A 100 LAKE RECORD

Pushed into nature by the melancholic hypnosis at Tosamaidan, Mahmood Ahmad spent 15 years trekking and hiking to document Kashmir’s 100 high altitude lakes, rare feat he achieved in 2015.

- Mahmood Ahmad

For me, 2015 was the most gratifying year as I was able to trek to the 100th high altitude lake that summer. For all these years, it has been uninterrupted treks to the Kashmir mountains to seek pleasure and happiness from nature. Unlike people who count years of their lives, I have been counting the lakes I trekked each year. In 2020, five years after my century, my count has gone up to 112 lakes.

I am so used to these treks that Kashmir’s decade’s old turmoil hardly impacted my routine. To many, Kashmir symbolises a place of conflict where venturing out means inviting trouble, going into the mountains is considered scary. To me, however, these mountains are like mother’s lap where I have always found solace. In fact, my photo library has swelled so much that I had to purchase a 4 TB hard-disk.

EMERGENCE FROM WATER

All these mountains surrounding Kashmir have stores to tell about Kashmir’s evolution as the Paradise of the East.

Nilmat Puran, the only text preceding Rajatarangni defines Kashmir as a huge mountain lake where Parvathi used to roam in her boat for pleasure trips till it was drained. Anand’s huge plough divided the mighty chain of the Himalayas flanking towards the west into two parts allowing the vent to the waters of Satisar out, making valley habitable for the Nagas to dwell. That was the beginning of the 5440 sq km valley emerging as the “paradise”. Geologists have their own scientific arguments surrounding around the tectonic theory that drained Kashmir.