up a Cuban cigar (although with the breeze flowing, we could hardly light it up). We floated a paper boat into the lake which, hopefully, would have crossed the Chinese border by now and etched our initials into the sand before heading back to LEH for a night's rest.

Day 5 and 6 - SRINAGAR & NEW DELHI

Our trip was almost over. Next morning we headed back to Kargil. Reaching there around 4PM, we stretched our legs for a few hours before catching a bus back to Srinagar.

Hussey stayed back at home to spend a few more days while Prince Little, Maggie and I bid our adieu and boarded our ride that would reach Srinagar early morn, just in time for us to board our 7AM flight to New Delhi.

As we touched down in the hot and humid capital, I vowed to return. To see the lake again, when it would be frozen solid in winters and also, to run the Ladakh half marathon that takes place every year in the month of September.

Till then, these photos might suffice ...

I'll feel better when the winter's gone ...

The fire, it cracks and the flakes snow on. November was white and December was gray. Well, someday soon when the spring brings the sun, I'll finally sleep, I'll finally ... I'll feel better when the winter's gone.

These three months I've been inside the house, my pacing has worn all of the carpet out. Just give me a breeze, the rebirth of the life. I'll finally pine, I'll finally ... I'll feel better when the winter's gone.

These are the lyrics from a song by 'Say Hi' but they convey the message I want to, as I sit huddled up in my quilt on this chilly Saturday of the Indian winters in the month of December. Agreed that it doesn't get as cold here as it does in the countries way up in the Northern Hemisphere, such as the U.S. or Canada but hey, I recently heard that on the coldest day of the year in Delhi last week, the temperature at noon was lower compared to the temperature in the morning in NYC or Simla.

Furthermore, it 'feels' colder here as we don't use central heating in the houses and have to rely on electric heaters, heating pads and layers of clothing to keep from shivering.

On the 12th of December, my brother got hitched. At 4am in the morning as we sat witnessing the agnipradakshinam rituals, I wondered how, even in mid-December, it was barely cold. Instead of listening to any prayers I might have offered up to that day of my life, the All Mighty heard me criticising this once. The very next morning, a storm rose up and for the coming 3 days, pelted rain and hail over the North. Voila, the winter that I was 'missing' was literally knocking at my door and striking against my bedroom window.

I hope it never gets as cold in the North in this country as it is in the North of Canada and of Westeros but I might be able to see, before I die, a day when it will snow in Delhi. On that day, as pollution particles join forces with snow balls, I'll sit in my room with coffee in my hands and say what I'm saying right now ...

I'll feel better when the winter's gone...

Winter: Thou hath arrived

As the chilly winds relieved us of the humid North Indian heatwaves, this gave all the GoT fans to flood each other's FB Walls with the popular quote from the show/book series "Winter is Coming".

This also acted as free publicity for the franchise as frustrated non-followers gave in to the temptation to see what the fuss is all about and immersed themselves in the Song of Fire and Ice and going through the topsy-turvy turns and twists of the storyline.

Currently I am reading the 5th edition of the book series, "A Dance with Dragons". As the name suggests, this volume sheds light on the majestic creatures that came to life after centuries of extinction following the Doom of Valyria, the most prosperous city of its time.

It follows principally, the turn of events at and beyond the Wall, in Winterfell and in Easteros as the main characters narrate the story from their own point of views in each chapter.

Coming back from office in the evening, as the sky rise buildings and apartments fade away and the trees appear by the side of the road, chilly winds swoop in to shake me to the core of my spine. Even though the temperature is nowhere near the freezing point nor comparable to the ones in Canada or Siberia, for us Northerners (North Indians not North Westerosis), who are accustomed to a hot and humid climate, it does feel like we've suddenly gone beyond the wall, in a land known far far away from Frostfangs and the frozen lakes, known as the "Lands of the Always Winter", currently the abode of Brandon Stark and the Reeds.

Even in Winterfell, way south of the wall, the winter is quite unforgiving. From Theon Turncloak's POV, we see how Bolton and Stannis' men and animals alike, are dying each day buried in the snow.

Maybe because I am currently reading such accounts of how unrelenting the arrival of winter is and how this winter will last for decades on end, I am feeling the fangs of ice. 

If this is the case, the sequel, named the "Winds of Winter" will be even more freezing, both climatically and otherwise as the Others make their appearance and we get a more elaborate picture of their lives (We did see in one of the episodes of Season 4) how an Other touches a newborn child and converts him into an Other too.

