A nostalgic return to Kashmir becomes a vivid four-day journey across Srinagar, Gulmarg, and Pahalgam—through gardens, temples, lakes and mountains, filled with childhood memories and haunting natural beauty, for Sohaila Kapur.  

A personal travelogue revisiting the timeless charm of Kashmir, this four-day journey through Srinagar, Gulmarg, and Pahalgam captures the region’s breathtaking Mughal gardens, pristine lakes, historic temples, and snow-draped peaks. With reflections on childhood visits, unexpected reunions, and moments of peace in iconic places like Nishat Bagh, Chashme Shahi, Pari Mahal, Kheer Bhawani Temple, and the Martand Sun Temple, this piece blends nostalgia with the sobering realities of tourism, security, and climate change in the Valley. From sipping spring water to spotting pink lotuses on Manasbal Lake and confronting the melting snows of Apharwat, it is a poetic reminder of Kashmir’s lingering magic.

I have this strange attachment to Kashmir. Perhaps it’s because of our sojourns there during my childhood. Nature and the climate add to the pure joy of travelling there. Lush landscape, folding mountains, milky streams… I re-lived that dream this July for four days, during a much-needed break from work.

Srinagar: A Garden Trail and Old Roads

Our first port of landing was Srinagar. There was a rush of traffic, the same that I had witnessed two years ago during one of my visits, but definitely fewer tourists this time because of the Pahalgam attack on April 22.

One of the reasons for travelling there now, despite caution from friends, was that it would be very safe, with the army, BSF, CRPF and J&K Police patrolling everywhere. Besides, hotels were beckoning tourists with rates that were ridiculously attractive!

To our luck, we discovered a homely place run by a family friend, who resurfaced after many years. He had a beautiful hotel in Gulmarg that got razed during the militancy, but had now returned to his old home in Srinagar, where he started his modest Bed & Breakfast place.

It was a nostalgic trip for both me and my friend Anuradha, a Kashmiri Pandit, born and brought up in Delhi, but who has many childhood memories of family holidays there. Our first day was spent with Salim, our garrulous driver, who found the two of us amusing if exasperating, with our conflicting demands.

He drove us around the city, driving past Rambagh, Jahangir Chowk, Badsha Bridge, Lal Chowk, Maulana Azad Road, Residency, Khayyam Chowk (was it named after the Bollywood music director, we wondered… Salim, generally very knowledgeable, was stumped too!), Khanyar, Navhatta Chowk, Jamia Masjid, Bagh-e-Shagoofa, Nageen and Dal Lakes, Kashmir University, Rumi Gate, Botanical Garden… We stopped for a breather at Nishat Bagh, a beautiful, Mughal-style terraced garden, with blossoming trees, flowers and waterfalls. Nishat Bagh in Srinagar was built by Asif Khan, the elder brother of the Mughal Empress Noor Jahan, in 1633 AD. He commissioned the garden during the reign of her son, the Emperor Shah Jahan.

It was a Saturday. Parents and schools had brought their toddlers to the garden. A number of them had stripped and were joyfully splashing about in the fountains, right next to a board admonishing visitors not to pollute the water!

We were accosted by a group of people who claimed to be yatris whose purse had been snatched and were requesting money. We hurried away.

Mughal Springs and Hillside Histories

Our next destination is again a Mughal-style garden, but with a natural mountain spring, called Chashme Shahi. It also had pink walls, flowers bordering the lawns and stone steps. The uppermost wall contained a small, grey, mosque-like structure, out of which once gushed the spring. Today, we see just a trickle from one of the stone pipes. Nevertheless, it is refreshing to sip the cold and pure spring water and then splash one’s hot face with it.

Pari Mahal is next on our list. Built high on a mountain, it has a stunning view of Dal Lake. The same pink paint adorns the tiered walls, with arches. It was built over an old Buddhist monastery in the 1600s by Dara Shikoh, the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s eldest son, who used it as a library to study astronomy and astrology. Later, the garden was taken over by the Jammu & Kashmir government. It was also used as a top-secret interrogation centre, as the bare, solitary cell at the top seems to indicate.

Temples, Trickling Springs and Lotus Dreams

The next day we drive to Gandarbal and visit the Kheer Bhawani temple and another Mughal garden. Kheer Bhawani is a revered Durga temple in Tulmulla, about 25 kms from Srinagar. It got its name from the Prasad of milk that is offered there. There is a small pond around the temple that supposedly changes colour depending on the circumstances. If the world is peaceful, it is a milky blue (which it was); red is supposed to symbolise a dangerous state of affairs and black water represents widespread destruction!

