Lockdowns rob Dal of its romance, shikarawallahs of their livelihood

Srinagar: Rows of desolate shikaras anchored on the banks of Srinagar’s picture-perfect Dal lake remind 75-year-old Ghulam Ahmad Kallu of the not-so-perfect yet contented life he once led. The past year, divided into two distinct halves of misery, has turned those memories into his only source of solace.

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“If the August 5 lockdown snatched our livelihood, the Covid-19 lockdown took away the last vestiges of our existence as traditional shikarawallahs. Worse still, we have now been officially categorised as labourers,” Kallu, the president of the Shikara Workers’ Union, told TOI.

Although slightly better off than others, Kallu has had to sell off the family gold and other valuables to survive the double whammy. Fellow shikarawallah Latif Ahmad Dar, a 50-year-old father of two, took to selling boiled eggs and cucumber salad on a pavement along the lake as the impact of the prolonged lockdown accompanying the nullification of Article 370 in August last year merged into the economic devastation wrought by the Covid-induced shutdown.