Kishtwar | The Land of Saffron and Sapphire | Chalo Kashmir Series

I want to find out what makes Kishtwar so special. My objective is to experience all that this place has to offer. By the end of my stay I hope I can find an answer to this.

The places & cities in themselves hold no significance. It is the people who live in them. They are walking, feeling & breathing culture which we speak about.

People hold many stereotypes & notions about a particular place. They think it's good, bad, unsafe, neutral, peaceful, meh or boring based on the information collected from other people. They rely on secondary information but I wanted to grab it first hand. And boy was I in for a surprise.

The family I was staying with welcomed me with open arms into their humble sweet home. It was in moments such as these where the words Athithi Devo Bhavah actually made sense to me. These people went to enormous lengths to accomodate me and treated me like their own family member.

Kishtwar is commonly known as the ‘Land of Sapphire and SaffronChowgan is the main attraction of Kishtwar. It's a remote town in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Kishtwari beverages, ‘Kahwa’ and ‘Noon Chai’ are significant.

Imagine a live performance happening right there in Kishtwar with some of the renowned local artists performing live. I was all set for enjoying a rocking session of music & song. And then Murphy's Law came into action. So, basically everything came crashing down.....literally ! Into pieces. My peace also on the floor in pieces ! That was the end of the evening. The end of my joy. The end of all my videos. I lost all my footage from the evening.

This video is incapable of capturing the true emotions of this moment but this is all I have.

Kishtwar brought many emotions for me. I cried, I laughed, I sang, I clapped and I felt. This place showed me everything. A place where technology betrayed me but the people of this place didn't betray at all. Cities and places can be known for many things. For its architecture, for its food, for the natural beauty. But we must never forget that cities are built by people. And the people of Kishtwar will always be with me, living inside me.

I can safely leave Kishtwar with my faith in humanity intact.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people
will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Thank you to:
→ Mohsin and His Family for hosting me
→ To the Last Minute Team for organizing Cultural Evening for me
→ To all the artists who performed
→ To Tabish and his friend for showing me around
→ To Raja Shafqat Shaheen for helping in getting my camera lens back
→ To the people of Kishtwar for having me
→ To Jay Singh for helping me with the presentation of the video(   / @provoqd  )

P.S. This video was filmed last year before the Abrogation of Article 370 and pre-COVID-19 times!
P.S.2 Yes, everyone consented to being filmed

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