Srinagars Night Out

In 1987,we would be here till 3 a.m. and thousands of tourists would walk by. That has changed. But thank God,things are improving now. Today,we can stay open till midnight or even later, he says.

After 20 years of violence and fear,Kashmir is slowly reclaiming its night. And the stalls set up across the banks of the Dal Lake,selling Kashmiri handicrafts and artifacts,bear evidence of that shift.

But behind this calm is an unknown fear,an uncertainty and a lingering questionjust how long will this peace last?

Hussain set up his stall on the banks of Dal Lake 25 years ago and in these intervening years,little has changed around his stallexcept the signboards. A blue signboard on a showroom reads Tata Indicom. The board then read Persian Carpets, says Hussain.

On both sides of the Boulevard,vendors arrange their wares on pavementspapier-mâché products,Kashmiri carpets,shawls,namdas rugs and wood carvings. As the night sets in,the trickle of tourists turns into a stream and then a flood. The buzz remains well past midnight.

After three tumultuous summers,Kashmir has seen the return of tourists in huge numbers. This year,more than 7.5 lakh tourists have already arrived in the Valleythe highest-ever tourist arrival recorded. In 1988,the pre-militancy era,72,2035 tourists arrived in the Valley. As the rush continues,the tourism industry hopes the number will cross the one-million mark.

This is my first visit to Kashmir, says Rajesh Kumar,a tourist from Delhi. I had heard about Kashmirs beauty but the Valley has mesmerised me. I visited Gulmarg and Pahalgam too. I will return in September to witness autumn in Kashmir, he says.

The tourism industry is quietly celebrating the numbers.

The response has been amazing so far. It tourist arrival has been satisfactory for all tourism players this year, says Rauf Tramboo,president,Travel Agents Association of Kashmir. If the trend continues,we are hopeful of crossing the one-million mark this year, he says.

Kashmirs Director Tourism,Farooq Ahmad Shah,isnt impressed by the numbers. I dont think this is a big number for us. Kashmir is a destination for one crore tourists. We are still far,far away. But this is a good beginning. As a natural resort,we are the best in the country. Mountaineering,rafting,skiing,angling8230;we have everything adventurers love, he says.

Its well past 10 p.m. and Lal Chowk,Srinagars business hub,shows no sign of winding up. In a market that would close at 7 p.m. during the peak of militancy,these days,shops are open till midnight and autorickshaws wait patiently for tourists. The government has lit up the historic chowk with street lights. We are witnessing a change, says Nazir Ahmad Malik,a 52-year-old vendor who sells Kashmiri handicrafts in front of the historic clock tower at Lal Chowk.

Sometimes I cant believe that I am at Lal Chowk this late. Earlier,we would shut our stalls by 5 p.m. I had even stopped selling handicrafts and switched to selling cigarettes because we had no tourists. Now,that has changed. I hope it changes our lives too.

For people like Malik,the old days may have returned but the only missing element is the big-spending foreign tourist. In 1989,the year militancy started in Kashmir,67,762 foreign tourists visited the Valley. And today,even after the highest-ever tourist arrival figure has been recorded in the Valley,fewer than 16,500 foreign tourists have visited Kashmir.

There would be thousands of foreign tourists in the Valley before 1990, he says. They were fond of Kashmiri handicrafts and we would make money. But they are not visiting Kashmir anymore. We hope they return soon.

The optimism,however,is tempered by a realisation that the peace is tenuous. Over the last 20 years,many promising tourist summers have been lost to one big incident. After three summers of anti-government protests,people say the government may have managed to put a lid over the discontent but it hasnt addressed it.

Since last summer,around 5,000 arrests have been made and the government says more than 260 people have been taken away under the Public Safety Act. The inquiries ordered into the 118 killings of youth in police and security force action last year are still pending while the political and economic interventions announced by the governmentboth state and Centreare yet to be taken forward. Thus,this year when the Valley is already midway through the summer,the dread that the situation could change for the worse any minute is real.

And while Srinagar city may be getting its night life back,things are still to change in rural Kashmir where the army is out on the streets. As the sun disappears behind the mountains across Kashmirs villages,the markets shut,traffic on the roads vanishes and people return home,reappearing on the streets only the next morning.