Well, let's hope George R. R. Martin releases this book soon enough and we can spend more time, effort and money reading, watching, fantasising and living in the land that owes its existence to this not so young man.

This one's to Jenny

Viral fever put me on the bed over the weekend but fortunately, also in the front of the TV where Comedy Central was airing the reruns of Suits Season 1.

Suits as a show has come a long way since then but it was kinda nice going back to Harvey, Donna, Louis and Mike's old days. And that's where I saw Jenny again.

Jenny Griffith, the very so pretty, girl-next-door blonde who was Mike's friend Trevor's ex-girlfriend and later on, Mike's love interest.

In one of the episodes the show goes back further 5 years from season 1 to show how all the characters used to live back then.

I loved that episode because gave us some more background story and more importantly, that's the episode where Mike and Trevor meet Jenny and her friend for the first time.

Just 2 guys and 2 girls in a bar, the foursome hit it off quite well and it is evident that Mike likes Jenny. They have similar interests (both of them like die hard I guess) and Mike feels she is more his type than the other one.

Through tough turns and broken friendships and relationships, much to my liking (don't know how many others), Mike and Jenny finally become a thing.

They're living together, she knows his secret, helps him out by being a guest witness in a mock trial of his, delivers his suit to office when he'd just pulled an all-nighter and is giving him good advice when he's stuck.

All in all, they're great together.

Look at the chemistry Mike and Jenny have:

But the creators didn't really feel so.

Here entered Rachel Zane, a paralegal at Pearson Hardman who, not so surprisingly, becomes the reason for Jenny to leave Mike.

That is the very point where everyone starts comparing Rachel and Jenny.

I have never, ever, apart from only one friend, heard anyone liking Jenny more than Rachel.

Rachel's smart, driven, ambitious, sexy and daughter of a high profile herself but Jenny is is no way inferior.

Of course you don't focus on the boring law stuff all the time so how does it matter if the characters' love interests come from inside of outside of the same profession?

Please bring her back. :/

The "Phoren" train ride

En route DC – NYC, I originally penned down this post in a notebook as the moving train made it more and more difficult to write and even more difficult to read later on.

This makes the first time that I took a train outside of my home country and quite frankly, the experience is very different.

Booking at the very last minute, we had still gotten “business class” tickets for the Acela Express train from Union Station, Washington DC to Penn Station, NYC. I was too excited to experience this voyage, well, before I found out that there was only business class and first class on the train. No Coach/Economy class on the train ???

DC’s Union Station, as we entered, gave the air of an airport rather than a train station, with its souvenir shops, Starbucks & Dunkin Donuts (of course), a Victoria’s Secret store among other apparel shops and infinite number of eateries. And just like at an airport, we waited at a lounge, till about 15 minutes before the departure time.

At 6:15 PM, the gates swung open and we walked through a tunnel and set our eyes on the majestic 2124 Amtrak Acela Express Train waiting for us.

With a Starbucks Cappuccino in my hand, I climbed up the 6 coach machine and started looking around for seat numbers.

Just like the movie theatres over here, there is no concept of reserving specific seats for passengers. Everyone has made peace with the First Come First Serve system and are quite civil about it.

We found 2 vacant “business class” seats and stowed away our luggage in the overhead compartments.

As the train embarked upon its journey, making its way through the states of Maryland and New Jersey, I pulled open the front table and started scribbling.

Frankly, I feel like an idiot sitting with a pen and paper because everyone, and I mean literally everyone around me, is Apple branded.

My cousin sitting in the window seat has an iPhone 5S, the pretty girl on my right, (mid - twenties, has a pretty cool job) is working on a Macbook Air and an iPad mini. I’m quite sure she has an iPhone in her bag.

The middle aged couple in the front have apple tablets and even the train conductor is scanning the barcodes printed on our tickets with an app on his iPhone. 

Me on the other hand, have a pen, a notebook, 2 magazines and a sucky BlackBerry Curve which doesn’t even catch the train’s Wi-Fi signals.

The 2h45m ride passes by in a jiffy as we pick up our luggage and get out into Manhattan’s cold and damp air.

Until the next flashback …

Oh my Boston.

Recently, I got a chance to visit Boston, the capital and largest city in the New England state of Massachusetts and the dream of every prospective business school & engineering student.

Boston is quite a different city if you compare it with other business & education hubs. New York often comes up in comparisons and while NYC is one of the cultural, financial and fashion capitals of the world, Boston trumps it easily when it comes to the best cities for students.

