Category Archives: Kashmir

The Ides of March

Published March 17, 2019 / by Jehangir

In Ancient Rome the fifteenth of March was a momentous date as on that day in 44 BC Julius Caesar, having ignored a warning to ‘beware the Ides of March’, was assassinated by a group of conspirators. Interestingly the Romans did not number days from the first to the last day of a month but instead counted back from three fixed points of the month: the Nones (nine days before the Ides), the Ides (the middle of each month), and the Kalends (the first day of the following month, and the origin of the word calendar).

Happily, in Kashmir the fifteenth of March has a far pleasanter connotation as the day marks the advent of spring.

As per Kashmiri tradition a year is divided into six seasons of two months each starting from the fifteenth day of the modern calendar:

Sonth (Spring) / March 15 to May 14

Grishm (Summer)/ May 16 to July 14

Wahrat (Monsoon)/ July 15 to September 14

Harud (Autumn)/ September 15 to November 14

Wandh (Winter)/ November 15 to January 14

Shishur (Frost)/ January 15 to March 14

W. R. Lawrence in his encyclopaedic 1895 book ‘The Valley of Kashmir’ also informs us of the rural calendar which has twelve seasons.

According to Lawrence : ‘It is useful to remember these names, as the Kashmiris are somewhat hazy as to months, and months of agriculturists are usually one month in advance of the official months. It is said that the agriculturist calendar was introduced by Sultan Shamas Din, and the Kashmiri cultivators always talk of Vahek, Zeth, Shrawan, Bhodur, Ashud, Kartik, Mangor, and Tsitr, their equivalents for the Indian Bisakh, Jeth, Sawan, Bhadron, Asuj, Katik, Magar, and Chet.’

Indian / Kashmiri
Chaitra / Tsithur
Baisakh / Vahekh
Jeth / Zeth
Ashad / Har
Shravan / Shravun
Bhadon / Badrupeth
Aashwin / Ashid
Kartik / Kartikh
Margshirsh / Monjhor
Posh / Poh
Magh / Mag
Phalgun / Phagun

While autumn remains my favourite time of the year, spring always brings renewed hope for fresh beginnings.

nothing fails, or shall perish,
until we be born again,
until all that lay plundered
be restored with the tread
of the springtime we buried

~ Pablo Neruda

Or, the TL;DR version from Neruda himself:

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming

Reimagining Kashmir with Van Gogh

Published January 9, 2019 / by Jehangir

Over the centuries Kashmir’s ethereal beauty has inspired many writers, artists and photographers. My favourite set of paintings of Kashmir are the series by Edward Molyneaux while Brian Brake is my favourite photographer.

But what if my favourite artist Vincent Van Gogh would have painted a Kashmir series?

Arguably the most famous artist in the world, Van Gogh’s style has been described as ‘densely-laden, visible brushstrokes rendered in a bright, opulent palette.‘

Thanks to a the wonders of technology we can get a taste of what could have been. Kashmir Reimagined is a new series where my photographs of Kashmir are digitally manipulated to resemble works by famous artists – Van Gogh being the first to endure the ignominy 😉

Before we get too excited it is just digital art created on a computer but the results are pretty unique.

I am stoked to share these images in the form of a calendar so you can enjoy one image every month in 2019.

Happy New Year!

You can download the calendar here:

Enjoy !

Disclaimer: You are encouraged to share this calendar but please note that all rights to these images are retained by Dr Bakshi Jehangir. Commercial usage of these images is strictly forbidden.

Motorsport in Kashmir II

Published December 8, 2018 / by Jehangir

Half a century after the adventures of the 1931 Citroën-Haardt Trans-Asiatic Expedition, Motor Rallying proper was introduced to Kashmir in the 1980’s when JK Tourism and Maruti-Suzuki jointly sponsored a local team for the 1st Great Desert Himalaya Raid.

