The best times while I was in Srinagar were when I was on the Shikara. It was very peaceful and calm. The scenery around Srinagar is so beautiful that if it wasn't for the gunfire and distant thunder of bomb blasts during the night it was quite easy to forget that there was an insurgency going on and major repression in response.
I spent a couple of hours window shopping on my own. I don't think I bought anything. It is hard to buy stuff because of the rules. You can't look remotely interested in anything because if you do the shopkeeper is going to be all over you and whether you like it or not you'll end up with something you never knew you wanted. The golden rule is never to ask the price of anything. That is somehow more than what lawyers here call "an invitation to treat". Here simply enquiring as to the cost of an item creates no binding contractual relationship between customer and shopkeeper. There asking how much something costs means "I am really interested in this item and I am certainly going to buy it when we have agreed a price". You simply cannot ask the price because it concludes the contract and all that is left is to haggle about how much money you eventually part with. It's a bit off putting because you have to shop out of the corner of your eye and appear completely uninterested in, or even disgusted by, what you are looking at.
I'm sure I must have been going down with something because my notes on 1st November and 2nd November include the short phrases "Bloody Factory" and "Bloody Shawl salesman". I was getting grumpy. I think somehow or other someone had persuaded me to go to a handicraft showroom. I just don't like those places. The products are well presented but the prices are inflated. You can't get a proper discount starting from a marked price that is already geared towards holiday makers on larger budgets. I just didn't like the shawls at all and I wished that I didn't have to look at them - full stop. There was no escape from the salesmen. The houseboat was blockaded by a flotilla of shikaras laden with souvenirs most days and late in the afternoon of Friday 2nd November we were actually boarded. That's the reference to them "barging" into my living room was about in my postcards home. On the other hand the tactic paid off because that was when I relented and bought the napkin rings just to get the pirates off the houseboat.
Earlier that day I had been into Srinagar and had bought some wooden boxes in Polo View. and spent the whole afternoon with Rashid aboard the shikara taking a trip through the canals.
It was a bit tricky trying to snap photos while the shikara was in motion. I don't think the light was particularly great and taking a picture at 125th of a second shutter speed of a moving object is likely to result in blurred images especially if using a telephoto lens. The shot above of the waterside shop is an example of the less than satisfactory result. I put it in for what it is worth. Likewise the picture below of the women doing their washing. The pictures do have some some atmosphere at least.
Somehow or other being with Rashid and probably being disguised by the poncho-thing let me take pictures that otherwise I might not have been able to. These young children standing on the bank didn't mind being photographed and the looks on their faces are open and friendly. The little girl looks a little unkempt. I wonder what has become of them all. The boys ought to be approaching their thirties now if they survived the hardships of the last 18 years and if they haven't been involved in any fighting.
There was certainly plenty of life on the water. The above shot of a gentleman navigating his cargo of reeds is one of my favourites. I supposed the reeds were to be used for thatching rooves and it seems that I was probably right. I have just been to a website called OPF (Overseas Pakistani Foundation) where in describing the dwellings in Kashmir it says: "A reed called tshai is used for roofing. Roofs of this description may be noticed on the houses in Srinagar, Sopur, and the adjacent villages, because they are near to the Dal, Vilullar, and Anchar lakes, where the reed grows abundantly." So there you go.
There was indeed an abundance of the reeds. They are also used for mat making and fodder for cattle. In my surfing I came across a learned article on the fact that the wetlands of Kashmir are under threat. See http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=2_2_2008&ItemID=9&cat=12.
I wasn't entirely sure where Rashid was taking me but I was enjoying the trip. It was great to see ordinary life going on. This society seemed to as much at home on the water as on the land. Everywhere you looked there was someone paddling a shikara somewhere and at times there was quite a bit of traffic to contend with.
Some of it was quite large too. Check out the shikaras with whole shed like structures on them. They've got tiled rooves and the rooves can be propped open for ventilation.
Wherever it was were were going it was a popular destination and as we got nearer there were more people about. The bridge over the canal pictured below has plenty of people crossing it.
Eventually we neared a major port. It's a shame the picture is blurred because the scene was something to behold. Mountains in the background, the autumnal colours of the trees in the middle distance, the activity on the quayside and the sky filled with large birds of prey.
We disembarked and it soon became clear where we had been headed. we had arrived in the village of Hazratbal. Rashid was on his way to Friday prayers.
