Kashmir's Never-Ending Charm

Seasonal beauty adds to Kashmir’s never-ending charm.

- Puneet K. Paliwal

Shall I compare Kashmir to a summer’s day? After all, I did visit it just this July to photograph Sukoon Houseboat (‘Valley Views’, p.40, Aug ’18), when the apricots were plump and ready for picking and the meadows lush green. But as I step out of Srinagar’s airport on an autumn October morning, the same chinar I recall waltzing in a viridescent coat in the summertime breeze is now haloed in gold and embellished with crispy yellowing leaves. Such is how seasons change in Kashmir—viridian becomes sepia, verdant hills become icy mountains, and the artist who has painted Kashmir on a canvas befriends an entirely different palette.

This time too I pick up a fallen chinar leaf (today it is a pale yellow, then it was an olive green) with the intent to frame it beside its ancestor on my apartment wall, for both comparison and poetry.