Their valley of peace

Tue, Jul 15 02:39 AM

I visited Kashmir 46 years ago, then as an army officer's daughter. We were part of a large army convoy, traversing the snow-clad mountains and a series of tunnels. I have a faint memory of an ambience pregnant with attrition and armour-laden apprehension, as humongous camouflaged trucks wound their way into the valley of fear.

So the image of Kashmir I conjured up till now was not only from the attic of my memory, but also from the media of a perpetual war-weary zone. It bore the scars of the violence and the charred impact of gunpowder. The Valley's vicissitudes have been turbulent because of its volatile location and Hellenesque beauty. The K-word has had odious connotations in Indo-Pak peace negotiations, as it signals an inevitable deadlock.

I visited the Valley again recently, and was surprised to see that the guns have been silenced, war-ravaged buildings have been refurbished and new houses are appearing everywhere. The presence of armed forces has been minimised and the camouflaged patches have eased out. So I soaked in the idyllic scene of the shimmering Dal Lake, dotted with its filmi shikaras. There are patches of radiant peaks and white lotuses as well. In the backdrop sit houseboats with exotic names, and nature looms large with the encircling cordon of pine-covered mountains. Sometimes, in the limpid water (the lake has been cleaned), there are visible seaweeds and buoyant fish, and here and there on roadsides are riots of colourful flowers, enhancing the picture-postcard beauty. There are spates of tourists savouring the pristine air and enacting the roles of Hindi film stars in Kashmir ki wadiyan.

Whenever I looked at the calm mountainside, watching the pines sway back and forth, and experiencing the serenity calm water bodies exude, an old thought came back: How could this epitome of peace trigger so much violence? Whether truculent politicians, soldiers and clandestine agencies augur peace in this terrain, every tree, mountain and water body seem to cherish its tranquillity, as do its people. For them, in that fragile moment of stability - which one hopes will not be betrayed by the turn of events since then - lay the fervent hope that it never again became the veritable tinderbox it once was.

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