Bridges of Confusion

Published December 18, 2022 / by Jehangir

In my last post I included a few photographs taken by Gordon Duff in 1944, generously shared by his daughter Marjory Lewis. The first picture she forwarded was the following cityscape with the caption ‘View from the fifth bridge. Fort behind.’

I was quite sure that the photograph had been taken in a north-easterly direction from Nawa Kadal (the sixth bridge) with the view of the Hari Parbat Fort being the clincher. Strangely enough Marjory was equally sure that it was Habba Kadal (the second bridge.)

The traditional seven bridges spanning the Jehlum within Srinagar are:
First Bridge – Amira Kadal
Second Bridge – Habba Kadal
Third Bridge – Fateh Kadal
Fourth Bridge – Zaina Kadal
Fifth Bridge – Ali Kadal
Sixth Bridge – Nawa Kadal
Seventh Bridge – Safa Kadal

The logical thing to do was to return to downtown Srinagar and take a fresh photograph to dispel the confusion between the second, fifth and sixth bridges.

Almost eighty years later, the two views from Nawakadal (the sixth bridge) are amazingly similar.

Interestingly, if we take the chronological sequence, Nawa Kadal was the fifth bridge contructed over the Jehlum. However I am not aware that this nomenclature was ever adopted while discussing the seven bridges of Srinagar.

Earliest – Ali Kadal was constructed by Sultan Ali Shah in 1415 CE
Second – Zaina Kadal by Sultan Zain-ul-Abideen in 1427 CE
Third – Fateh Kadal by Sultan Fateh Shah in 1500 CE
Fourth – Habba Kadal by Sultan Habib Shah in 1573 CE
Fifth – Nawa Kadal by Noor din Khan in 1666 CE
Sixth – Safa Kadal by Saif-ud-din Khan in 1671 CE
Last/Seventh – Amira Kadal by Amir Khan Sher Jawan in 1774 CE

Kashmir by Gordon Duff

Published December 13, 2022 / by Jehangir

In my younger days I spent many a late summer wandering the lofty wildernesses that ring the Kashmir Valley on all sides. The outbreak of militancy at the end of the eighties put paid to those adventures, never to be resumed.

During those glorious years my mother would ask me why I wanted to be ‘paharon pe darbadar‘ on my birthday (Mid-August). I wish I had known about Gordon Duff then so I could explain my desire in his words:

here among the great mountains
nothing but the grandeur of the world remains.
heaven may not be ‘up there’ but there is no doubt
that here one is in touch with the infinite.
one has only to reach out to touch the great beyond.
the smallness of men’s minds is forgotten,
the shallowness of their ways,
the pettiness of so much that surrounds them.
there is nothing tawdry in the world of the high peaks.

dekhna taqreer ki lazzat ki jo us ne kaha,
main ne ye jaana ki goya ye bhi mere dil mein hai

Well better late than never.

Gordon Duff (1921-2001) was born in 1921 in Glasgow, Scotland. During the Second World War he served with the 31 RAF Squadron in India from 1943-1945. In the post war years he returned to Glasgow and got married, and later immigrated to New Zealand in 1953.

Gordon Duff kept detailed diaries and took many photos of his time overseas (India, Burma, Indonesia and Singapore) which were hidden till he passed away – probably because people wanted to forget the war when they got home.

His daughter Marjory Lewis has generously shared his unseen photographs of Kashmir as it was in 1944, some of which are posted here for your viewing pleasure:

Let us raise a toast to the photography of Gordon Duff and the generosity of Marjory Lewis.
Noon chai is the strongest spirit that I imbibe, so here goes.

Three cheers for Gordon Duff.

Of Waders and Shorebirds

Published December 11, 2022 / by Jehangir

Waders of the Indian Subcontinent by Harkirat Singh Sangha is an invaluable reference book for birders as it contains detailed descriptions of all 83 wader species of the region, both resident and migratory.

The author has been kind enough to credit me in the acknowledgements section of his book.

I hope Waders of the Indian Subcontinent does well because it is probably the most comprehensive modern book on the topic. Previously only books published for sportsmen (as hunters were termed in those days) during the British Raj were available for reference.