AN INDEPENDENT DRIVER'S LICENCE

 AN INDEPENDENT DRIVER'S LICENCE

 Mr. Mohamad Rafeeq . Our driver for our 10 days kashmir trip. An independent driver in the business of tourism. His kashmiri accent makes everything better, gives us authentic vibe of kashmir. He is in charge of making our trip as much as beautiful and comfortable it could be. He is also in charge of taking us to kargil and ladakh. On our way to kargil we got to know about his story. 

I love knowing about people , in delhi nobody talks to you , everyone is in their own race of life,but here its different, different in every way. People are more understanding and humble atleast, thats what i felt in his presence .He tells us that he is in this business since 2017 and before that he worked at two mobile companies. He left his job because he wanted to do something of his own and thats when its strike him to come into travel and tourism. He is married since 2012 and have two cute girls , in Kashmir people get married early, he was married when he was only 20 , he didnt wanted to, because he was not earning much at that time but family and friends told him to because that would make him responsible. He said that they were right , 'aaj mai wo nahi hota jo abhi hu' he said. This makes me question everything how people perspective are towards life. Some people consider marriage as a cage whereas he seen it as a way to grow. 

He also told us that people start school late here, people in Kashmir are mostly 18 when they are giving matric exams (10th board). And get married till 20, while 25 to 27 being 

the highest limit. He also told us our ambition of what he want to become '10 saal baad mai ye thodi na kar paunga jo ab kar paa raha hu, mai chahahta hu ki mai apna ek hotel kholu, kashmir mai' he said this to us. His ambition and goals make me feel so happy that everyone in their life are so cute when they tell us about their dreams of what they want to be. He is also humble, guides us ,tells us how to bargain and what to buy. He is really a hardworking person. He is the smallest in his family of one brother and one sister and his parents who passed away. He said that everyone was doubting him before he came into this business but now everyone in his family is proud of him for making such a great living out of it . This is what he said while we were going to ladakh 

From ladakh to kargil

We got ready at 6 o clock and left ladakh till 7 am . I can't describe how 1 day in ladakh was such a memorable experience for me . The journey and the destination both was beautiful when the travellers with you are beautiful. Coming back to the main topic, We started our journey with the name of god ,stopped at gurudwara and took blessing from there. The ahead journey was long he said and told us to be ready, we all talked about mountains ,how good the road is , the military base camp here and there and the most memorable was when we compared mountains with soanpapdi. We stopped at some sites to straighten our back and we played with stones. Aiming for a bottle down at the valley . Well it comes to know that i am not much of a shooter and he is . He was able to break the glass bottle 

and i was not. On the way he gets video call from his family he talks to them in kashmiri and when we asked what were you talking about he said 'meri badi beti thi, keh rahi thi kab aa rahe ho papa? Jaldi aao yaad aa rahi hai' and that was the most cutest thing that i could ever hear in my life, the most. Oh the relation which everyone beholds with their parents, oh the language of remembering its all same emotions but languages are different. We have to stay at kargil as we were not be able to pass today. This effort of mine to write a stranger story is just the beginning . I am not able to talk to strangers easily but i love to hear what story they hold, what feeling they hold , what dreams they hold. It will always, always interest me .

From kargil to srinagar

Suhana safar aur ye mausam haseen. Our journey started from 6 o 'clock as the journey was long and if we didnt hurry wie might have been ended up in traffic . Which was there i slept they whole way from ahead of minimarg to zojila pass and then the sunlight got stronger and i woke up. All they way through i was making videos and taking photos of haseen wadiyan. We were talking about funny incidents and all but soon we all got hungry it was past 11 and we hadn't ate anything so we stopped at a place near a river . The place where we halted earlier while going to kargil. It was calming and soothing. There i talked to him, for the first time near the river . It was such a beautiful moment , talking to a stranger near the river knowing him . I might not be able to describe about what we talked but it was such a beautiful conversation that i might never forget in my life. I mean this is what you want when you are in a distant place you just want to know what people from distant place holds to themselves. I didnt wanted the moment to end , i just wanted to know him and his aspirations but nothing stays forever , it was getting late and we had to reach our destination. So we continued our journey . We stopped at kheer bhawani temple and then to our final destination our camp. We said goodbye to him until we meet him the next day

Sringar local

We got ready in 9 o clock and he came till around 9 15 we started our journey from shankracharya temple . My ,my i got so tierd just going at those steps but it was worth it the view from above was magnificent. Then we went to gardens and then to dal lake . It was a beautiful experience, my most memorable was when we were at our bsf motor boat and everyone was there , the sun was setting down and i was feeling like this moment should never end in my life my happiness was at peak. We also stopped at lal chowk and then came back in 10 min. I wanted to try i told him that i wanted to try 'rogan josh' a special kashmiri dish and he was shocked that i knew about that particular dish haha although i was not able to try that dish i never got the chance, maybe next time in this life. When i came back to our guest house i felt a little bit sad about him, about how he got scolded just because of us , just because we made him late.

The next day we went to pahalgam which is a very famous tourist place. It consist of majestic scenery and peaceful valleys and rivers ,on the way a regions comes where saffron is cultivated their are many shops selling saffron of their own farm. The shop we went into is named as 'Kongposh'. Driver uncle told me that kong means kesar and posh means flower in kashmiri. He also showed me the actual picture when kesar is cultivated. It looks so beautiful in picture. I imagine how it will look like with my bare eyes just thinking about this makes my mood fresh. Pahalgam was beautiful but the tsunami of tourists just made it a little boring and tiring and the driver that we hired for particularly that region was not good at all . Overall the whole experience became miserable. While at our way to our guest house we drank tea together while my friends tried some bbq . He told me while drinking tea that tomorrow we will be trying doodhpatri's famous makke ki roti and sarson ka sag.

As usual we got ready at 9 o clock. The way to doodhpathri was the most beautiful ones. The valley, the trees the rivers everything was looking like it was out of some windows wallpaper. It was the most beautiful place that i ever witnessed in my life. I might forget the gardens pahalgam and sonamarg but never doodhpathri. Never. We all shared so much laughter together their he took our photos , we took his, he taught us some kashmiri on the way which i to be honest forget , most if it . But it was a core memory for me it will always be. Back to our way stay i knew that it was our last day in kashmir and we have to go to katra tomorrow. Our last trip our last destination, our drop place. I planned the whole thing on how to say goodbye to him. But was never able to say to him. Some emergency occured and he was unable to come. Reaching to katra with a different driver ,which was a whole different place from srinagar , bustling cities and humid climate was enough to make me cry.

And thats how a long tiring journey of 10 days came to an end like that. People you meet on the way are much more exciting than the scenery you see, if you really try to talk to people around you are able to find different perspectives of world and thats what makes this life beautiful.

Until i meet you next time Mr. Rafeeq uncle until i meet you next time