How travelling changed my life

June 11, 2020

How travelling changed my life | Kashmir, India

As a child all my peers had their plans set, someone wanted to become an engineer, some doctor and some journalists, but every time I was asked what I wanted to become once I grow up, I had absolutely no idea. Life was boisterous then, life is boisterous even now. But back then, I mustered up the courage to come up with a serious answer, that I either wanted to become a model or a sweeper. Polls apart, but both the fields were and are of utmost interest. When in college, I participated in a fashion show and walked the ramp and realised that as much as I love being the hanger for clothes, I can't walk like a cat. So I turned my attention to being a sweeper and researched that there is actually a Street Sweeper Course available out there. Before I could nourish my dream my sisters decided that I am made for the media and thus Bachelors in Mass Media is what I should do, after all Mumbai is the hub of it. I haven't since then doubted their judgement. I love the works of media. Anything and everything.

When media started moulding my personality I realised, that I wanted to work and earn money only for one thing. To travel. Nothing else, not even fashion mattered to me as much as the thrill of travel did. So after many trials and errors, I started small with local trips, moving on to exploring my country India and then the world. Since then I've been to many places on the world map and I realised that there is so much of diversity in cultures, thoughts, traditions and beliefs but, there is one thing that is common everywhere - in every country's history, they are always the heroes. If you try to see them through their history you will feel their plight. Travelling changed me as a person, I started to focus on the bigger picture than my petty problems, I realised I am a natural when it comes to communication, I understood the true meaning of feeding your eyes with beauty and more than anything, I started to see myself as a tiny spec of dust in this huge humongous universe.

Out of all my travel destinations there is one place that changed me forever...

Kashmir, India

Gar ruhe firdaus, zahmen ast, hamin asto, hamin ast

(If there is ever a heaven on this earth, it's here, it is here).

I'd heard this quote along with numerous Kashmir jokes so many times in my life. I'd read so much about the problems in Kashmir. I'd seen so many movies on the troubles in Kashmir. But despite all this, I never felt for Kashmir. Until this trip.

The first thing I noticed about Kashmir was the sky, it was different than in any other part of India, it was the blue that you achieve after numerous filters on instagram. It was so clean, so pure, so alluring that like a kid in a candy shop, you felt the need to reach out and pluck of piece of the it. Staying in Mumbai for so long, I'd developed pollution allergy, which was so severe at that stage, that I'd lost my sense of smell, but the moment I stepped in Kashmir, it was like all my numb senses came alive. Trust me when I say I felt super.

An unfiltered photo of the sky | Pahalgam, Kashmir

The second thing that I noticed was the Kashmiriyat of Kashmiri people. There is no doubt that they are bestowed with beauty, they are so beautiful that even their cats are prettier than the rest. But they ain't aware of their beauty and this made them even more attractive. To add on to this, they are the most humble and hospitable community I've ever come across in my life. They will go beyond their way to help you and I have so many incidents and accidents to prove this, because my friend and I went there in August, 2018 around Independence Day. Not the most travel friendly time of the year for Kashmir, and we did find ourselves in a lot of uncomfortable situations, but there was always someone to stand up for us. We shared Maggie, Kahwa, Sheesha and stories with Kashmiris at every junction of our trip.

The family that served us water and Kahwa during our trek | Pahalgam, Kashmir

One of my most memorable evenings in Kashmir was when my friend and I were sitting in Winterfell Cafe, Srinagar. We were surrounded by travellers, students, musicians, artists and writers, all of our age, with thoughts and dreams like us. We found ourselves on a table with the owner of the cafe, a cartoonist, a government employee and a singer. We were chatting about life in general - aspirations and desires. What moved us, was the realisation that their dreams were like our dreams - young and filled with hope, but their reality was so different. They were all youngsters who'd seen blood, wars and murders, more in real life than in movies, they'd all lost at least one of their loved one - friend, family or partner, they'd all been stripped of their most basic needs, of their most normal life, but they were all smiling and hopeful nevertheless.

On the table at Winterfell Cafe | Srinagar, Kashmir

Since then it hurts me every time someone cracks a rude Kashmir joke, it moves me every time I read of deaths in Kashmir and it pinches me every time a movie miss-portrays Kashmiri people. Since my trip to Kashmir, the place is not just on the map, but also in my heart. The injustice that they face is not just in the articles, but also in my conscience.