Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, where an earthquake hit hard on October 8, 2005, is known worldwide for its natural beauty and atmospheric serenity. Here I am going to explain some of the beauties that I remember from my to-ing and fro-ing in the area in the past. You have to relate this to the present day's devastation as caused by one of the deadliest earthquakes in history.
The beauty of the Azad Kashmir landscape lies in the light, unlike any other tourist mountain region in Pakistan including the northern areas. Fiercer, stronger, and sharper light silhouettes the mountain resort and scattered houses on slopes in ever-changing patterns against the skyline. The sunlight plays with the green nooks and crags of the Kashmir landscape, tossing out long shadows that ripple across the green gorges, sometimes through tall pine and fir trees. It turns the hills from opal in the morning to sapphire to gold to silver and finally to dross before descending swiftly in a bright red ball in the evening.
It is the light of sculptors, not painters, who love the soft diaphanous hues and tones. Out of that light comes the great image of green hills and the long, clean lines of the spurs separating craggy countryside from the plains. In the background of photogenic natural settings, Kashmir weather proves fickle, switching from sunshine to downpour and again to sunshine in minutes. The rain that falls over the land and blots out the sun can be seen in the red, grey, and brown layers in the cliffs that plunge dramatically into the horizon.
Whereas the beauty in most places in the world has been marred by the detritus of tourism, one can still find secluded places in Kashmir — relatively quiet where one can find privacy as well as unmarred vistas of the green hills. Away from the hustle and bustle of the life in the fast lane, in Azad Kashmir one can enjoy a sense of solitary elation at that height — to meditate, and have a rendezvous with life. No hurrying up.
Article comments
1 - Mayank Austen Soofi
It is a very evocative piece. Thanks.
2 - Mayank Austen Soofi
While mourning the death of people in 'Pakistani Earthquake', we must not forget that many people were also killed in the same earth-rattle in the Indian-administerd Kashmir, too.