Blogs from Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India, Asia - page 8

My hotel phone, aka curfew hotline, rang this morning – the hotel manager informing me that today is, indeed, a ‘very dangerous curfew’. I have diarrhoea again, it’s 11:44am, I’ve watched two episodes of House, ignored a call from Gloria, haven’t heard anything from Mustafa and I still haven’t left my bed. This is becoming tedious... Things I am sick off... 1.Diarrhoea. 2.Having to spell-check diarrhoea every time I write it, which is a lot these days. 3.Being confined to Relax Inn by curfews – there’s really only so much relaxing one person can do. 4.Sitting/lying in my bed reading, typing, watching DVDs because there’s nothing else to do until the curfew lifts. I know that it probably sounds nice, but after a while it starts to send a sociable soul like me crazy. 5.Spending whole ... read more

Clearly something about Saturdays in Srinagar does not agree with me. I’m sitting on my bed in a foul mood after – once again – the city whooped my ass. I should be ecstatic, because finally I have heating – a gas fire sourced for me this morning by slippery-tongued Sharada. But no, instead of basking in the heat of my Gazal Thermocomfort, I stewing in the mire of my Saturday blues. The day began ominously with a dream in which my godchildren had an older sister who fell in love with me and with whom I fell in love. The catch was the she and I both knew that I was gay, and whilst I was able to go along for a while with her belief that our love for each other could overcome my ... read more

Forget the philosophy. Embrace beer. That’s my stance at 9:20pm on a Friday night. I’ve only had three cans of Fosters – and that was about an hour ago – but it’s enough to make me feel chilled out and at peace with the world. After another day of unexpected curfew, I eventually went for lunch with Rahim at around 2pm (thank god, with no heating my room is like an icebox) and then for a couple of hours in the office. I asked Rahim how come we were allowed to be wandering around in the curfew; he told me that it only applied to gangs. I asked him what constituted a gang. He said three or more people. Interesting. I asked why, then, Mustafa had told me to stay in the hotel. He told me ... read more

I love my new metal hook. It’s screwed into the back of my door and it’s where I will be hanging my coat and scarf from now on. It’s not that the hook is so special, it’s just what it represents: small personal touches that make this place home. I also love my new extra blanket, my new flip flops for the shower and my new hand towel, which hangs on my new bathroom suction-hook. All of these things purchased when, having left work slightly early, I headed into town. In addition, I had some photos of family and friends printed today, and these now adorn my walls. I am sure that other emergency child protection officers would think that I’m stupid for adding these homely touches to a guest house room that I’ll be leaving ... read more

Gar Firdaus, Ruhe Zamin Ast, Hamin Asto, Hamin Asto, Hamin Asto……….. And I could not refrain myself from repeating these exclamations by the Emperor Jahangir! At the ‘Ramban Regency’ we slept tight on a cozy bed only to wake up to a wonderful morning the next day. The far reaching mountain ranges which seemed terrifying at night were oozing plethora of natural splendor in the early morning. It was cloudy and misty and beautiful everywhere. The lush green foliage enveloping the surrounding uplands and the juvenile rays of the rising sun left us absolutely spell bounded! And not to forget the river we saw the previous night. It was the Chenab! As me and Anirudha went to the terrace to click pics, we saw Tejalee having fun on the banks of the Chenab. Following their lead ... read more

In the early 90s there used to be a programme on BBC1 on a Saturday night called ‘Noel’s House Party’. Each week, a lucky member of the audience would get to go inside a phone box sized plastic tube with a fan in the floor, the fan would be turned on and a thousand or so pounds worth of £5 notes would be released into the chamber. The contestant would have around a minute to frantically grab as many of those £5 notes as they could. This is exactly how I felt in today’s IHI J&K monthly team meeting: loads of reflections and ideas being randomly fired around by my colleagues, with me trying to hold on to as many as I could. Except my wind tunnel did not last seconds, it lasted about four hours. ... read more

I am surprised how it slipped off my mind yesterday, but I gotta tell you this. Though not very intriguing from your point of view dear readers, it saved us a lot of uncertainty and one whole day (or more, you never know) in Jammu. On the second night of our train travel when Anirudha had retired on the middle birth, he kept his glasses right next to his pillow towards the window. And yes, they jumped off the seat, out of the window, on the platform, under the train (so I guessed). It was dark outside and there was no point hoping to get those glasses back. But to our surprise, the train halted. It was the Jalandhar station. Tejas ran out of the bogie as I and Lee were half asleep and half confused ... read more

6:34pm No curfew after all. Also, no water this morning, which was unfortunate as the Godfather had brought on a bout of diarrhoea. Hence, it was Paul Skanky Murphy again today. I arrived at work early and, to my delight, waiting for me in my Hotmail inbox was an email from Hugo, one of my godchildren (that Godfather beer is a more powerful force that I thought). It was lovely to finally hear from him but the email seemed to consist mainly of apologies: sorry for not emailing sooner, sorry for not picking up the bike from your place yet, sorry if my English is bad... Too much of our dialogue of late has been composed of either them apologising for falling short of my expectations or me apologising for getting mad at them for falling ... read more

Godfather beer is lethal. I’ve only had two and so am still able to type, but I just looked on the label and there isn’t even an alcohol content! All it says is ‘Only available in Jammu and Kashmir’. I’ll bet it is; wracked by years of conflict they’re the only people strong enough to drink it! This may be a fairly short entry. Anyway, I’m here in my room, Rahim left about an hour ago and I’ve just watched a C&L (love it!) and now face the prospect of having to remake my bed...again! Rahim says that my sheet arrangement does not maximise warmth. Well, trust local advice, that’s what my training said. Incidentally, yesterday evening when I got into bed I had a fit of the giggles: having put all available duvets and blankets ... read more

A fairly uneventful day today. I awoke at about 3am to the realization that my new bedding was not warm enough. Brilliant. I then struggled through another seven hours of fitful sleeping, daring to leave my bed once to replenish my hot water bottle. By 10am it was clear that further sleep was not an option and that I might as well get up, put the heater on and clean the room, as planned. Except that the heater would not turn on. At first I thought it was a power cut, then realized that the lights were working as normal (during a power cut only one emergency light and one electrical socket will run, powered by the generator). Then I thought that maybe the hotel owner had flipped the boiler fuse switch outside my door – ... read more