This is the place I call home..!! Hearing stories about the place from my family, about its lost glory makes me wonder WHY it happened..???
Kashmir is where I feel liberated.. The openness of the place, the old town charm of the place, the fact that newspapers are not available before 2 in the afternoon, all the little bakeries with their famous cakes.. it all adds to the magic of it...!!!
Walking down the markets, every shopkeeper is at his best to please you to buy his ware but why this is different from someone in Delhi is for the simple reason that the traders over there don't know if there will be more customers tomorrow...!! They live a life of pure uncertainty...!! Even the shikara wallas and the owners of the house boat will try to get the maximum our of you for the sheer reason of the uncertainty...!! I remember how about four years back, when I went there in the summer vacations, for a change, the "VACANT" signs outside the houseboats were gone and every houseboat was lit up in the evenings with the tourists sitting in the little balconies.. watching the beautiful sun sets, how the Zabarvan range changes its colours with the sun setting and the same for the the Dal lake...!!
Its simply a magical place...!! The people in the valley live with a hope... everyone wishing SOMETHING would change.. some people say its the government that needs to change, others just say its all because of terrorists from PoK...!! Whatever the reason, I am addicted to the place for its beauty and the simple, almost rural life one lives there...!!
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