“Gurez, the valley of adventures” Part-II

Early in the morning Shabir Wani prepared namkeen tea for all but on serving it was not enough for all. Managed extra amul pack to prepare for the remaing where Iqbal sir prepared lipton instead of namkeen. Once again managed amul and now Bilal wani took the charge, prepared and served to all remaining ones. This was a good experience to recall our families as how they manage things properly and we had a lot of laughter and jokes. Now we prepared for our next destination *TULEIL* for which Hussain sb( Bilal wahab’s relation) had arranged a sumo on hire for our trip. Started from Dak Banglow of Dawer, made entries at the army check Point, along the bank of one of the down pouring fast flowing territories of KishanGanga reached Burnai a small village with a mini bazar of wooden little shops with soft drinks, spicy packets of different varieties and other items of day to day need in the area. We have a glimpse of this village while travelling. After a little while reached PTL (Purana Tuleil) with a densely populated households. The beauty of melodious running streams, the picturesque of standing semi melted glaciers along the mountain grooves and the sharply pointed hills get imprinted in our memories for ever. The cool breeze in between the warm sunshine along the curly and difficult rough roads make one overjoyed on one hand but worrisome on the other. The thinly populated hamlets in between the hills having scattered houses with narrow tracks along the terrains add the beauty to the picturesque. It depicts the story of people living in harsh and tough terrains and far flung areas with very meagre facilities of roads, health care and other facilities of living. On reaching army checkpoint at Neeru made our entries and proceeded for Gujran and Chekwal our final destination. Unfortunately due to the rough roads one of the shockers of our Sumo broke down. The driver got worried and tried to arrange another sumo from Dawer Sumo stand for our onward trip but could not succeed. Eventually he called an expert and tied a wooden piece to the shockers on his advice and got satisfaction to move ahead. It took him about an hour to do this exercise. He requested us to wait a while. We moved down to the bank of stream at *Neeru* and had our tea and spices etc and enjoyed the place having a bigger plot of land where Filmy Star Akshay Kumar had visited some days before. We took pics and video shots in the running stream where Mr Adham proved to be a good photo artist. Now we returned for ongoing journey and reached Gujran. We had taken our light meals along with but had no arrangement of boiling or warming it. We contacted the households where a kind lady made it easy for us and cooked on a chulah, provided every support for us. We then had our lunch in the compound of High School Gujran located in an open area without boundary walls on the bank of a beautifully running stream in between the lush green forests around. Took group photos and enjoyed there where the youngsters enjoyed by throwing water on one another. Due to dilapidated road we could not visit *Checkwali* the last destination. The non availability of public transport has restricted the movement of people in the area where the people are compelled to travel by foot with heavy luggages and materials of their day to day life. The people with sweat bearing faces with torned plastic shoes with a heavy wooden bundles are seen throughout the way especially the women gathering the wood for upcoming harsh winter when all the land gets covered with heavy snow and freezing ice. Visitors take a good joy on visiting the place but the inhabitants face the brunt during the hard times. The way leads to kargil through the mountain terrains and will act as safe and alternate road to Kargil but the road is yet to be constructed for the flow of traffic. On our return stopped at Neeru village, had some cold drinks from the wooden shops there.
