THE OLD CITY CHANGETH, YIELDING PLACE TO NEW

Srinagar’s horizontal skyline is changing to vertical, with new land laws and fresh aspirations. With many in the city alarmed that this will change the nature of the city from historic and craft-driven to chaotic, several residents are enjoying the benefits of condominium-living, finds Peerzada Ashi

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In Srinagar’s historic Gadi Kocha spice market, the heady smell of dried cockscomb and dandelion mix with the aroma of pear and apple, and the sinus-hitting turnip. Jute sacks, used as curtains to shops, protect these delicate ingredients. Abutting the shops is Zaina Kadal the wooden bridge built by Sultan Zain-ul-Abideen in the 15th Century. This is Srinagar’s city centre.

At one end of the Zaina Kadal bridge, off the ghats of the Jhelum, live the Qureshis, who trace their ancestry to 16th Century preacher Makhdoom Haji Ahmad Qari. “Srinagar’s old city is changing. Concrete is replacing wood. Markets like Gadi Kocha and the mohallas (small neighbourhoods) around it, with old structures barely survive now,” Zahoor Qureshi, in his 70s, says.

The Qureshis have been witness to the changing character of the city, both in terms of architecture and the way of life, in this city of seven bridges. “The ghats were buzzing social spaces for men and women. No one visits them anymore, except for those who wash shawls in the traditional way. The Jhelum used to be the highway of Kashmir, to travel and ferry goods,” he says. Before the affluent lived by the ghats; today, they live by the highways.

With the widening of roads and the change in people’s professions and lifestyles, more modern houses are taking the place of bungalows. Srinagar’s cityscape and skyline are changing. Laws now allow for taller buildings, dwarfing the natural elements that the city prided itself in. The easy availability of modern materials like cement, and the imminent entry of real-estate companies, are motivating inhabitants to sell the land on which old structures stand. A walk from Zaina Kadal up to Ali Kadal, two old bridges 290 meters apart, reflects the erosion of traditional homes, ghats, even bylanes.