Ahsan felt the need of cigarette in freezing cold winter of Neelum Valley. While he was in search of lighter or a matchstick, he met a boy playing besides his snow covered house. “Can you bring me a match? I need to light a cigarette” Ahsan asked. The boy went running and returned with a match in his hand and his elder brother accompanying him. The brother asked “Why don’t you come in and have a cup of tea?” Ahsan told that he’s with friends. “Bring them along” replied the boy’s brother.
The next moment we were climbing stairs to house’s terrace and that boy and his brother was counting us with eyes wide open. “That’s all?” he said while staring at Ahsan. We sat on chairs in the terrace breathing in the cold fresh air of valley.
Our hosts sat with us chatting about our experience and how we liked the place. Then one of the brothers asked what we will like to have, tea or kahwa. Most of us obviously went for chai. After about an hour of wait elder one said “Sorry to make you wait but market is really far away and snow have made movement difficult, younger one have went to market to get raw material for tea” “Why would you send him to market in this cold. Kahwa will be a blessing in this cold. You should have mentioned about unavailability of tea raw material earlier” mixed voices were raised from among us. He replied smiling “It’s not a problem for us, we go to market daily in such weather. You are our guests and we’ll be happy to serve you.”
After a long wait our tea and kahwa was served and while we were enjoying our host’s hospitality, a boy came with a small bag of small round biscuit type thing. He was their middle brother. “Taste this. Its kulcha, a traditional cookie type stuff that we eat with tea or kahwa.” Some of us reluctantly took that not knowing what it tasted like.
We sat there, talking about what they do for living, where do they study and other related stuff related to valley, its beauty and weather for some time and said goodbye to our hosts.
People living there are not very wealthy and have limited resources, they do cooking on wood and many areas have no electricity supply but they are happy, content and very helping. Our host invited us and went out of way to serve us tea. They live in beautiful piece of land that’s like a heaven on earth and so are their hearts; beautiful, loving and compassionate.
(I visited Azad Kashmir in February, 2016. Kashmir is well known for their greenery in summer but we really enjoyed that frozen winter too. Clean fresh water from springs have a unique taste and sound of river Neelum flowing sings a song in your ears. I wish to visit those areas in summer to witness the beauty that world admires. Those areas are worth visiting!)
