THE KASHMIR TULIP FESTIVAL: “Flower, Flower everywhere and every bud to see!”
Mar 26, 2014
This April, let us welcome “spring” like never before. Ever thought about visiting the land of Paradise around the spring time? Not a very luring trip, it seems? Thinking of being disappointed with the missing snow, eh? Well, let us just assure you this trip is definitely going to be one of your most delightful & memorable tours of your life.
This is the time when the land of snow wakes up from her deep winter slumber and springs back life. The beauty of this place in this time will amaze you and pardon me to say it will even leave you dumbstruck! It suddenly seems that god himself has pulled off the white blanket of snow from the land and has painted the valley with every colour of life possible. The tree which had been lying frozen puling over its blanket of snow will now be standing there to welcome you with its boughs full of pretty blossoms. It might seem as an irony, that in this very land of snow you will see every shade of colour at this time; the green pastures, the yellow mustard fields, the pink –purple- red flowers, but not snow! It seems Kashmir is not the same Kashmir anymore! It has turned up to show a complete different face now. The amazing and the treat for the eyes will be the “Tulip Festival” which is celebrated every 1st week of April every year at the Indira Gandhi Garden.
So once you have entered the Biggest Tulip Garden of Asia – (yes! Am speaking about the Indira Gandhi Garden at Srinagar itself) we bet the first thing you will do is to utter “wow!”under your breath or simply you will turn speechless and your jaws will drop. Travel your eyes as far as you can over this 500 acres of land and you will only end up catching a different colour of tulip every time over the sea of different tulips. The Festival boasts of having over 60 varieties of tulips and more than 2 million of tulip bulbs blooming prettily in stretch of row. Name a colour –red, yellow, white, pink, violet, just name it and lo! You have it in front of you! And, believe me that is when you might even spare a second and say it in your mind “thank you Way to India” for making this possible! As though this was not enough, it is moreover topped up with a cultural show – the traditional song & dance programmes and the delicious local cuisines prepared by the Locals. In short it is in the “must visit” list!
So, go ahead, walk through the lanes with colourful tulips blooming everywhere around you, and who knows you might just recall the scene of Amitabh Bacchan & Rekha singing the soulful music from “Silsila” and might end of humming the tune “Dekha ek khwab toh yeh Silsiley hue, door tak nazaro mein hai gul khile hue” yourself!!
“JANNAT YAHAN!!! SRINAGAR HOUSEBOAT TOUR - THE KASHMIR KALI”
Feb 01, 2014
Call it by whatever or whichever name you want. It’s said, “What’s in a name???” Well, but sometimes I would say the name tells you all! Call it “the Paradise on Earth”, “Kashmir ki Kali”, “the Drink of Love” or the “Soul Kiss”, it’s all the same. All roads lead to Rome. Opps! Sorry, ‘All roads leads to Kashmir - Srinagar’.
Standing over the Shikara Stand near Dal Lake in Srinagar, waiting piously for your turn to be rowed across to stay in a houseboat, you will realize that life couldn’t have got any better. As you are being taken to your destination, the beautifully decorated houseboat lying amidst the Dal Lake, with the strong the determined Zabarwan Hills protecting it, you might just want to pinch yourself thinking if it a dream or not. Slowly and steadily, the shikara will take you the kingdom of Lake proudly owing the mighty Houseboats in the middle of the water body, waiting to be graced with your presence. With the few strokes of the carefully painted oar, you would be leaving behind the clatter of the busy roads and will be welcomed with the silent and the muted splashes of Water. Ah! Pure bliss, isn’t it? Step, into the wooden palace and enjoy the peace and the melancholy. If, taken a good look around the lake, one will be definite to spot the striking names of the houseboats. All shouting out for attention and demanding their royalty. Be it the ‘Pleasure Palace’, ‘Garden of Eden’, ‘Miss America’, ‘Honolulu’, and you will even find a ‘Neil Armstrong’! Well, it seems there is a remarkable ingenuity, genius in fact, at work in the naming of Houseboats. As the night falls by, the Dal Lake sets aglow with the bright lights of each houseboat. We promise you, if seen from a distance you might just mistake it as stars fallen upon this Paradise Lake of Srinagar. Well, at the day time the picture is completely different. It seems that the whole Lake has spring into life! Observe carefully, and you will realize how’s the morning is alive in a completely non-touristy manner. You will get frequent glimpses of the old houseboat owners dipping his baqerkhani roti in his tea and shouting out “salaam-e-walekum” to the other passer- bys, School children pelting from behind the houseboat and jumping into their shikharas waiting for them. You will be seeing frequently passing by floating vegetable gardens, people ferrying food, making music, selling bright, colourful, flowers. So, what else can one desire for? Lie back, enjoy the kashmiri food, listen the soulful music, buy a bunch of colourful bright flowers and that too all of these, floating in the water! Truly, a paradise on earth, isn’t it? So, what are you waiting for? Grab your bags, book your tickets and spend a day in the Paradise.