Friday, June 19, 2009

Happy valley






A drunken evening. A chauffeur driven ride to the tracks. An overnight sleepless glide on the rails to witness a morning full of chaos. A little bargaining with the locals and a 9 hour journey afresh. Sleep. A wake to nervousness. Scenes from the tele right before your eyes. Love at first sight. curiosity. Then sleep again.

A "welcome to the happy valley" signboard marked with bullet holes. Herds of beautiful women and men alike. Fields of saffron, circled with with monstrous rocks white, peppered with trees. The smell of greens. Fresh. Then a curfew stricken town. Gunmen and armoured vehicles that stand guarding daffodil lined streets.

Bombarded with a script i could not read.

Warmth. Food. Family. Food. Sleep. Food. And food some more - like I'd never had before.
A never ending water body - the life of the valley. Cholesterol-ed. People look at you with hope.
A panorama of meadows that meet ice. Rain. Hail. Snow.
Muddy glaciers melting into a thunderous river that runs with you everywhere.
A forest lodge at the edge of it and a night in it. Another night in a palatial house that floats. and then another. Some # to score. Wonderous.

Cherries!Strawberries! Straight off their orchids. A ford fiesta that took us everywhere and then finally to a fortress of an airport. xrays, sniffer dogs, frisking, anxiety.
Heroism!
A turbulent flight with a scared to death company, bad food and a malfunctioning in-flight entertainment system.

Welcome home. A wind blast tempretured at 44degree C. Long wait at the conveyor. Bad taxi. Nostalgia. Fuck!
All my wonders of why they want the valley so bad put to rest.

2 comments:

nidhi said...

you feel for the valley once you see it bleed, and not, no?

done well. cheers!

Gunjeet Sra said...

:)