Trekking to the Amarnath cave, based as high as thirteen thousand feet above the sea level needs a great divine push. Something as great as a sportsman's will, a nature lover's heart or a pilgrims strong faith. I wasn't blessed with any when I began my high school summer camp treks in the Kashmir valley many years ago.
As a fat kid, trekking and mountaineering meant brisk, tired and struggled walks on the tough Himaliyan terrain. Being obese didn't help the sporting cause and my home sick nature made me hate the trek organizers and the mountains too.
Living in the plains for many years now, my heart speaks out for the same mountains and dense willow forests that I dreaded once. A breathtaking landscape that the government of J&K might soon turn into concrete high rises, something similar to what haunts me every single day, here in the plains. Construction on eight hundred kanals of a Sonmarg forest can unimaginably turn it into a whole of a suburb, packed with dormitories, kitchens, public toilets and parking.
Ironically the decision to provide "better facilities" to the yatris such as buildings and motorised transport just kills the many decade old essence and tradition of makeshift langars, tents and horses.
My first trek to Amarnath came three yatras back as an assignment while interning with a TV newswire agency. Pictures and images weren't enough to capture the beauty and bounty of this trek. Having lost all the baby fat while fighting a survival in the big metros all these years helped my stamina to discover the best of the peaks. This turned to be a cult treck and made me fall in love with the mountains of Sonmarg and Baltal and of course the caravan kind of a flow of the yatra.
Living away from the valley for years, this trek made me realise quite rightly the worth of the mountains, tent life and horse rides. At this Amarnath trek, I gained the will of a sportsperson and the heart of a nature lover. The faith part though was gradually evident as we trekked and rode to reach the cave.
Aged men and women, not so athletic and some not very physically fit took every challenging inch of this trek as God's grace to them. Demanding yet enriching experiences such as our overnight stay in a candle-lit tent at the base camp are cheerful memories forever. A heavy downpour, the chai at the langar and the early retreat at the camp were all so different and unique. Shivering whole night in drenched clothes inside the tent with temperature no more than four or five degrees outside was all in the spirit of the trek and the Yatra.
Team leaders on any difficult trek would always advise you not to look at a peak you are climbing. On the picturesque route to Amarnath via Sonmarg and Baltal, one can't stop doing that. Mostly on a mule back and partly trekking the hills, I quite literally looked up to catch a glimpse of the snow clad cave discovered many years ago by probably one of my great grand fathers.
By virtue of the same surname that I share with the cave explorer Buta Malik, a Muslim man, I feel all the public fury against the land handover in the Srinagar streets is for the good of Yatra.
Camping in the foothills of the cave and bag packing invertedly uphill to the cave no doubt are both very demanding. But something one would relate the Yatra to. Instead of politicising the land handover issues, efforts to make Amarnath more eco-friendly and more scenic can preserve the adventurous spirit of the pilgrimage.
Yatris and the adventure sports lovers from the plains, especially crowded metros would admire a Yatra closer to the nature. Instead of packing them up in ugly cement structures let them breathe freely in the jungles of Sonamarg and remember their Yatra forever.
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Dear Ashmit - please clear your 'wrong' assumptions about land belonging to India and whatever. It does NOT!
You have to visit Kashmir to feel what people out there feel. They are happy if you come as tourist, they are more than happy to receive money from Indian govt but Indian they are not and don't feel it either. So my dear friend continue paying taxes to our dear government and they will loyally route it to Kashmiris. You toil hard at office, collect your salary at end of the month minus tax which will go to protect their beloved leaders and themselves. The government spends millions if not billions in securing these very separatists who shout from the rooftop against India at the same time when they're surrounded by Indian security guards. And the poor soldier who guards every home in Kashmir is being fooled to protect the same people who harbour and feed terrorists.
Get it straight - they don't feel Indian. And fact of the matter is no matter how much more money or development you pump, they will still turn to violent demonstrations when it suits them and never when a terrorist kills innocents. ...Reply
Great that you brought up the point of Haj pilgrimage - either you've never been there or had a Nelson's eye when you were there - In Mecca, there are different qualities of accommodations, from four star luxurious hotels to rooms through to apartments you share with others. While in Mina, each tent can house between 20 to 40 people. Each tent has air conditioning unit and several power points. There are separate cooking areas and there are toilets with showering facilities in each precinct.
So my dear friend, the comparison between Saudi and India stops here, right? Moreover who wants a comparison with a tribal kingdom anyways!
Not in my wildest dream would Indian govt provide such kind of facilities for any pilgrimage within India.
btw we never recall such violent demonstrations against the Dal lake plunder done by themselves? So let's call spade a spade and stop hiding behind the veil of going green. This is all about giving a Kashmiri land to an autonomous body which is percieved by every Kashmiri as giving 'their' own land to an Indian outsider! It's more of 'giving' land than going 'green'.
Not that I am against the demonstrations - what they're doing is true to their colors - afterall our 'great' leaders in the past have agreed to the rule of autonomy which bars anyone from having piece of land irrespective of the good intention. So they are right to turn violent and stop any intention to facilitate pilgrims and at the same time enjoy Indian govt's subsidised travel to Haj and enjoy the airconditioned comforts of Mecca and Medina.
Now that's what we call is 'Kashmiriyat'!
...Reply
why did they sleep when Dal and Walur shrunk due to encrochment.Why do they not protest when trees are felled illegaly. why did they not protest when city forest in srinagar was distroyed to make way for golf course.Going GREEN is apreciable but right now this seems be more a case of intolerance.
Before I close I would let me say I would prefer if the yatra were left open for a small period only. Make sure it be a no plastic region. Make stringent norms.
But protests in kashmir smack of fundamentalism not of genuine concern for environment ...Reply
Sajid,
Its important to understand that this kind of a message is not just flaunted but means what it says.Its important to clean the mess in the valley as we claim of being environmental friendly. ...Reply
Mr Bala
i am glad that you are understanding the fact that how important is it to save the environment and more importantly save the tradition of the yatra ...Reply
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