Kashmir,

Such a fascinating place, kindest people on earth and a gem of a place on earth. It took me this long to be here. For the past few years, as December approached, Kashmir was always on my mind. I never spoke about it out loud because it would scare the bejesus out of my parents.

Although its been a month since I went and came back from Kashmir, I just happened to make time to write and post this blog. Thanks to the constant reminders on Instagram as i saw a bunch of people visit Kashmir a week after we got back.

I hope we inspired them in some way (kidding).

From the ghats of Dal Lake in the early hours as we waited for our boatsmen.

I had a different perspective when we left to Kashmir, I was hoping for beautiful blue skies and abundance of colour and green around the Dal Lake. But it turned out the opposite when we reached. Rains followed us til Kashmir and the experience was one of a kind and so was the beauty of this place.

It started raining after we entered the villages on the Dal Lake and this is how it looked.

But then this is what amused me the most, it is the beauty of these people of Kashmir I guess, not that I planned to look for a familiar face but I could simply recognise them in one look and I know he sold me Kaakha tea ,he sold me flower seeds, he offered to sell vegetables to me and so on.

I’m not much of writer you see, same old story nothing new there. I just want you to see the beauty of this place and the people through my lens.

Women overlooking at the market from the Boat houses on Dal Lake.

Clouds clearing after the rainfall on the Dal Lake.

Also I believe you’ve read all my rants about my husbands Steve McCurry adventures and stunts.

It’s hard to get over a few places, Kashmir will be one such place, I want to keep going back here.

Ever since I visited the Botanical Garden in Madrid and their gallery, I couldn’t stop thinking about how thoughtful they have been at encouraging their artists. A group of water colour artists in Spain were given saplings of Tulips and had been asked to paint the growth of the plant. The artists took these plants back home and had taken good care of them. And then they had painted a botanical water colour of their own Tulip plant and submitted it to the Garden’s gallery for display.

I was very impressed with the administrators of this beautiful little Botanical Garden taking such an initiative to encourage artists. The art culture that surrounded this place seemed magical. Although ambitious of me, I would love to see something similar in India. It would be delightful to see people accepting and encouraging artists on such a level.

Picture taken from the official Society of Botanical Artists website.