I attended the trials conducted by Rajeev Khanna on the track leading to the top of the Kral Sangri hillock. Rajeev Khanna (grandson of the founder of the Oberoi Group and one of the most famous rallyists in India) had been selected as Team Leader for the event. The track was rarely used and had been declared out-of-bounds for traffic that day. Rajeev and I were on timekeeping duty at the top of the hill when my brother Javid Bakshi started his trial run from the base of the hill. From our vantage point we could see a truck stray on to the road from some side trail on course for a head-on collision with his car.

Rajeev jumped into the driver’s seat of my car and for some reason I clambered into the passenger seat. ‘Seat belt please‘ is the last thing I remember hearing. The rest was a visual blur. A wheel-spinning turn, smothering dust-clouds, the smell of burning rubber, and the screaming agony of an engine being tortured beyond its endurance are etched into my memory. Somehow we managed to stop the truck off the racing line. My brother qualified for the JK Tourism team but my fleeting drive as a passenger had convinced me that while I could drive fast cars competently enough, motor rallying required a much higher level of skill and courage.

The JK Tourism team performed very creditably that year, claiming 3rd National and 5th position overall driving a stock Maruti Suzuki Gypsy against highly-fancied opposition in the Great Desert Himalaya Raid. The rally had been flagged off on August 28, 1988 in New Delhi and concluded at Cheshma Shahi after covering 5,000 gruelling kilometers over 10 legs passing through Jaipur, Bikaner, Jaislamer, Jodhpur, Dehradun, Shimla, Manali, Sarchu,and Leh. Next year the team again secured 3rd National and 5th position overall in the 1989 International Great Desert Himalayan Raid.

1988 was the first time that rally cars with their racing livery and free-flow exhausts had torn up Kashmir’s roads and they caused quite a stir. The irrepressible Zahid Khan, the navigator of the JK Tourism Team, used to drive around town in his Gypsy with a huge sticker that read RALLY DRIVERS DO IT SIDEWAYS. Irfan Ahmed, who drove the JK Tourism Gypsy, is the fastest driver I know personally. I was the only one crazy enough to ride pillion with him during our glory days – riding the monster Yamaha RD 350 at speeds I do not believe can have been matched on regular public roads anywhere in India.

I don’t remember how Rajeev Khanna fared with his famous Opel Manta.

Incidentally the first time I saw Rajeev (or didn’t actually) was when a red streak whooshed by at warp speed at a red-light crossing one late night in Delhi. The unforgettable whine of that finely-tuned Kawasaki Ninja engine got me addicted to MotoGP. A few years back my kids dragged me halfway around Delhi just to see Valentino Rossi‘s bike. Sometimes we fantasize about a F1/MotoGP track in Kashmir. ‘The Doctor‘ thrashing a ‘46‘ monster round Gulmarg would really be an experience to remember.

Javid also owned the first true-blue dirt bike in Kashmir – a Yamaha 175. That bike blazed a glorious trail from inacessible peaks in the Pir Panjal to the desert wildernesses of Ladakh. In winter we would do the Chinese Downhill – illegal night runs in pitch darkness down the frozen Poma lift tracks of the Highland and 185 slopes in Gulmarg – on skis (nah too easy), on ‘borrowed’ sleds (one biggish bump and you are history), and finally kamikaze runs on that never-say die Yamaha.
Motorcycling Nirvana!

Imagine achieving these adventures after years of dull Jawas and Yezdis when the height of motorcycling excitement was fixing the YEZDI decal upside down so that it read IPZAH (Yup, that dull).

The 10th International Himalayan Car Rally was the last rally held in Kashmir in 1989 before the outbreak of violence in the early 1990s. In recent years motor rallying returned to the valley with the Raid-de-Himalaya Rally and the Mughal Rally.

In 2018 Abrar bin Ayub riding a Hero Impulse won the Alpine category of Xtreme Moto at the Raid de Himalaya marking the first time that a Kashmiri has won an Xtreme category at a major rally.

The local scene is nowadays quite established with regular tarmac, mud and snow events being held by off-road adventure and motor-sport outfits like Kashmir Off-Road. I only hope they prioritise ecological sensitivity while planning their events.