Heaven on EARTH during the PANDEMIC

      Heaven on EARTH during the PANDEMIC

So I had already booked my air ticket, just one way, not the return yet because there were still doubts about whether I’ll be able to travel and come back as planned. We have seen enough, if not all, what happened in 2020 and a more devastating variant of the virus, “DELTA” in 2021 that swept away lives of our families, friends, colleagues and all the unknown that still hurt just as much. It is not easy to forget, well we will be fooling ourselves if we think we can but perhaps the more wiser and practical approach is to use that experience to our advantage and that is exactly what I was doing, or at least hoping that is how it would appear in the end!

 

Before I go into details, let me tell you a little bit about why I wanted to travel to Kashmir. I’ll keep it short and crisp so you don’t get bored. You might already be thinking what is this guy up to? Why would anyone need a reason to travel to Kashmir? Does that even make any sense? It’s a no brainer and you are right. I made a few friends years ago in Delhi who were from Kashmir and they invited me and I never went. I made multiple plans years ago and still didn’t go. It was the wait and what made it special was that my plans got cancelled every time. But the worst is that, the same threat was looming large all over again! But it was a real threat this time, not the excuses we make to do or not do something usually. It was the first week of December when I booked my ticket from DELHI to SRINAGAR and decided not to book the return as I wanted to explore JAMMU and the train experience from JAMMU TAVI to DELHI. If all went as per plan, I would come back via train. By the third week of the month, almost 10 days after booking my flight and a houseboat in SRINAGAR (Dal Lake) the “OMICRON” variant started spreading rapidly in India. You will probably think did I not see it coming? Or did I not learn anything from the last two years that I talked about at the start of this blog. And to answer that question, yes it took me by surprise. It was certainly different than the last two years. Going by what I had seen in 2020 and 2021, I’d be back home for a couple of weeks before the cases would surge in the country. The government’s approach certainly seemed to suggest the same too but “COVID” has been peculiar in it’s own way each time. So I decided to take a final call just two to three days before my date of travel. I decided to hold any further hotel bookings whether it was in GULMARG, SONAMARG or PAHALGAM.

 

 

You think talking to people is going to make it easier but you realize that the more you talk to people, the clearer you see what you actually want to do. It’s not what people say or advise, whether to go or not; friends or family will always give you the best suggestion in their own capacity but eventually it is our own decision. And every time I spoke to somebody, I was either explaining to people how can I make it happen or saying thanks for them believing in me that I can still do it. Three days before my flight I woke up with absolute clarity that I am going no matter what also knowing that I might be stuck there for a while if anything goes wrong. I was conscious enough to pack my work laptop just in case !

 

Well readers, that is all for today. In my next blog I will be talking about how my adventure began while “OMICRON” lead to night curfews and lockdowns across the country and how my flight to SRINAGAR got cancelled just 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time! And this was on the 8th of January 22 due to intermittent snowfall in the Srinagar Valley. Until then, goodbye, take care of yourselves and thank you for spending time reading my blog. I hope you found it worthwhile!