While travelling off the beaten track, not only do you travel in a soot free and serene environment but you explore new vistas too. Interesting things come in the way which normally remain hidden from common commuters in the area. The journey on the byways embraces you with lovely colours, atmosphere, people with bits and pieces of history. Also, there is no hassle anywhere in the way.
Set up in the foreground of the legendary Salt Range on the bank of River Jhelum, Mishri Mor Buss Adda (stop) is a wonderful place with a unique character. The passenger busses and wagons stop here and commuters get down to stretch their legs, have some food, do some shopping or to take another bus to a different destination. The Adda has developed into a shopping centre for the passengers and folks from nearby villages. Roads from Mandi Bauhud Din, Kharin, Jhelum and Cheri meet at this junction. Two unused railway tracks also pass through Mishri Mor: one on which a mad driven rail trolley used to play between Mandi Bahaud Din and other that was built to ferry material for the construction of Rasul Barrage. A washed up trail leaves from here for Till Jungian. Near the bus stop are Rasul Barrage Wildlife Sanctuary, a 'Siphon' where Lower Jhelum Canal passes under the Rasul Qadarabad Link Canal and shrine of Baba Noor Shah. People bring milk offerings to this shrine from far off places and the tradition is to leave the milk pot there at the shrine. The area around Wildlife Sanctuary remains alive with myriad migratory birds - chiefly coots, common teal and ducks.
Standing at Mishri Mor, let your gaze slip and you will find Salt Range hillocks smoking with mist defining the skyline. Across River Jhelum, landscape appears like a shore of another land altogether: a green belt dotted with trees and interrupted by the dawn's red and blue brushstrokes.
I have known this place all my adult life and have a cluster of memories attached to it. Legand has it that Mishri Khan of nearby village Kotehra opened up a small tea shop here in early 60s, hence the name. The place developed when Kharian Road improved and long route buses started plying by. This is my destination stop for going home and this is where I refashion my 'urban' attitudes before walking the remaining one and a half kilometres to my home village.
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