The crowning glory of that day’s trip was a shikara ride in the Manasbal Lake, in the Safapora area of Ganderbal district. The lake had blooming pink lotuses by the hundreds in its waters… a sight for weary city-bred eyes! Fishermen were catching and cleaning fish for customers in their catamarans.

The shikara took us to a small, Mughal garden, on an island, where the Emperors serenaded their queens and lovers, in the lap of lush, green nature. Then it started raining. The gentle rhythm of the raindrops along with the distant sound of the azan mesmerised us. One longed to sleep! We realised the truth of what Emperor Shah Jahan had said about Kashmir… ‘If there is heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here…’

We ended the day with a treat by friends at the Amar Singh Club in Srinagar. The Club is 92 years old and was built by Amar Singh, Maharaja Hari Singh’s father. He built it in defiance of the British, who disallowed him into their white boy’s club!

Pahalgam, Pilgrimage and Ancient Stones

The next day was the trip to Pahalgam, my favourite place in Kashmir. En route, we visited the Martand Sun Temple in Mattan, Anantnag. When we arrived, we found it locked. The Sun God was in all his blazing glory and was beating down on us mercilessly!

While we were figuring out what to do, we were approached by a group of people from Benaras, who mysteriously had access to the authorities and had got the temple opened. They requested us to accompany them before the gates were shut again! We entered. The structure within was colossal and built so precisely that the sun fell on the exact spot where the deity would have been, had it not been plundered. The temple was built in the eighth century A.D. by the reigning king Lalitaditya Muktapida and was said to have been destroyed by Sikandar Shah Miri, who ruled Kashmir in the 13th–14th centuries.

After that scorching afternoon, we spent an extremely pleasant evening by the Lidder river in Pahalgam. We chose a beautiful little hotel, appropriately called ‘Heaven’ (though spelt as ‘’Heeven’) that overlooked the river and had our rather late lunch there. They allowed us to go down to their private bank and paddle in the rushing water. Our day ended with a long drive back to Srinagar, stopping en route at a factory outlet to check out some shawls and stoles…

Gulmarg: Clouds, Courage and Climate Change

The next day we got up bright and early for the trip to Gulmarg. We were excited, as we wanted to be in the mountains. It was a cloudy day which made the drive very pleasant. In an hour and a half, we reached Gulmarg. I went straight to the gondola and bought my ticket to go up to Apharwat peak, at a height of 14,403 feet. It is one of Asia’s highest Gondola stations, which developed a technical problem earlier this year, trapping tourists in their cabins for a couple of hours! My friend refused to go on it but I summoned the courage to take the trip because I had loved the previous experience a couple of years ago. Needless to say, it was a very enjoyable ride, even though at the first phase one read warnings about people with asthma and heart problems, who were advised to return from there. One did think but one also dared!

At the top, those who were willing, were taken for some ‘activities’ in the snow, for a price. I bargained and got into my borrowed boots.

We trekked to the other side of the peak where there was a sliver of snow (ice really). It was disheartening to see how global warming was changing the landscape. Although still very beautiful, with mist and clouds kissing the tops of the peaks and the sun playing hide and seek with the view of the valley below, one became aware of the dire situation. No more snow on these famous ski slopes, that always held enough of it throughout the year, not too long ago!

Coming back to our short ‘fun’ moment, the guides gave us a brief experience of skiing and sampling hot and freshly made Maggie noodles at 14,000 feet!

The trip up and down the steep mountain in a gondola was awesome. Sadly, some patches were graveyards for the tall and majestic Deodars… not because of humans for a change, but inclement weather which had felled some of them, in their prime.

My friend panicked a bit when she didn’t hear from me for a few hours, but when I touched ground zero, she was relieved and we trooped to one of the oldest hotels there, Nedous, built by a British gentleman. I sampled their signature dish, roast chicken, which was finger-lickingly delicious! We returned to Srinagar that evening.

Goodbyes and the Call to Return

On our final day, we took a leisurely shikara ride around Dal Lake, which could not be missed by any social media aficionado. And the following day, we were ready to take our flight back, satiated and refreshed, to take that plunge back into our roiling world of work schedules.