Page 85 - Love Story of a Commando

It moved on. The classes started with full force with the extra pressure of
completing the syllabus within the crunched time.
Winter was approaching a little sooner, I felt. The temperature was
dipping every day, the breeze was freezing and shades of grey were
dominating. Though it was getting colder, all this added to the mystery of
Kashmir some more by enhancing its charm to the naked eye. Snowfall had
not started yet and everything was still functional in Kashmir.
I was told by the locals that once the period of ‘Chilai Kalan’ started,
it would go on through December and January and get really bad. For an
outsider who loves winters, it was interesting to witness the forty days of
Chilai Kalan. But the locals hated that forty-day period of Chilai Kalan as
supply stops, movements of vehicles from outside is halted because of the
harsh weather conditions. Everyone stays indoors, under heavy blankets. The
locals call it the ugliest season, and many Kashmiris move to Jammu during
this time of the year where they live in rented spaces and rooms and enjoy
the hospitality that the city of temples, Jammu, has to offer.
The malls, the zoo, the markets and the urban life in Jammu would
grip the Kashmiri imagination for a while and they would enjoy it, roaming
enthusiastically with their families in their rather distinguished pherans
around Jammu streets. Jammu would buzz with a lot more activity than the
usual.
That is how Jammu and Kashmir bonds together as one state, as one
people.
I was confused about Chilai Kalan, about whether I needed to move
out or stay. The school would be closed during this time and the winter was
going to be bone chilling. But it was only mid-October now so I didn’t think
too much about it. For me, Kashmir was my liberation from the world and I
had not thought about leaving it yet.
I loved my kids as well. They were turning out to be smarter than I
had thought.
One day little Farjana asked me, ‘Madam ji, what is Mumbai like?’
I got all excited. ‘Well! It is huge you see. Double decker buses, fast
life, lots of tall buildings, and what not is there. It is surrounded by a sea.
How many of you have seen a sea?’
Not a single hand was raised in the classroom. So I asked, ‘Okay!
And how many of you know what the sea is? You, Aftab, tell me.’
He said with as much excitement as a seven-year-old can manage,
‘Sea is a huge water body. Just like our waterfalls but they are not waterfalls.
There are huge waves in the sea which come to the shore with a lot of noise
and go back quickly.’
I smiled and said, ‘Wonderful, Aftab. Now we should all clap for him
for this correct description of the sea.’