Kashmir Diary – The Bund, Srinagar
The unhappy land.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
A pathway by the Jhelum, the Bund teems with Kashmiris, not tourists.
The Delhi Walla is in Srinagar, Kashmir’s capital.
In the afternoon, schoolboys sit on the riverside slopes, while schoolgirls stand around chaat stalls. Others lounge in a garden that is opposite Ahdoo’s, a hotel popular with Delhi journalists who periodically land in the town to cover the unrest in Kashmir.
The Bund has many tailoring shops and a few abandoned houses, whose wooden balconies look down towards the empty houseboats.
Congested alleys link the quiet Bund to the bustle of Residency Road.
A Christian cemetery lies nearby.
Hardly any woman is seen during the evening hours. Men walk alone. Some stand by the river and stay still for several moments. They look like statues.
As the daylight fades, the mountains seem to come closer to the Bund. The world shrinks. It gets intense.
Images of the Bund
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The Noor Houseboats used to be on Nagin Lake?? The Christian Grave yard is so sad now, my Father used to organise the up-keep of that. Sad place now Kashmir and so many lovely memories.