Ravi Speaks:
ARTICLE UPDATED ON 27.08.2022.
After taking birth in Srinagar in 1961-I was lucky enough to be a regular visitor to the valley for almost 23 years with no interruption in between right from 1996 onwards. I used to visit the Valley from my HQ-Delhi officially for at least three days at a stretch in a quarter. The biggest attraction for me and my family members would be the Kashmiri vegetables and Dry fruits-which are the specialties in the valley. Although the dry fruits one could get from anywhere, the real stuff of the vegetables, one could get that- from the valley itself. So every time while coming back to my home I would bring at least an additional twenty Kgs. bag full of various vegetables and other dry fruit stuff, etc. Therefore, the following article fascinatingly touches on all this. This was written by me on 7th Dec’2020 & is again being reproduced and published for your interesting reading. I am sure that you would love to read it with interest.
ENJOY THE READ.
MY SPECIAL PURCHASES FROM KASHMIR ON EVERY VISIT.
From 1996 onwards I was lucky to have with me the area of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir right till my retirement in 2019-officially. Almost 23 long years. During this long period hardly, any quarter was missed out when I had not gone to Srinagar especially for at least three day’s tour. This means that I was a regular visitor to my birthplace at least four times a year. Many times because of the situation prevailing in the valley I did not even come out of the hotel because of the curfew or Bandh happening suddenly. Every time I went to the valley, I had a very special happy feeling of having visited my place -may it be even for a shorter duration only.
My program used to be in such a way that I would visit the valley in the third week of the month once in a quarter and especially for all the three days I would work in the field with my colleagues and on the third day quite early in the morning I would take my colleague with me to the main Badshah Market-where the fresh vegetables used to be sold. That was the spot where one could get all the variety of various vegetables and even the fresh fruits.
I used to go there on the last day of my visit to the valley and purchase the vegetables as per the season along with the ‘Kashmiri-Haak’-as an essential item to be purchased every time. It would be a special occasion for me in my home in Delhi when I returned from Srinagar-Kashmir with the fresh lot of the vegetables-which were the specialties of Kashmiris. The moment I would enter my home the first thing from my better half would be to know from me what special vegetables I had purchased that time. The next step would be to open the special pack of vegetables-which I used to get packed there from the vegetable market itself and it would weigh not less than at least 9-10 kgs minimum. My wife would take out the various vegetables from the pack and keep them separately in the open.
Normally I would bring ‘the Haak, ‘Kashmiri-Mounj’, ‘Kashmiri- Wangun’, ‘Bigger green Chillies’, ‘White Circular Muj’, and above all ‘Dal-Ke-Nadroo’ from the fresh vegetable section. I would also get the Kashmiri- masala from the ‘Kokkar-Bazaar market’ along with some dry fruits and some specialties like Honey and Kesar.
The beauty was- that almost the whole stuff one could find here in Delhi markets also like-‘INA market’ and so on but what I have found that the difference in the taste and even in the stuff’s originality was very distinct. So, for us, the edible stuff purchased from the original place like Kashmir would matter a great deal.
By bringing all these items every time from the valley had made me even popular amongst my colleagues and friends and in the bargain, I had to do the extra work of carrying certain items for my friends too. Which initially I would do it for one or two occasions but if someone would try to place the order regularly I would flatly refuse to do the same repeatedly. I know that this way I must have annoyed a few of my such friends-but then they also realized that I was not their regular carrying agent and it was difficult to bring someone’s load every time repeatedly. Another thing which I realized was that despite doing them a favor of getting their pet item from Kashmir-if they did not get the right stuff they would pass on various comments-which one would not like to listen to. The best example of such things reminds me of one occasion when one of my good friends requested me to get two items from Srinagar. One was the ‘Kashmiri-Kahwa-Tea’ and the other one was ‘Pampore-Kesar’. Since he had made a special request-I went all the way to one bigger shop known to my Kashmiri-Colleague and got both the items from that shop with a special discount as well. I handed over those items to him once I reached Delhi. He was very thankful to me and immediately paid me for those whole items. I too forgot after some time since the job from my side was done to his satisfaction. Later when I met him -he told me frankly that the purchases made by me were not the right ones since the tea was not the actual Kashmiri tea and one could get better stuff in Delhi. Coming on to the second item of Kesar he started saying that those were also not the actual ones because that stuff too was colored one. I felt bad about his making such remarks for the things where I made all the efforts to go to the best shop and took my colleague with me from my hotel in ‘Rajbagh’ to the interior of the walled city area. I realized how easy it was for a person- who had placed his order and got the items without his efforts well in time-in passing the comments like this?
Many times, while bringing the edible stuff from the valley-I had to leave certain items there at the Airport-security segment only since they did not allow me to take that along. One such occasion was when I had purchased a ‘Kashmiri Aanchaar’(Pickles) and the pack was of almost two Kgs. The same I was carrying along in a separate Pack with the vegetable pack. It could not be taken along and the same was left there only. So I had to be selective on that front as well.
As already mentioned, I took full advantage of Srinagar trips during these 23 years and we could get the Kashmiri vegetables and such items almost at regular intervals at home here in Delhi. Now that the regular trips to that place have been stopped because of my entering the retirement phase-all, my family members miss that badly and try to compensate that through our local INA markets, etc -where we get almost all such items but who-knows-what is the extent of purity and taste in that?
===================