Dear....
Hello. I did not write "Dear Follower" because no one seems to be following. But I will continue to write for posterity. Some day some one may find it interesting.
These stories have been inside me for years aching to get out. Thoughts circle my mind, begging to be told and written. I worried; what if the stories are not interesting? What if no one read these? What if no one cares? I realised that telling the stories is for me, a satisfaction and will keep me away from wasting time on useless issues and intruding into other people's lives. If someone else benefits, that is wonderful. If no one reads it, that is fine too.
The time period when I was born, the winters in Kashmir used to be very harsh. It used to snow a lot. Almost all houses used to have mud roofs where the accumulated snow would mean a high load on the house. The houses were mainly built with mud/burnt bricks joined together with mud or lime. Only few houses used to be built with cement. If the snow would not get removed quickly, there would be a danger of the house collapsing. I have seen people removing snow from the roofs with long wooden showels even during night in continuing snowfall. There used to be travelling workmen who would be visiting the habitated areas to offer to remove the snow from the roofs - of course against hefty payments. We have used their services a number of times.
There would be lot of snow already accumulated on the ground. With added snow downed from the roofs, the snow on the roads would be considerable. It would not be levelled on the roads adjacent to the houses. There would be mounds and valleys. Walking on them would be a nightmare. There would be lot of falls even after walking very cautiously on these roads. The snow would be removed only in March. It would be deposited into a water body - river or lake tributary nearby
You must have heard about "kangri's". It used to be a burned clay pot insulated and provided with a handle by weaving of lean tree branches around it. Charcoal would be put inside the clay pot and then allowed to burn in a controlled manner. Everyone used to have a personal kangri and he would warm himself against cold by keeping it under the pheran. If we had to go to the market, we would carry the kangri under the pheran. With no special shoes and with our hands inside the pheran, it would be very slippery and tough to maintain balance walking on the snow mounds. The falls would be frequent. The live coal from the kangri would fall on us. Nearby people would come to rescue and help us stand on our feet. This used to be a common occurrence. There would hardly be a day when we would not see two or three people fall down in this manner.
Kashmir winter would be very severe for two months. It had three phases for severity. The first phase would start from around 24th December. This would last 40 days. This phase would be called "chilai kallan." The second phase would start immediately after the first phase. The second phase would be called "chilai khurud." This phase would last for twenty days. The last one was called chilay "bachha" The last one would have ten days duration. The last one was feared to be coldest and toughest part of the winter. Additionally, there would be no electricity. Electrical current was there but the voltage used to be so low that the filament of the lamp would light up very very low. Even when the electrical lamp would be on, we would have another light source to provide some illumination. 1% houses used to have a "bukhari" - a metal container with a metal pipe connection, the other end of the pipe open to the outside. Wood would be burnt inside the container. This would provide heat in the room. The smoke would get routed outside the room through the pipe. Usually people would settle down in the ground floor area during winter and upper floor area during summer. Some people used to have a basement type room for the winter.
I spoke about kangri in the para above. The kangri was also a weapon during street brawls. Kashmiri muslims always used to have a temper on short fuse. Even after a short argument between two persons, they would take out their kangri and hit it on the head of his rival. The rival would retaliate. Two to three blows with the kangri would cause both weapons useless. Then they would have weapon less fight with the head to head strikes (This would be called "thol" in the local language.) Head to head hitting used to be very common. This must be the only place in the world to have this type of combat.
Having touched the fight episode, I am reminded of the frequent fights on river banks involving two young ladies. The ladies would usually be sister in laws. Those days, transportation by boats was happening more than transportation by road transport. Rice for ration would be transported by large sized boats. The boats would park at earmarked place on the river bank in every mohalla. Every morning, people would come and take ration from the boats. I do not understand why, but almost every evening there would be a fight on the bank of the river. Two ladies would be fighting. Boats would change, ladies would change but the fight would continue. They would shout at each other and use very rude, un parliamentary, uncivilized and rough language. They would also sometimes have a physical combat also, resulting in tearing of clothes. Some times anticipating the damage to their pheran, they would take off the pheran and engage in physical combat. Only after the male members would come, they would disengage and stop the fight. The spectators would be watching and hearing, looking down from the bridge. I have watched some fights too, a great local culture among the muslim population.
Bye for today.
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