It was a pleasant day in the valleys until I heard the sound of rifles firing. Not quite unexpected but fear gushed in. Anxiousness grew in me like fire and I started running. The whole valley was in chaos. People were running haywire. The Indian army was in full-fledged action to save the nation. Hearing the report of guns had always been a nightmare for us. The residents were being secretly evacuated to underground rooms where they had to live for days and months on the bunkers’ said Rehman chacha.

My favorite childhood stories were these thrilling ones told by him. A pastoral agricultural ethnic group called Gujjars are mostly nomads seen in this region, so was Rehman chacha who majorly lived in the valleys of Kashmir. He used to visit us during winters seeking food and shelter. He was a living adventure. His experiences of border attacks, firing, chasing, encounters with bears, traveling during winters for survival and many more had sown the seeds of curiosity in me as a child. I had already pictured myself exploring this place of breathtaking experiences. I grew up seeing pictures of this valley, only to realize how a place could be so graciously beautiful and yet deeply dangerous.

I had fallen in love with this town crowning the brim of India, Gurez. ‘Heaven on earth’ as it is widely called, the Himalayas are a group of mountain ranges in Asia having the Earth’s highest peak. It houses many beautiful destinations on its snow-covered high altitudes. Gurez is a valley on the Himalayas about 8000 feet above sea level, located 123 km from Srinagar in northern Kashmir. Inhabiting the community called Dards or Shins, the valley is undoubtedly the most beautiful destination in Kashmir amidst snow filled Himalayan mountains, Kishanganga river, diverse and rare wildlife including the Himalayan brown bear and snow leopard. Gurez, after the partition of Kashmir, has 3 regions out of which one belongs to Bandipora district and is administered by India. Roads here remain closed for 6 months of the year during every winter due to heavy snowfall, leaving the community cut off completely from the interaction with other parts of the city.

Every other time I visited Sopur, my home town in Kashmir, exploring Gurez was on my mind. We were constantly restricted to go to the valleys since it is the border town mostly prone to encounters and considered dangerous. This year, however, I decided to visit the wonder valley come what may. There is a new service of helicopters connecting Srinagar and Gurez which I wanted to avail. This could happen only with 10 pre-booked passengers and appropriate weather conditions. Since these weren’t fulfilled, I did not get the opportunity to take this mode of transport. I took my gang of cousins and finally decided to drive down from Sopur to Gurez. We glanced through the Google maps and routes, packed some tents and snacks and took off, although we had to lie to our parents about our destination.

My journey to Gurez started with an estimated time of 4 hrs uphill from Bandipora to Razdan pass followed by downhill reaching Gurez. Feeling the most excited to pick this mode of journey, I was relishing my peaceful evening drive to Razdan pass along these hilly curves amidst cool breeze. Little did I know that I was headed to an adventure! My drive was constantly interrupted by the barricades kept for checking at the check post. We had to undergo a detailed questionnaire and were asked to display our govt IDs and vehicle papers. This is a very common procedure here due to the construction of disputed project Kishanganga. River Kishanganga originates from Krishansar lake in the vicinity Of Sonmarg and flows diligently as her free will along the LOC and meets Jhelum River in Muzaffarabad of Pakistan-administered Kashmir to be called as Neelam River. A project is designed to divert water from this river to a power plant in Jhelum river basin which started in 2007 and was supposed to be completed in 2016. However as Pakistanis opposed this project since it affected the water flow in their country, the project is still under process and was inaugurated by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2018. Due to this conflicted project under construction, there is high security around this area. Closely knowing this conflict rose a thought in me. One of nature’s 5 elements, water is indiscriminately available for every living and nonliving creature. But how unfortunate that we humans fight over it like it’s our property! It’s time we realize out trivial existence and make peace with such issues.

Razdan Pass at an elevation of 3.557m (11,672ft) above the sea level is one of the dangerous roads in the world. Driving along these steep curves, watching the dead drop heights on one of the road and plain hills on the other side, cold fresh breeze loaded with oxygen hitting on my face and music in my car, I could say was diving deep in the ocean of nature. I bet every soul would dream to live this moment. This beautiful smooth drive started drifting slowly towards a bumpy one. Slight drizzles followed by heavy rains and lack of fog lights in my car decided to give the twist. We hurried this challenging uphill drive to reach Razdan pass, the highest peak of the valley around 7 in the evening to enjoy the dim lights of dusk and chilling cold breeze. As we warmed ourselves with Phirans (traditional gowns of Kashmir consisting two layers, one over the other extending to the feet), we started driving down the hill to Gurez which was estimated to be reached in half an hour.

Our drive got tougher at the dark hours of the day because of bad roads. Our eyes tried hard to spot the lights of another vehicle which could help our fog filled rainy way. After driving for two hours, we were still an hour away from the town and encountered the 3rd check post as high beams of light from torches fell on our faces signaling us to stop for the inquiry. We had the same procedure of checking repeated and headed towards Gurez. The situation rose a high tide of tension in me, as the pleasant burble of Kishanganga by my side calmed me. The Almighty has created a perfect combination of our emotions with the elements of nature. At places like these where nature is heard loud, you deeply realize this fact. I could spot a few nomads along the banks of river walking with lamps and lost myself for a while wondering about their strange lifestyles. By then we had arrived at the 4th checkpoint, where we found very compassionate army officers who asked our well being in addition to their regular checking process. They offered us tea and some snacks as they clearly knew we were going to sleep the night starving. We were to reach Gurez only around 11.00 p.m to be sure that we were not going to get our dinner in a secluded town like that. Just as we were thinking that we would finally reach our destination after all the adventure today, the car had a flat tyre at a distance of 1 km away from the town. We got out of the car to check the tyres on the pitch dark road. We knew we very at the verge of any danger that could come our way. The thought of wild animal attacks and encounters scared us to the core. High beam lights by army officials and the big lights from the project construction were the only signs of human existence in the sight. Fighting this fear, we quickly changed the tyre and got off. Finally, there came a moment where I felt the most alive and contented in the day as I stepped out on the land of Gurez. It was 11.00 pm and I was there in the place of my dreams.

Our drive on the rough roads along the hills, on a dark rainy evening with a turmoil of unexpected events, had come to a halt. On that drizzling night, I could see empty streets as I walked under an umbrella fetching for accommodation. I didn’t find any use of the tents that I carried since the place looked very lonely with the associated danger. We landed at a hotel after walking past an army camp and decided to stay there even though it was expensive, but was much needed after the roller-coaster drive that we had. The hotel owner was very hospitable and got us some home cooked biryani. On that eve of Eid, he definitely made us feel fortunate to have been able to savor the tasty dinner. I heartily thanked him and went to bed bidding bye to the hectic adventurous day that I had. As, it is colloquially said ‘the path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell’, I definitely had experienced something similar on my journey to Gurez.

Way to Gurez ends here only to open up to an enchanting episode of diving in paradise. Stay with me for the next part of this article to explore the land of heaven…