Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
Vipin Pub
The very mention of Pahalgam conjures up images of heroes and heroines of yesteryear prancing and dancing around the willow, pine and deodar trees and pony rides on the Golf Course. Yesteryear, because no film could be shot in the area during the last decade which unfortunately became famous for another kind of shooting. It was only a few months ago that a native director, settled in Mumbai, ventured to bring a film unit to the Valley and the government went out of the way to provide BPs (bullet-proof vehicles) to the stars and to publicly honour the team.
The nearly 100-km ride from Srinagar to Pahalgam provides quite a few surprises to even those familiar with the state. There is hardly any visible presence of security personnel. One comes across a number of empty sandbag bunkers but even the bridges, which had been often targeted by militants, appear unguarded. As one drives through Pamposh, with sprawling saffron plantation on either side of the road, one wonders if the bad days are finally over. TheBSF has set up just two security check points on the way.
All passengers are asked to alight from their vehicles and pass through a tent for frisking.
It is here that the outsiders come across the often rude and intemperate personnel with whom the local people have to deal almost daily. As one of the security personnel gave a go-ahead to our taxi, a young fellow stopped it a few yards away and angrily asked the driver, Bashir Ahmed, if he had a `licence' to move without permission. He declined to hear out the driver and would have certainly hit him had not we intervened to say that `due permission' had been taken by the driver to move ahead.
The other surprise, rather shock, came a few kilometers before Pahalgam. As the taxi took a curve and came on a straight but steep patch, we saw four Kashmiris clad in pherans charging at break-neck speed towards the taxi. Our hearts sank. Could they be carrying AK-47s under the pherans. There was no security personnel in sight. We urged the driver to speed up andnot to stop at any cost.
As he speeded up, the foursome narrowly missed getting run over. Then they began chasing the taxi and we exhorted Bashir to accelerate. Even as they chased the taxi, a group of other pheran-clad Kashmiris tried to block the road. As Bashir maneuvered the taxi, another vehicle came from the opposite site and forced us to slow down. It was at that moment that two of them managed to latch on to the taxi and sit on the dickey by holding the over-head carrier. If they had the guns, we thought, they should have taken these out by now.
After a safe distance from the group, with our hearts in our hands, we asked Bashir to ask them what they wanted. He stopped the taxi as they quickly dismounted and talked to him. Bashir came over and told us not to worry as these were poor pony wallahs who had `booked' us by latching on to the taxi. We invited them to get into the vehicle but they declined and ensconced themselves on to the dickey as soon as we resumed the journey.
Although there was ahorde of pony wallahs at Pahalgam but none approached us as we were already `booked'. The `concessional' off-season rate was Rs 260 per pony. They agreed to take us for `half-a-round' for Rs 150 per pony.
All the way they told us how the worst affected were pony wallahs and the hoteliers who entirely depended on tourists. How almost all the 40-odd hotels were lying closed and how the `owner' of the ponies paid them a mere Rs 400 per month. This interspread with titbits about the `Bobby House', a government guest house where the song Hum tum ek kamre mein band hon was picturised and how the various other government buildings were depicted in a host of films. On our way back to Srinagar, we again came across a group of pheran-clad Kashmiris on the road waiting to latch on to the taxies but we were no longer afraid.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------