When I blogged last… it seems ages since then.. and it has been 11 days of blog-less life..
and now that life has finally moved back on track, so have I.
OK.. so where was I.. on the 12th of March I woke up to see snow in a state of confused … huh? … and what was to follow not just put me in a state of not being able to connect to the rest of the world.. but a series of events that amazed me at its unexpectedness…
What started off as a slight shower of snow that we thought would melt by day end, turned into an amazing demonstration of how God can make winter weirdly snow-less and bring spring, and just when the first blossoms are up in a bright show, clothe everything in a white sheet.
The past 11 days have been exciting, amazing, beautiful, upsetting, distressing, frustrating and patience-building.
OK I tend to get side-tracked.. I was intending to narrate the melodramatic 11 blog-less days…
ok then back to 12th March.. that day it snowed like it wasn’t going to stop.. roads got blocked.. the cars started with much coaxing..
it was rather amusing to watch the stark contrast in the confusion that the snow created and the serenity with which it watched the rest of the world..
khayr…
ok. the way back home was filled with perils.. with so many “unwanted” stops that we had to make (that gave me time to take some pics, much to the annoyance of some tense people around me).. the roads were blocked.. a fallen tree… a vehicle that just stopped moving… or the military “gaed” vehicle that got stuck and the “koum kay muhafiz” who just waited for the locals to come and rescue them..
this certainly was an eye-opener for me… i mean leaving other things aside.. i didn’t expect them to expect help from the locals to get their vehicles moving.. but seems that the kashmiris are the ones who had to come to rescue…strange but true.. many thing in kashmiri life are like that!
anyways.. due to the very heavy snowfall the roads got blocked, so much so that instead of going home, i had to make way to some other more accessible location, my aunts place.
The hammam is the most welcome thought when one has been stuck in freezing cold… and it certainly was a welcome thought to me.
[Another reflection: I noticed how important mobile phones are! Had there been no mobiles, the families of everyone who was stranded in the snow would have freaked out even more than they did that day…]
anyways. the snow kept on falling on to us. and it reminds me of a statement that I had captured in my camera without much thought.. “Haaza min fadli rabbi…” This is amongst the blessings from my Lord…
so the next morning when i woke up.. it was breathtaking beautiful.. SubhanAllah!
everything was covered with snow.. the snow 1 and half feet deep, and nobody on the roads..
even now as i think of it.. it fills my heart with pleasure… for the snow…
[the snow besides the beauty meant a lot of problems for a lot of people…
– no electricity
– no water
– roads blocked
– no internet (boooohoooohooohoooo)
– phone lines cut off
– mobile phones dead (coz u cudnt charge the phone coz there was no electricity..)
– no food (well.. banihal gaye band ti souri gov band)
]
and then when the snow started melting.. that was another tragedy… water everywhere.. one cant speak much of the [lack of] drainage system in Kashmir.. but every place was filled with water that one had to wade through to be able to go anywhere….
and to add to the sad state of affairs.. it started raining.. and it rained and rained… and bang… we are flooded! yup Kashmir got flooded… with rivers overflowing.. bridges covered with water.. roads with water .. difficult life for those who were alive and even death for some..
and these were 11 difficult days..
and “inna maal usri yusra..” Indeed with every difficulty is ease…
and the sun is shinning today..
a welcome sight for the people of the vale…