An Ode To Gulmarg

Having dreamed of it all her life, Padmaparna Ghosh finally ticks the Kashmir hill station off her bucket list. And finds, in its tall peaks and grassy meadows, all kinds of paradise.

It had been five hours since we began our three-day hike in Gulmarg, and I was sure we were on the wrong track. There was no other explanation for why we were so close to the warm, yellow lights of The Khyber Himalayan Resort & Spa, from where we had set off that morning. But it couldn’t be so, I thought, because Wali Mohammad Wani, who has been a hiking guide in the region for more than two decades, was leading us through Gulmarg’s famed meadowlands. Were they really so close by? The proof was unmistakable. Above us, cable cars glided up and down, ferrying tourists 13,000ft up Mount Apharwat. And below us, I could see the resort, sitting close to the gondola’s starting point. The sight of these gondolas ascending a mountain while you are attempting to climb it on your own can feel like an insult and a defeat. At that moment, hiking seems like a fool’s errand. I wondered whether to ignore the temptation of the modern technology that dominates natural landscapes and labour proudly up the slopes or succumb and join other out-of-towners on an easier ride up the glorious mountain.

To me, a fairly seasoned mountain walker, the prospect of a hike through the alpine pastures around Gulmarg, even if just for three days, was exhilarating. Despite obsessing about, loving and walking the Himalayas for 20 years, I had somehow never ventured to these high-altitude grasslands. Over the years, in my head, Kashmir had come to embody its nickname of paradise—breathtaking, but unattainable.