WINTER WITH NAMES!

 

WINTER WITH NAMES!!

BY WARVET

 

‘I myself am from the hills. Give me the medium warm version. This one will be too hot! I protested to the salesman in Ooshin Showroom on Residency Road’. ‘My dear sir, you don’t know Kashmir cold. Once Chillai Kalan sets in, you will repent you didn’t buy the warmest version’ The salesman was adamant. Everyone I met since I landed in Srinagar on posting advised buying Ooshin thermals that were imported from England. And everyone talked of ‘Chillai Kalan’. I insisted and got the medium version and returned home.

On the way home I asked the driver, Parvez what was Chillai Kalan. ‘Umm you see Chillai Kalan’ starts on 21 December and lasts for 40 days. It’s the coldest period in Kashmir. It’s a Persian name and means ‘Thandd ka Baap’! ‘Interesting! So Kashmiris have names for winter! I thought. ‘Post Chillai Kalan comes 20 days ‘Chillai Khurd’ that means small cold and in the end we have 10 days of ‘Chillai bachh’ or Kid cold continued Parvez.

 As we approached mid December, the cold hit me badly. The Srinagar of summer was forgotten. For days, there was no sun. Only fog. No rain No snow just bleak wintry mornings that kept getting colder and colder defying all logic. We were in a bowl closed to south by the Pirpanjal and from North by Shamshabari ranges. Beautiful huge trees, Chinar, Poplars, willows changed colors and kept shedding the leaves and finally were shorn of all – Not a single leaf remained on the trees. Dal, Wular, marshes, Jhelum and various tributaries kept on strengthening the cold by silently adding their contribution to the damp and fog. Out came Kangri – I used to think Kashmiris of a luxurious consumerist mentality to have invented this mud pot ensconced in the wicker basket that has burning coal and which they carry close to their belly inside their ubiquitous cloak called Pheran. Male pherans are drab brown in colour with long floppy sleeves having the print of the cloth maker invariably visible. A Kashmiri even sleeps with the kangri and besides causing cancer due to years of use, it also results in a number of fire incidents. But like Samovar – for making tea, Kangri is inseparable part of Kashmir – A unique innovation. In modern times they got electric blankets made almost 30 years back. These too were unique to Kashmir. However, due to long power cuts, heaters, electric blankets etc fail and old kangri is the only refuge.  Houses also have unique copper boilers installed which run on electricity or wood and heat the walls and floors with circulating hot water. Such Hamams were brought to Kashmir by Mughals, mosques have such heated rooms for use by common people.

Nowadays, Chillai kalan brings misery with closed roads, No power and no vegetables and milk. In olden days, people were self sufficient. Women prepared dried vegetables (Hookh Sioon) for winters, families congregated around fire in one room and socialised. Dried meat was stored as was smoked fish (Hogge Gaade). Artisans worked on shawls, paper mache and wood carvings confined in the house during intense cold and met the orders from Central Asia.

As Kashmir has been hugely popular with tourists from India and abroad, we forget that 100 years ago it too was as secluded as any Shangri La like Ladakh, Tibet or Sikkim. There was no approach from Jammu. One had to go to Rawalpindi and then move up the Jhelum Valley Cart Road in Tonga till Baramulla over a week. From Baramulla to Srinagar was 2 days journey up the river. Banihal Road was made in 1930s, over 9000 ft deadly pass. Subsequently a tunnel eased the journey. Jawahar tunnel built in 1960s actually brought Kashmir closer to India . Now, the latest    Navyug     Tunnel – 4 lane , 9 km long - has eased the travel so much. It starts from Banihal town and opens at Wuzur in Kashmir – bypassing Qazigund, the point where older Jawahar tunnel used to emerge. But still Kashmir, remains a plataeau like Tibet though lower. Its different. Its actually a tribal area though not recognised as such. Contrary to appearances, Kashmiris are very different people who are not understood – in fact they are very difficult to understand. Maybe they are themselves confused!

We returned from vacation in Goa and hit 4 Degrees after a week of 30 degrees and next  evening it started snowing after a week of record breaking cold. By morning the entire valley was under a feet or more of fresh snow bringing cheer all around and transforming the landscape into Snow Wonder Land. The valley took a sigh of relief. The dry cold was killing! -8.5 degrees had broken 30 years record and was infact second lowest recorded temperature in 132 years! We are saved from Global warming for an year. Valley will have ample water in summers, Good Apple crop is now anticipated.   

One unforgettable winter experience in Kashmir is train ride. Last year as it snowed for two days I asked my friend Zorawar to come along and we both took the only train that day to Banihal. The sight enroute was truly out of the world. For 50 Rs we were on Eurorail. Orchards, rivers, canals,  magnificent gorges were all covered in white. We felt like Snow White. The train is lifeline for kashmiris who travel long distances to work. Each train has a full complement of security personnel guarding it, The rails too are heavily guarded. But contrary to apprehensions, terrorists have never attacked the train! That’s so good! The work on railways had started in 2004 when I was here as a Captain. It was an ambitious project that got completed in valley around 2008. Next month Train from Delhi is to reach Srinagar in 13 hours connecting the valley to mainland like never before. It’s a technological marvel.