Budding

by Kunal Joshi (India)

I didn't expect to find Pakistan

Travelling to Pakistan, that too the area of conflict between India and Pakistan. Certainly easy is not what I would define it but being an Indian on Pakistani soil surely made me a bit conscious, nonetheless a wanderer soul has no reasons. Gulmit, a small village in hunza district of Pakistan according to locals the valley of flowers. Cherry blossom festival is what made me visit here. Area south of here cried bloody history of ruthless killings and partition but the sunrise over the gulmit glacier says another story. Walking through the streets of Gulmit, recently paved, I realized how adaptable traditions can be. Village elder Bhora said, "once there was not a single restaurant here but now after the arrival of mobile phones and improved highways, one can bargain for rates. People here have moved on along with the changes relative to them. Strolling I came across a tea shop chatted up the tea shop owner for the history of Gulmit. Abdul baig handing me a cup of local chaha in his wakhian accent said " sahab village is survived and protected by Ondra Fort, nothing can enter here without its permission." One person shouted from behind, you look Indian, I nodded in affirmation. My astonishment knew no bound after that. I was treated like royalty, one even offered me his cigarette. This was because Indian tourists are extremely rare here. This made me realize perception deceive the eyes and outside world is no stranger to it. Gulmit live in its own air of tranquility, cut off from the outside world long forgotten of its cursed history. And as my journey was nearing to an end, walking along the Ondra valley with a sunset behind the glacier, there was nowhere else in the world I wanted to be at. On the way back, words of village elder kept echoing in my mind," nobody live long enough to see the change but everyone has a part in it." Maybe that is what people call transcendent.