The drop was hanging at the tip of grass twig. Reflections projected inverted in animated suspense of matter hugging itself in a sphere of diamond shimmer. The place is generally quite but it`s seven in the morning. I bet it couldn`t be more silent. For a place that has been documented as the most beautiful place on planet I couldn`t agree more with my luck line. The air was crisp, a breath from gods if I may say so. Tinge of lavender, a whiff of lemon grass, the deep rounded perfume of pine trees melted with the mist rolling from far away mountains. Chill of oxygen gently filling my lungs. Each breath slightly bigger than the previous one. I stood there, transfixed watching early morning sunlight illuminating smoke particles. Projecting streams of white filtered light through tall trees in a distance. The season is turning a voice proclaimed inside. The chinar tree that stood tall with soft golden green was now all coloured up in darker tones of rust colours. The red now spoke to orange and yellow ran through the leaf veins.
Surrendered to the water droplet the world was in stasis till a piercing sound came through. BALL! Someone shouted and brought me back to my senses. I was third in line on the second hole of this magnificent golf course. Sure, I stepped aside, a perfect swing, the metal on the club head moved approximately at the speed of jet liner during takeoff. In pure definition of connection the metal touched the ball and next second the dimple white golf ball flew with a soul of its own. I followed the trajectory in pure bliss. There are few experiences in world that matchup to a perfect golf hit. Carved on the foothills of the Himalayan ranges this course is a beauty now popularly known as Royal Springs golf course.
The sun was now warming up painting a pink sky and my mind was a drift from the game back to the details that covered each nook and corner of this magnificent place. After all someone had actually summed it up hundreds of years back. "Agar Firdaus Ba-Roohe Zameenast Hameenasto Hameenasto Hammenast..." which translates to if there is heaven on earth, its here, its here, its here.
KASHMIR: A word that defines the house of my soul. To truly define Kashmir I guess one needs a different landscape of words and paper.
The sun set
Kashmir for me is a collection of visions that I carry with me all the time. Memories running back in time. Clock hands slipping past each other. A whisper of a beautiful sun set. Memory of being spell bound by the power of a single colour. I had never been so over whelm with a single frame of life as that day when the star downed the earth and lucky me I had the camera to capture the eternity of a moment. Divya and I were back spending time with Mom and Dad in Kashmir for the spring. The rim of the tea cup was no more white. It had a tinge of bluishness reflected from the sky above. I checked the time and a perfect symmetry of 5:30 pm stared back at me. May be today could be our lucky charm. It`s our first day and the sky had been playing well. And much like a choreographed play all puffy clouds just vanished. The invitation extended from the rim of the cup. A last sip, a clean sweep of the camera and crazy heady drive realizing that when the star melts it melts fast over the horizon. The window of nuances is limited in perhaps no more than 10 minutes.
Dal Lake (the popular lake that sits in the middle of Kashmir valley) or Dal as it is popularly known has been sitting here before you and I were here. Perhaps before humans stepped onto this place. It has been here for thousands of years. And reflects the deep sense of calmness that Kashmir has imbibed from it. The sun sets on the far side of this lake behind the highest imaginable Himalayan ranges. These far off Himalayan mountains are generally covered with thick clouds and one rarely gets a clear vision of sun setting onto the peaks of these mountains. More over if by chance these mountains have clear weather the local clouds from within the valley obstruct the vision and hence makes clear sun sets a rare gift during spring time.
But then when least expected rare coincidence happens. And chosen ones get a chance to capture the most beautiful splendour of every 24 earthly hour.
So here we were. Our eyes focusing miles away trying to spot the opening up of weather on ranges that were at least 200 kms away from us and perhaps freezing at -45 degrees. The valley was clear only if the mountain weather cleared up just for the time being. Anyways we wont know if the weather has opened up until the sun hits the peak as it tries to settle behind them so there was no point searching for it. I relaxed for a while, settled the camera on the parapet and noticed that the camera lens was searching for the same vision as our eyes. The wide open lens zoomed to the max looked back onto the horizon without blinking even for a sec.
The sun started its journey towards the lower half of our world. The sky moved from deep tones of blue to tinge of orange. And as seconds moved in my watch the sun moved. With each tic the blue surrendered to the growing power of orange. Orange was more young , more impatient. It wanted to dominate, it wanted to live its short life. On the contrary blue was more quite. More mature and humble. He knew that for the larger length of the day he lay claim to the sky and not the orange. But now was the time for orange and as blue retreated into the blackness of the night orange came out shinning yet softer. It enveloped everything. From water surface to the shimmer of the ripples. It coloured Kashmir in monotone and what power it had. The world surrendered and in that bliss the gates opened up onto the far off Himalayan ranges. The outline of the sun nestled in between two peaks clear from this far away distance. I realized that since childhood when ever some one asked us to draw a scene we invariably drew a series of peaks with the sun nestled perfectly in between two peaks in our drawings. I never realized that our casual depictions were so close to the real show down.
Early spring: Permafrost had just melted. The soft patchy landscape was smoothening up. The hush of spring was clear yet the temperature was dipping by night time. This is too early for spring a voice proclaimed inside as the aircraft descended from the cloudy patch into the valley. It was the baker who said “Sahab apney Tulips dekhey” . I was so happy. I`v always wanted to do this but was never around this time in the valley. So the next morning we were there and what a sight it was.
Tulips is a real beauty with an individual entity
To be continued..
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