Hazratbal's special significance is derived from the fact that it houses a hair of the prophet Mohammed - The Moi-e-Muqqadas (the sacred hair). Wikipedia says that "according to legend" but it seems to be historic fact that the relic of the Prophet was brought to India in 1635 by a decendant of Mohammed called Syed Abdullah. His son inherited it but was unable to care for it and sold it to a wealthy Kashmiri businessman called Khwaja Nur-ud-Din Ishbari. The Mughal Emperor Araungzeb found out about it and seized the relic throwing Khwaja Nur-ud-Din Ishbari in jail for possessing it. Later, too late because the businessman had died in prison, he changed his mind and decided to restore it to its owner. The relic and the body of Khwaja Nur-ud-Din Ishbari were taken to Kashmir in 1700 and Khwaja Nur-ud-Din Ishbari's daughter, Inayat Begum established the shrine. Her family members have been the custodians of the relic ever since and are known as known as Nishaandehs (literally: givers of the sign).
In the early seventeenth century the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's Subedar, Sadiq Khan, had laid out a garden here and constructed a palatial building, Ishrat Mahal or pleasure house in 1623. However, the Emperor, during his visit in 1634, ordered the building to be converted into a prayer house with some additions and alterations.
During the time of Aurangzeb, when the Moi-e-Muqqadas arrived in Kashmir in 1699, it was first kept in the shrine of Naqshband Sahib in the heart of the city. Since the place was found to be insufficient in view of the unprecedented rush of people who thronged the place to see the relic, it was decided that it would be shifted to Hazratbal, then known as Sadiqabad. The Hazratbal Mosque of Kashmir is a beautiful structure of immaculate white marble. The Muslim Auqaf Trust headed by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah started the construction work on this marble structure in 1968. The construction took about eleven years and the mosque was completed in 1979.It is a blend of Mughal and Kashmiri architectural styles, with a three-tiered roof topping walls and porticos of brick masonry on a base of dressed stone
The relic is displayed to the public on religious occasions, usually accompanied by fairs. Apart from these occasions, Friday prayers are offered at Hazratbal (also known as Assar-e-Sharief, Madinat-us-Sani, or simply Dargah Sharif) and attended by throngs of people. Hazratbal is remarkable for being the only domed mosque in Srinagar; the others having distinct pagoda like roofs. The shrine – mosque complex is situated on the western shore of the Dal Lake opposite Nishat Bagh and commands a grand view of the lake and the mountain beyond. See the next posting for a distant view of Hazratbal Mosque from the other side of the lake.
www.spirituality.indiatimes.com concludes its piece with the words:
"The Hazratbal mosque, standing like a glowing dream with its pristine grace reflected in the waters, is an abiding symbol of the potential for warmth and amity among different people."
I think I can confirm that. Rashid had quietly paddled me in his shikara to a great place. A place where I can verify that everyone I encountered was full of the warmth of human kindness.
Having googled Hazratbal to pad out the scant information I had about the Mosque I came across Nasir Jeelani's blogspot. He says (and I apologise for having corrected a couple of typographical errors):
"It was on December 27 , 1963 when a mass upsurge empted (sic) in Srinagar following the disclosure, a day earlier, that The Moe-i-Muqaddas - The Hair of Prophet Mohammad (S.A.W)- had been stolen from the Hazratbal shrine. The Moe-i-Muqaddas, kept in a tube of glass and ritually exhibited few times a year, remaining locked in 2 wooden cupboard otherwise. Its theft resulted in a public outcry in Srinagar.
It was restored on January 3,1964 as mysteriously as it was stolen a week before. But during the intervening period, wailing throngs of about a lakh of people swirled through the snow-clad roads of Srinagar.
Throughout January, tension continued to mount in Srinagar as the mere announcement of the return of the Moe-i- Muqaddas failed to pacify the sentiments of the populace. Calm was restored only after a special verification ceremony was held to establish that what had been recovered was really the hair of the Prophet and not a substitute."
I wonder how it was verified as being the real thing? Surely they didn't do DNA analysis then did they? It would surely be sacrilege to do that.
It's a faith thing, I suppose. In the first place you have to believe that when Syed Abdullah left Medina what he had really was a hair that belonged to his forbear. There's no reason to suppose it wasn't. Its location between then and the day in 1964 that it was stolen was always accounted for, so it is a shame that there should have been a break in the evidence chain when it was stolen and everyone simply has to trust in the fact that the true relic was restored.
While Rashid attended prayers I had a walk around and took a couple of photos of shops in the neighbourhood. I couldn't find a candlestick maker's but I did find the butcher and the baker.
I think my picture of the bakery is a little more cheerful than the one in the series of postcards I sent home.
I suppose that with so many people thronging to Prayers the guy in the fast food stall had a good chance to sell some of the mountains of snacks he was preparing.
On our way home to the houseboat we went through what was left of the floating vegetable market (most traders having gone to Prayers or home by then) and some provisions were collected for the evening's dinner which got a special mention in my notes as "Gd Fish Curry v.hot". The last picture below is one of the postcards I sent home. The floating market when that was taken was obviously a bit busier. It was probably taken in the morning.
