GULMARG, JULY 7: Tinking of bells break the long silence of melancholy and the lighting of candles illuminates the interiors of Saint Mary's Catholic Church amidst the lush green meadows of this `Valley of Shepherds' as happy days once again return to the region after nine painful years of turmoil.For decades, Saint Mary's Church has been the centre of attraction for the tourists. People from all over the country thronged the hallowed place to celebrate Christmas at a time when Gulmarg is draped in a blanket of snow.``I hail from a place where there is no snowfall. All these years, we have been using cotton balls to decorate the X-mas tree. So we always longed to celebrate the day in the lap of natural snow. Insurgency in Kashmir kept this dream unfulfilled, but this year, it seems that dream will come true,'' said Mark Samuel, working for the Defence Services.Soon after the onset of militancy in 1989, the Church abandoned functioning and the priests fled as none, barring some Army personnel, daredto visit Gulmarg. A local from Tangmarg had been guarding the building and was paid by the state government. He had even acquired a small store inside the Church premises as living room and for cooking purposes.Recalling days of yore, Church guard Bashir Ahmad said, ``Despite cold and harsh winter, the flow of devotees to the Church never declined. While snow fell softly on the wooden top of the stone-walled Church, inside the people would gather to decorate the spruce trees with candles, fruits and nuts as they prepared for the holiest of the nights.''This year the Christian missionary with the help of armed forces has tried to restore the old glory of this religious place. Each month Father Paul Parris from Goa, who is presently based at St Mary's Church in Jammu, visits Gulmarg to collect contributions from the restoration fund box; with which the broken window panes and the Church roof-top has been repaired.The multi-hued lighting on the ceiling transforms the ambience from years of darkness tolight. Now, every Sunday the bells peal from St Mary's to announce midnight mass gathering. Masood Ahmad, of Kunzur, told The Indian Express, ``During Christmas, the young would sing hymns on musical tunes, the most common being the `Silent night, Holy night'. But none had an inkling that the rattle of guns would send these evenings into silent nightmarish nights.''Christian missionaries connected to the church have transformed the deathly days to a happy hum of children's voices as their missionary schools began classes. The school is the first of its kind in the tribal area near Gandola Cable Car Project. Children from remote areas like Kunzur, Treran, Tangmarg and Chandiloora walk down to attend regular class-work. The school is being funded by the Tyndale Biscoe School, Srinagar, which incidentally is the first school in the Valley having started functioning in 1880.``These people are doing real service to humanity. With the opening of this school we have dropped the idea of sending our wardto some reputed institute in Srinagar city,'' said Ghulam Hassan of Gulmarg.
