"Kashmir breathes within its locals and visitors alike with a pulse that they can sense, a heartbeat that they can feel and an expression that they can personify"
Since my first landing in Srinagar airport, the beauty was something unavoidable be it nature's or people. Though many have said it starts once you enters Kashmir's airspace and look outside the window but in my case I'd preferred to prioritise my sleep instead. I had been to many hill stations and similar scenic beauty possessed places but i must say that Kashmir is some place nicer to all having a beauty which is impossible to go unnoticed. Being a person in uniform and first tenure in Kashmir valley it was evident for me to follow the feedbacks fed by my predecessors resulting a mixed thought about people having one portion saying these are someone least to trust and other one telling the heart voice conveying that they can't be that bad, just try with space-full mind and heart and let the ground situation fill it off the experience i was going to face and i must say i am glad to follow other half of my heart.
Over a period of my 16 month tenure i must admit that things have been ups and downs and so as my thoughts about this place and people but at the end same is the case with other part of the country as well. However, in Kashmir there are few things which are unique and is quite evident as well. The basic culture what people follow here is the greetings part which is not left in other part of the country where in even if you face someone during morning walk there won't be any greetings but here in Kashmir the beauty can be seen when they greet each other and in one they'll say three prominent line as "sehat theek, gharber theek, beche theek". And this greeting is cont only confined to personal meet, it is same for phone conversations as well. First time i heard these lines it actually felt relaxing and the beauty lies in the way they say it.
The simplicity followed by locals is something adding extra layer of overall beauty of this place. During my initial days in valley when i was in a civil vehicle and being young in valley was extra cautious about the earlier heard scenario of stone pelting and as Mr Murphy said "anything that can go wrong will go wrong" and my vehicle's tyre slipped in mud and ended up half tilted vehicle in a ditch and on a shocking platter even before i stepped out of car there were few youngsters in all around the vehicle already got their hands dirty with mud and trying to take the stuck-up car and in no time my car was safe unharmed. I came out of it to offer gratitude and was amazed to see the same individuals whom i see everyday sitting near mazjid and deteriorating their image in my eyes as free lancers of society but that day they'd actually earned my respect and changed my perception overall. I literally hugged and thanked everyone and over a period now we all are good friends and share many lighter moments as well. This is real beauty of people in Kashmir.
As far as environmental beauty is held, there is a very famous dialogue of a movie named Shaurya and it goes like "Iss wardi me major ye asmaan kuch alag dikhta hai" and now when i am in that wardi (uniform) i can correlate that dialogue with ground situation. The beauty is marvelous and every corner has its own value and beauty where you'll feel that if this place gets open for tourism as a whole without any fear then it'll be very difficult for any other place in whole world to beat Kashmir for its beauty.
The huge mountains sparkled with bakkarwals on top having small wooden huts called "dhoks" and small kids singing folk songs while grazing their cattle and sheep. The fresh running water from its natural origins and solving mysteries of many about origin of water, the wooden multi-storey houses having all carpeted be it a rich or poor person but this trend is a tradition and way of living, the beauty of keeping slippers and shoes outside the house and what more, in every action and corner of Kashmir there lies a beauty and such remarkable place is by virtue stuck up is a disturbed scenario because of some anti national elements but nonetheless things are changing with a rapid rate and I am sure that in no time the hidden beauty will be revealed to the whole world and Kashmir's beauty will again bound everyone to say those golden words which has put Kashmir's name in every corner of the world and it goes like "Gar Bar-ru-e-Zamin Ast, Hamin Ast Hamin Ast".