The wooden houses with the best local architecture is worth seeing. It keeps warm in winter but are prone to fire accidents. The simple life of people with enough of leisure time with unsufficient business and farming other than animal raring gives way to the aged women to assemble in mohlas, alleys and common convenient places to share their ideas and family affairs to keep themselves socially updated. On return to Purana Tuleil PTL Bilal wahab took us to the house of Gani kak where he had left to the local market. His wife and little daughter welcome us enthusiastically and served us tea with latest variety of bread which pretty much baffled us. Some of our colleagues didn’t took tea but got absorbed in photography and observing the life style and structure of the village. Gani kak met us on the way on mid of a wooden planked long but narrow one way bridge over which we felt difficult to cross while animals were crossing over. Gani kak heartedly insisted us to stay for night but we had no programme of staying instead we promised him for next time stay. Gani kak and his wife blessed us with prayers and I was mind stuck to see their insistence and regard for Bilal wahab by saying *zoo wundmai talpatein*. Now the time was late and we hurried to reach our stay home. We reached Dawer market, gave a little amount to the driver as tip who became very happy. We made our mind to have a cup of tea and meanwhile a heavy shower of rain drenched our clothes. We rescued ourselves and stayed in a teastall took sips of tea waiting for the rain to stop. The teastall owner is famous for making spicy groundnuts so ordered two kgs for home. These were very sweet, crispy and spicy. Reached our stay point but there was no power supply which is a burning problem in the area. There is no electricity in whole of Gurez but has generator power supply in the evening hours from 6pm to 10pm. Our cell phones were almost near to get switched off with low batteries. Having one or two functional charging points in the stay house it was not an easy job to charge our phones as every one was eager, taking off another’s charger to charge his own. In this funniest way none of the phones got charged fully. We took a rest, had our tea and left to visit *KISAR NALLA* the nearby hill station from where the whole of Gurez valley is viewed. Walked along the newly constructed rough road about one and a half kilometres in between and underneath the high mountains with a gushy strong fast flowing stream that joins Kishan Ganga at Dawer near a poius Shrine of Baba Darvesh. It was very late now, returned and cooked meals for the evening by our experts in cooking. On the third day we left for Chorwan, approached the army camp to see the border which is very near to this last checkpoint but due to higher officers’ visit in place we were not allowed to move beyond. About 30 to 40 ponnies in a single row were fed by dry imported grass with salt stones in front used to carry loads, ration and other requirements to the army pickets on the high hills and peaks around. We reached *Chorwan* village took photos and met the locals to know about the area. Pak army posts and animal tracks were clearly seen as shown by the locals. The people as said feel very harassed whenever shelling occurs from the other side for which the Government has made underground concrete bunkers in all villages to save their lives. On return reached Habba Khatoon spring which gushly oozes out from the bottom of high Habba Khatoon mountain having sharp pointed whitish bare peaks without greens except pines at the bottom. It looks pretty golden during the sunset. There were some locals also to whom we enquired about Habba Khatoon but a very little they know about her history. As we belong to her ancestral area of Pampore, told a little about her life history to the visitors there who interestingly heard the story. My colleagues called me Yousf Shah Chek as I bear the same name and belong to that saffron area where Yousuf Shahi Chek loved her and proposed her to become his queen.
On return got some fruits and vegetables from Dawar market for preparing dinner. On the next day visited the dam site where the emotional feelings of Bilal wahab were painful, the place *BUDWAN* where his in laws were residing, got submerged and all the locality compelled to migrate. We had our tea at the site where hot words were exchanged between Bilal Wani and Altaf sb on some issue regarding Adeel Bilal (Bilal Wani’s little son) which took an interesting mode. Some took it in jokes while it was a strong one and a cup of tea was thrown away in anger by one of them. Reconciliation helped to smoothen the issue. We enjoyed Adeel Bilal’s trodden and typical words calling BABA to his dad at every point. We also were funnily calling Bilal Wani as Baba. We left for kanzalwan where Bilal’s mossi and other relatives served whole heartedly. On reaching *Buktoor, Tarbal*and then *Izmarg* enjoyed much in the big plane field where a cricket match was going on. We had our refreshments in the school compound where a kind teacher was teaching some of the students as community teaching. The journey to Bandipore started now with the lasting memories of Gurez, the valley of adventures where there is a dire need of improved roads, constant power supply, introducing of tourism industry with full support for infrastructure, adventures sports, boating, rafting, mountaineering etc. The dam is a best site for production of commercial trout fish on national level where there is a great potential for improvement in local employment and state economy.
( Part-I was Published in the print edition of “ Kashmir Horizon” on Wednesday this week. The author is a freelancer. Views are exclusively his own)

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