On a good day, when traffic does not clog Jammu and Kashmir’s streets and highways; or if travelling is not impaired by the movement of security forces, Pahalgam takes exactly two and a half hours from Srinagar, says Aishaq Hassan, a driver. “Stare out the window. I will play you my list of old Hindi songs even if you do not understand it,” he says, already a tad overfamiliar.
As we leave the summer capital city’s polluted streets behind, the roads begin resembling poet Agha Shahid Ali’s Postcard from Kashmir. The lines from my Class 6 text book: “This is home. And this the closest I’ll ever be to home. When I return, the colours won’t be so brilliant, the Jhelum’s waters so clean, so ultramarine. My love so overexposed,” echo out of the blue. My lungs adjust to the crisp air from the sturdy grey mountains speckled with snow. There are acres of apple trees, and chinars with trunks thick as walls.
Published - May 30, 2026 10:26 am IST
Source: The Hindu - India News
