The Lesser Seen Side of Dal Lake
If you are in Srinagar and have done the usual, rushed touristy itinerary, you might want to slow down and soak in some Kashmir, before heading back home. If you would like to feel the cool morning breeze on your face and close your eyes to the sound of chirping birds, take a long ride in the shikara (a type of wooden boat used in Kashmir)at the crack of the dawn.
Dal Lake is centrally located in Srinagar. Anyone who would have visited Srinagar would have been here a few times. You could be staying in any part of the city but taking a trip to the early-morning vegetable market in the backwaters of Dal, is not difficult. Just make sure that you tie up with a Shikara-wala the previous night itself so that he is at the particular ghat (jetty) of the lake when you arrive the next morning.
As a child, I knew that there are floating gardens in the lakes of Srinagar and that a lot of vegetables and fruits are grown on them. In fact, while going boating in the Dal Lake, we would get to see a whole lot of vegetables and flowers growing on these random land masses in the water. My mother would relate, how, she as a child, she would hear stories of how these tracts of floating land would literally get stolen (rowed away) during the night. Probably by a greedy neighbour who would have been eyeing a chunk or two! Other than the vegetables growing on them, these lakes are also abundant in lotus root/stem called Nadur. We Kashmiris swear by the taste of those vegetables. We often hear people say “Dal’ik Nadir” (the lotus root harvested from Dal) are the best! The farming that happens in these lakes is serious business. They are sold on the boats every morning to vegetable vendors at designated spots in the lakes(akin to a sabzi mandi).
Two years back, while on a holiday in Kashmir with my school buddies, I added to the itinerary, a ride to this early-morning vegetable market. We were staying at Nishat (a residential locality near Dal Lake). There are several ghats that line the boulevard which runs around the lake, from where you can take a shikara to whichever side of the lake you are going towards. If you would like a boat ride before the onset of dawn, you need to organize the shikara the previous evening itself.
The next morning we were up while it was still dark. It was early April so it was quite nippy. We wrapped our warm Pashmina shawls around and hurried towards the jetty, where the boatman was waiting for us. As we settled down comfortably on the soft cushioned boat, all we could hear was the gentle lapping of the water caressing the sides of the shikara. The Zabarwan mountains looked midnight blue as the sun was still well hidden somewhere behind. The shikara wala was carrying kahwa (a type of green tea that Kashmiris love) in a flask and offered us some, which we gladly accepted.
As we rode along the rows of houseboats, everything was quiet. The guests in these houseboats would still have been deep asleep under their quilts, too early to begin the day! The sky had slowly started getting the pale pink hues of dawn, though the sun was yet to rise. By now, we were well inside the backwaters of the Dal and Nigeen lakes, hard to tell where they merge! We silently moved through tall green grasses and bright yellow mustard blooms around us. After the harsh winter in the Valley, along with the first few flowers and fruit blossoms, one can see ample mustard farms blooming everywhere. The stunningly beautiful colour of it against the rocky mountains and the blue sky leaves one truly mesmerized.
Very soon we could see boats laden with vegetables and flowers rowing alongside us, going towards the marketplace. The sun was peeping out from behind a tall peak in the mountains. The sky was a mix of orange, blue, and golden. Everything looked very ethereal. Just ahead we saw a large assembly of dozens of boats, each carrying a variety of seasonal vegetables and flowers. None of us had witnessed this sight before so we were intrigued to see the exchanges between the different sellers. There was a lot of animation and noise with which transactions were happening. Not paying much attention to what deals were getting made, I could not but help eye the freshly harvested greens. Lake-fresh! There are certain vegetables that are a staple of Kashmiris — like the kohl rabi, and the lotus root. Most boats were loaded with these. Then you had the mallow leaves, fenugreek, spinach, spring onions, green garlic, round pink radish, and much more. It was hard to take your eyes off the fresh bounties of nature, that we were literally surrounded with. Just to let you know, Kashmiris may love their meats, they equally love their greens too. The emotion that a meal of haakh batt’e (collard greens with boiled rice) evokes in a Kashmiri is similar to what a dal chawal would evoke in another Hindustani.
The boatman mentioned that since this was still early spring and the earth had just woken up from its winter slumber, the best was yet to come. As we know, summer is when the Valley is in its prime and that’s when you see a plethora of other vegetables and especially the flowers, which were missing at that time. I made a note in my mind, to come back again some summer.
For any other information or feedback, you may write to me at namrata.wakhloo@gmail.com