I will not compare these 2 cities here and rather narrate my short 20 hour visit to the home of the Red Sox.

The Delta shuttle flight from NYC to Boston took under 1 hour to reach the Logan International Airport (all the flights, domestic and international, arrive and depart from the same airport, this is so simple than having 2 or even 3 airports) from where, we checked into our room at the adjoining Boston Logan Hilton, which is in such close proximity of the airport that we walked through the shared passageway between the two structures and reached the Hotel Lobby in under 2 minutes.

Post some rest and a hot shower, we took the hotel shuttle to the Airport station on the Blue Line.

An average metro car comprises of people from different age groups but what I witnessed in Boston was rather different.

Everywhere I looked, I saw students. Clad in overcoats, books in hand and earphones in ears, I saw groups of boys and girls in their late teens, twenties and some maybe in their early thirties. Also, being in the States, you would expect majority of the people speaking in English, or perhaps, the second language - Spanish but here again, a rather strange surprise.

The train coaches were bustling with tongues from various different continents. A trio sitting in front of me were chatting in french, who, when exited, were replaced by 4 teenagers gossiping in Spanish. To my left were two guys talking in Japanese and near the door, stood a young adult on a call, conversing in German.

This truly explains what a students' hub looks like. One of the top 3 cities in the world for college goers, it houses some of the biggest names in the stream of education. Harvard, MIT, Berklee College of Music, Boston University,  Boston College, Emerson College and many many and yet many more.

In about 20 minutes we reached our rendez-vous point of Hynes Convention Centre, in Boston's Back Bay area where a friend, who goes to in the Berklee College, showed us around. 

We took a short tour of Berklee, including a quick sneak peak into the classrooms and practice rooms, where, even at 11pm on a Saturday night, students were quite determinedly practicing their musical instrument of choice while the others sat back and listened to the masterpieces in the making.

The ones who believe in the American motto of work hard and party harder, were lined up in queues outside taverns and bars enjoying the warmer than usual weekend (warmer as it hadn't snowed in the past week; me and my friends were shivering in 4 layers of clothing as some girls passed us by wearing minis).

The most common sight in Boston was the turf war between Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts who've conquered every corner of every street of every block of the city, serving coffee aficionados who relaxed on comfortable armchairs with eyes glued to their fired up MacBooks.

The next sight was of the very enthralling Boston Common, the oldest city park in the US. All covered up in snow, I am quite sure this park, right in the centre of the city, with its frozen lake and snowed in gardens, could've played the part of the ice forest in the Narnia chronicles.

The bridge inside the park gave us a great vantage point to look at the tallest buildings in Boston, the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Tower, the bustling streets underneath and the adjacent Chinatown, where we headed next.

I have been to the Chinatown in NYC and seen it tons of times on TV but the one in Boston gave me quite the scare.

It was quite odd to see it mostly deserted on a Saturday night as we roamed the streets around the various mani-pedi shops and restaurants of Chinese, Vietnamese and other Asian cuisines, looking for a place which had food on its menu that we'd actually heard of.

On our way back, we took in the beauty of the city, with its young crowd, chilly winds, hoards of snow at the sides of the road and disco buses (a hop-on hop-off bus running up and down the streets with people dancing to loud music, disco lights and a stripper pole in the centre).

Day 2 was all about visiting Harvard and MIT in the adjoining Cambridge area. 

From Hynes, a bus dropped us at Massachusetts Avenue, from where we walked to the Harvard Business School. Mostly deserted on a Sunday morning, we still got to gaze at the architecture of the oldest University in the States, its Memorial Church, the John Harvard statue in the Harvard Yard, its athletics arena, the Harvard stadium and nearby memorabilia shops run by Harvard students, selling Harvard apparel.

While we couldn't get a backstage pass into Harvard, we were extremely lucky when it came to MIT. Another friend, who is studying there, used her access card to smuggle us in and out of the Arts, Earthly Sciences and various other buildings, including the best of them all, and the most relevant to me, the Sloan Business School. 

Also doubling as our guide, this friend informed how this new building, with quite a different taste of architecture from other MIT buildings, just completed construction in 2010. The location of the building is truly justified as you enter the hallway and gaze upon the view overlooking the Charles river and the city's skyline. 

Vowing to be back for more, for a much longer time period to better explore the city when we actually apply for these schools, we packed our bags and headed back, dreaming of that hopeful day in the not-so-distant future.