Gondola ride at Gulmarg

Tourists visiting Kashmir proceed to Gulmarg after their sight seeing trips from their base in Pahalgam.  Gulmarg is a hill station in a cup shaped valley of the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayan mountains.  It is at a distance of about 140 kilometers from Pahalgam and the journey by road takes about 3 to 4 hours, depending the stops on the way.  Gulmarg can also be reached directly from Srinagar by covering a distance of 56 kilometers in about 2 hours.  This place in the Baramulla district is one of the main tourist attractions and a visit to Kashmir is incomplete without a Gondola ride at Gulmarg. 

Gulmarg's original name was "Gauri marg", named after Godess Parvati, meaning the "Fair one". This was later changed as "Gulmarg", meaning "Meadow of flowers", thus indicating several types of wild flowers that bloom in the valley during the spring and summer months. The area is snow-clad in the winter months and is hence a favored destination for skiing and other winter sports. Gulmarg has the world's highest Golf Course at 8700 feet from sea level. The nature's bounty with the background of white snow and greenery around is a treat to the tourists and especially joyous to the children. 

From the base of Gulmarg town, tourists can reach higher levels in the snow clad peaks by taking a ride in Gulmarg Gondola.  The gondola ride can be had in two stages; the first of 400 meters or 1312 feet from Gulmarg to Kongdori and the second of 880 meters or 2887 feet from Kongdori to Aphawat peak. Gondola company charges a fare of Rupees 600 and 800 respectively for the two rides. This is the highest ropeway in the world and travel in the Gondola is indeed a pleasure.  Tourists need warm winter dress to enjoy the cool weather at the top of the peaks and the dresses are available for hire in the town as well as near the gondola station.

The Gondola project was completed about 8 years ago and is a safe and covered travel aid to the higher levels.  One can see the old cable car pillars of yesteryears alongside the new Gondola pillars which provided uncovered two-seater cable rides. The ride up to Kongdori opens up vast snow areas for the tourists to play in the snow and have other attractions like sledge ride, motorized sledge rides to higher levels and similar snow rides. Tourists are mobbed by the local sledge operators and they try their best to persuade even the old and unwilling to take sledge rides.

"Sledge" is usually a vehicle mounted on runners and drawn by animals or horses. But in Gulmarg, sledge is actually a wooden implement that is drawn by a person by pulling a rope tied to the sledge.  It is rather difficult to sit on them for the aged people. The marketing tricks used by the sledge operators makes a wonderful study in "Sales and marketing". They have a ready answer for every query or doubt and never quit at any stage of argument or bargaining. They find the weaker link in the family groups to convince the other unwilling members of the family and almost always succeed in catching their quota of tourists. The tourist is made to sit on them and pulled up to a higher level as agreed for a fare.  On the return journey, the sliding is quite fast and the base is reached in a matter of seconds. 

Tourists coming from other parts of Kashmir cannot use the vehicles hired from there in Gulmarg.  They have to use the horses available locally for traveling small distances to their hotels after returning from Gondola rides, in case they are unable to walk back. A one day trip to Gulmarg is highly rewarding provided the weather is pleasant. Otherwise, an extended day's stay will be required if the schedule so permits. 

First snowfall of the season

Today it is 29th October 2011.  Time:  9 AM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).  I was watching the only T20 Cricket Match between India and England which was about to start.  It was dull light outside and the Sun has not come out.  Temperature outside is rather a chill 36*F, equal to 2.2 degrees Celsius.  Temperature inside the house is a comfortable 72*F or 22*C.  Heating system is working overtime to maintain the temperature at 72*F.

Everything is very calm outside.  Being a Saturday, it is week end for every working person.  Things are quiet and there is little traffic in the nearby highway.  Suddenly there are white flakes falling from the sky.  It is snowing!  Half an hour later it is regular snowfall and we have the first snow of the season. 

We had a desire to see snowfall here during this visit.  Expectation was that we may see a white Christmas. For those who have seen sunrise many times, a new sunrise may not give that much of a thrill.  But for someone watching the sun rise for the first time, it is a different level of experience altogether. For us in South India, snowfall is unheard of.  May be,  people in Himachal or Kashmir experience it every year.  Snowfall may even bring lot of difficulty and misery for people living in those parts.  Going out may be a problem and saying inside without proper heating system may be even a bigger problem.  Those caught unawares in snowfall or snow storm, especially without proper winter-wear, may even be cursing the weather.  It appears this snowfall is a bit ahead of expectation in these parts of the country, though it is snowing in mid-west since a week and Denver has received heavy snowfall.

Out first tryst with snow was to be when we visited Kufri, near Shimla, some twenty five years ago.  Our visit was in April and it was well past snowing time and it was a disappointment. The next was a visit to Manali which was again in April and there was no snowfall.  We were taken to a place some 50 Kilometers away from Manali called snow point.  We played on some snow which had already fallen to the ground and frozen as ice in most parts.  It was freezing cold and we were not comfortable in hired winter gear.  The actual feel of snow was later in our visit to Sikkim.  We had been to a place called Nathu La on the India-China border about 55 Kilometers from the Sikkimese Capital, Gangtok.  It was snow everywhere - above, below and surroundings, but we could not see any actual snowfall.  It was more of a mist cover than snow.  The nearest snowfall we saw was in Minneapolis three years ago, in October 2008, when for a few minutes we could see snow falling with along light rain.  But today's snowfall is the actual snowfall experienced by us.

भवन्ति नम्रास्तरवः फलोद्गमैः (Bhavanti namrahstaravah phalodgamaihi), the poet says, meaning that the trees bend with the arrival of fruit bearing season.  Bending due the weight of fruits.  Today I can see that it is भवन्ति नम्रास्तरवः हिमगमैः  (Bhavanti namraahstaravah himagamaihi)!  Trees are bending because of the arrival of snow.  Some of the trees have bent by as much as six to eight feet due to the weight of snow on their leaves. If we go to North Karnataka, around Gadag, in cotton season, we can see acres and acres of lands with white cotton flowering in the cotton growing lands.  Just like red everywhere in the nearby chilly growing fields.  Today it appears all the trees here are loaded with cotton and ready for harvesting.  We went out and stood in the snow for a few minutes.  Now it is "Footprints on the grains of snow" where we were standing there,  just like Footprints on the sands of time.  Photographs taken now are a treasure for the future.

It is a sight to see lumps of snow falling from the trees to the ground.  The white carpet of mowed grass fields has a six inch white carpet of snow over it.  Birds appeared to be confused and were flying around for some time.  Some of them even drank the water from melting snow flakes. Now they appear to have settled down in their nests. it could be a hard day for them to find their food today.  But nature has probably its own way of compensating them.

Snowing has intensified.  It is not a time to be with laptop.  It is a time to watch and enjoy.  Watching mother nature in a white Saree is  indeed a pleasure. And a long cherished wish fulfilled.