Fairytale

In iPhotograph- Fairytale I recount the thrill of our secret destination and realizing where we were. Our trip to Gurez had been an unplanned and very spontaneous trip. Also our trip organizer hadn’t revealed our destination. We only knew uptil the last minute that we were heading to Srinagar.

After a long flight, drive and a stop for some kahwa we were suddenly looking at shikaras bobbing in the Nigeen Lake. There was a slight drizzle and we were thrilled to be spending the night on a houseboat. Something we didn’t expect to after the long journey. We huddled up in the shikaras the feeling slowly washing over us where we were, in beautiful Kashmir. Even now I say to myself that one day I’d go back and spend a lot of time there. Soak it in some more.

When our shikara reached the houseboat there were lotuses floating in the water. We climbed up half tripping half falling out. That was me.

There was chatter among the group and I turned to look behind me and there was this most picturesque sight of Kashmir like it emerged like a fairytale from photographs I had seen and the movies. I quickly captured it. It was such a fleeting moment but I could have stood there forever.

Kashmir felt that way for me a fleeting moment. One which I took in long after I had left it. This picture for me is the moment or the many moments I felt that I wanted to stay there longer, not be somewhere else and realize the beauty. The trip was one that was secret and an adventure so one had to steal these moments and tuck them away. They feel like rubies to me to look at them and wonder if I had really been there.

iPhotograph- Fairytale for that moment in the picture that time stood still for awhile and a long held dream to be in Kashmir was right before my very eyes to see. This photograph with its deep reds, mist and silver, the shikaras lined up as if they were for me is a photograph timeless for me and etched in my mind forever.