Galloping away on a wish
That the family has no hungry day
And the night passes by easily
Like the river.
The hilly terrains and breathtakingly beautiful places beckon tourists from across the world. The tourists, beckon horses and ponies. And the horses and ponies are the source of income for many.
Yes, ponies feed many families in Kashmir – especially in the regions of Gulmarg and Pahalgam. You see them all over the place – like grass spread over a lush green lawn. In fact, there are certain places where sight-seeing cannot be done without a pony ride.
One such trip happens to be in Pahalgam where the pony ride takes you to the Kashmir Valley, the Waterfalls, and Baisaran (popularly known as the Mini Switzerland of India). There are two routes to these points – a longer one that goes via the main road, where you can enjoy the beauty of the mountains as you gallop away for about two-and-a-half hours in a round trip. The shorter route takes about half the time.
We had to leave for Shrinagar so we decided to go for the shorter route. We hired two ponies – Bahadur and Chetak and I had my two year old tied to me with my shawl so he wouldn’t fall. Little did we know that the shorter route was like an uphill trek. For most parts we were only looking towards the sky, praying twixt our intermittent breathing. But the ponies were so well trained and their owners were so caring that we thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the views en route.
On the way down, the pony walker carried my son on his shoulders for fear of a fall and at the same time, held the reins in one hand and my elbow with another. He was a master of courtesy and a reassuring host and
there were many like him. Even Superman would stare in astonishment at their sure footed finesse at multi-tasking.
Kashmir Valley was beautiful but we did not spend too much time there. We headed straight for Baisaran where we wanted to just laze around and absorb the last hour in Pahalgam – one of the most enchanting places on earth we have visited so far.
Baisaran is a lush green meadow at nearly 2500 meters above sea level and the varied colours that you can see from here are jaw-dropping. Bright green of the meadows, dark green of the pine trees, and white snow-clad mountains that stand around like a fortress. You can choose to walk up to Baisaran but the pony ride is an experience that should not be missed.
Unfortunately, it was infested with people selling shawls, photographers with costumes and honeymooners who were getting pictures clicked in rather intimate positions. We managed to wade past them to find a quiet spot. Then came a young boy with a white lamb. The lamb nuzzled my son, who patted him in turn and they hit it off together. Seeing them laugh and play together made the trek completely worth it and the place lived up to its name (Pahalgam literally means A Shepherd’s Village).
The ponies are indeed the bread earners of the families. And their owners know just how to win the hearts of the tourists. That explains scores of local Kashmiris, wearing pehrans and speaking in Gujarati and Marathi among other languages with surprising flair! I was shocked when my pony walker spoke to us in Gujarati at the slightest hint that it was our mother tongue.
On being asked how he knows these languages, he answered that it is a highly competitive business and it is tough to woo customers with so many ponies around unless one knows a few tricks of the trade. To keep things under control, however, they have a serial number – and only when the one before him got a customer that ours got to take us. As fair as this sounds, it is frustrating for the pony walkers, who are working on monthly wages for the actual owners and survive only on meagre tips.
Some ponies looked really weak, like they were victims of malnutrition and you could not help but think if you were being cruel to them and if they made many such to and fro trips and bore hundreds of kilos of weight. Or if you had just contributed to the income of the pony walker’s family who said, “aap to hamari kheti baadi ho. Hum to jee jaan lagaa ke sona ugaane ki koshish karte hain!” (tourists are like our farms and fields and we only give it all we have to yeild fields of gold!).
Yes, fields of gold indeed!
Vaishali Shroff is a freelance writer and editor and runs a reading club for children in Pune. Her work has been published in over 10 titles of the Chicken Soup India Series and her children’s stories can be read at smories.