Gulmarg

गुलमार्ग , "The Meadow of Flowers" is an hour-hour and a half ride from Srinagar. At 2500 meters it is nestled in the lap of the Himalayas. A popular tourist destination, it is within miles of the Line of Control, and is hence protected by the army at all times. The only difference is that the presence of the army is unobtrusive and there is only a single check post where frisking of tourists is done. The village is inhabited by hotel employees and guests and people manning the Gulmarg Gondola, which is the cable car project of Gulmarg. There are no permanent residents at Gulmarg.

Gulmarg experiences heavy snowfall during the winters, which makes it a popular ski resort. The snow line is within reach of a short cable car ride during the summer months. The snowcapped hills seem to form the walls of a bowl into which green meadows bedecked with flowers of vibrant hues of white, purple and yellow make you spin.

By the way...Thank you Meenakshi Aunty for the wonderful pictures of the flowers and plants you took on this trip. They are really beautiful!


Meadows as wide as the sky, with clouds of flowers and tall grass.

There are two routes to get to the Gondola by road. Luckily for us the shorter route was closed(We suspect it to be a ploy by the locals to force us into taking a donkey ride to Gondola across the fields). Our driver fortunately knew of this and said that there was a longer route around the meadow to the Gondola...and so we went. Another stroke of luck came when the ladies wanted to take a breather from the stuffiness of the jeeps.

This is when we decided to walk down into the fields and among the flowers. After a few snaps we decided to run across the meadow and let the jeeps catch up further down the road. Now I've always imagined what it would feel like to be able to run unhindered. This obviously is too difficult to do so in the cities.

...and so we ran!

We ran like we never did run in our lives. Through the grass, leaping over thatches of flowers...even though marshy patches, splattering mud all over(thankfully none of us slipped and fell into the muck!). Eventually we did run out of breath. But this would be for a minute or two...and off we would go, running again!

the aftermath...

Yep, our shoes did take a beating that day. In fact Karoo's sole started giving way!

Aanj got the worst of it...splattered mud upto his arms...


At the end of it all...it was worth it!