From the Edge of Caution

The Roads Less Tense: Alternate Routes and Destinations You don't have to sacrifice beauty for safety. India is vast. If your heart still longs for hills and heritage, here's where you can go instead:

- Monjit P.

There's something magnetic about the northern frontiers of India—the soaring Himalayan peaks, the poetic silence of snow-blanketed towns, and the raw, unfiltered stories the land seems to whisper. For years, I've traced my footprints across border districts—Kupwara, Poonch, Turtuk, Kargil—seeking not just landscape but lived memory. I've shared kehwa with strangers in Gurez, heard folk songs in Uri, and gazed at barbed wires vanishing into mist. But this time, I didn't go.

This time, I paused.

The Pahalgam terror attack shook something deeper than my sense of national mourning—it rattled my instinctive confidence in spontaneous travel. As I sat with my backpack half-packed on May 7, news flashed of India's precision strikes under 'Operation Sindoor'. Nine terrorist targets across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were hit in retaliation. My phone buzzed with advisories. Friends called to ask if I was still heading north. I wasn't. I couldn't. And maybe, I shouldn't.

We travel to escape—but also to connect. Yet sometimes, the road demands more than just enthusiasm; it asks for responsibility.

The Border Isn't a Tourist Trail