Kashmir’s begins tryst with harsh winter

SRINAGAR - It finally looks like winter in Kashmir. Valley people Monday morning woke up to frozen water taps and icy roads as their 40-day long tryst with harsh cold conditions began with the minimum temperature here dipping to minus two, below minus 13 in Leh and minus 14 in Kargil.

The 40-day period — from Dec 21-Jan 31 — is called “chilla-e-kalan” and is considered to be the coldest in the region. The maximum day temperature in Srinagar Sunday was 5.4 degrees Celsius - three degrees below normal.

Freezing of taps and water bodies, icy roads turning slippery and formation of icicles are some of the features of this period which Kashmiris brave by wearing warm tweed over-garments called pheran and holding a clay firepot, kangri, woven in a willow wicker basket. The firepot is filled with burning charcoal.

During the next few days, the day temperatures are likely to fall further with cloudy night skies, said assistant director weather office T.K. Jotshi.

On Monday morning, at many places people were seen burning fires to melt the frozen taps.

I had to gather dry chinar leaves and twigs to light a small fire to melt the frozen water tap at my home,” said Shabir Ahmad, 39, a government employee.

During the Chilla-e-Kalan days, valley people eat dishes with high calorific value and a prominent among them is harisa - a culinary dish of boneless mutton eaten early in the morning.

Since fresh vegetables become scarce during the winter months, locals use dried vegetables which have been painstakingly washed, dried and stored during the summer months for the bitter winter.

Dried brinjals, tomatoes, pumpkins and beans are used by almost every local household. For their additional requirements of calories, the consumption of mutton also goes up during the winter months here, said Qaiser Ahmad, a physician.

Kashmiris are now awaiting heavy snowfall, likely during the 40-day period, to end the dry spell of cold. However, in the recent years snowfall has been scant and many blame global warming it.

I remember the 6 feet thick snow through which I would walk to reach the markets for buying groceries during my youth,” said Habibullah, 67, a retired school teacher of a north Kashmir village.

That never happens now. For the last one decade I havent seen that type of snowfall. This could be because of the global warming,” he said.

Fun seekers and winter sport lovers always look forward to a heavy snowfall, but for the common person braving the harsh winter of the valley is a challenge Kashmiris have learned to face.

If we were to depend on electricity or other modern facilities and give up the traditional practices to survive the winters here, we would be doomed,” said Showkat Ahmed, 45, a businessman who is as bitter about the appalling electric power supply in Kashmir as any other citizen.