Stranded In Srinagar

Stuck in a city on the verge of lockdown, two tourists have only one chance to get home

- Kartik Gera

THRILLED… OVER THE MOON... how else would you feel when you find out one of your best friends is getting married? The day Nishwan told me they’d set a date, glowing with happiness and a face splitting grin, I started looking up tickets from Delhi for my wife Charvi and I. An August wedding in Kashmir was sure to be a beautiful affair. I’d visited Nishwan’s home in Rawalpora, Srinagar once before but this would be Charvi’s first trip and I was eager to show her around. We were a bit concerned about traveling to a place where violence and unrest were not uncommon, but it was Nishwan’s wedding, so there was no question about it—we had to be there.

We landed at Srinagar’s Sheikh ul-Alam airport around 11 a.m. on 2 August. The airport was packed and busy but without chaos. Soon we were at the baggage carousel—Charvi was on her phone informing our families about our safe landing when she came across a news item online—the Amarnath Yatra (a popular pilgrimage) was canceled due to a terror alert. All visitors and pilgrims were to leave Kashmir immediately. No wonder there are so many people huddled around there, I thought, catching sight of a bunch of tourists lined up at a kiosk set up to handle queries about the, now nixed, event. We also noticed a large group of soldiers, around 200 of them, waiting at the next carousel and a military airplane that Charvi looked up and found to be a C-17 Globemaster airlifted. I felt a ripple of discomfort, but reminded myself of the obvious—this could well be commonplace here.