{"id":256,"date":"2011-02-27T18:58:58","date_gmt":"2011-02-27T13:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/?p=256"},"modified":"2017-03-25T19:07:47","modified_gmt":"2017-03-25T13:37:47","slug":"my-neck-of-the-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/?p=256","title":{"rendered":"My Neck Of The Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here is a series of images from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that focus on the the southern part of Srinagar city. The total absence of any kind of human settlement is striking. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/shankra_1865.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><i>Photograph taken from the Takht-e-Suleman (Shankracharya Hill) circa 1865<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/shankra_1870.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><i>An engraving in &#039;Letters from India and Kashmir&#039; by J. Duguid, 1870. The caption in the book reads &#039; The curves of the Jehlum, the inspiration for the shawl or pine pattern&#8230;&#039;<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/shankra_1903.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><i>From a stereoscopic photograph taken by James Ricalton in 1903. The caption reads &#039;An earthly paradise, famous Vale of Cashmere, watered by the winding Jhelum, India&#039;<\/i><\/p>\n<p>The area in the centre of the images, enclosed almost fully by a loop of the <b>Jehlum<\/b>, is the locality of <b>Shivpora<\/b> &#8211; my neck of the woods.<\/p>\n<p>The first house built in Shivpora was &#039;<b>The Chenars<\/b>&#039;. As the name would suggest it was built on the banks of the Jehlum, under a row of enormous chinar trees.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/the_chenars_1.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/the_chenars_2.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/the_chenars_3.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><b><i>A hundred years later&#8230;<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>The population of Srinagar has exploded from <b>1,18,960<\/b> at the start of the twentieth century to <b>10,81,562<\/b> at the present time. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/shankra_2007.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/shankra_2011.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>To illustrate the frenetic pace of construction in and around Srinagar:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/compare.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>My home in 2005, surrounded by a veritable forest of trees.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/shankra_home_old.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>The same area in 2010. A colony exists where only a couple of houses stood a few years ago. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/shankra_home_new.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>It is painfully evident that, even allowing for the change in seasons, trees have borne the brunt of our insatiable desire for construction. Maybe I should reconsider the title of this post. My Neck of the <b>&#039;<i>Woods<\/i>&#039;<\/b> seems a bit ironic when the woods are vanishing at an alarming rate.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately my old home had to be demolished due to age-related structural damage compounded by the devastating earthquake that struck Kashmir in 2005. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/shankra_home_old_2.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>The house in the centre of the colony is my new home. It is still under construction. Here&#039;s a sneak peek:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/shankra_home_new_2.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/sign.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>P.S: The low quality of the photographs is due to the fact that cameras are no longer allowed on the Shankracharya Hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is a series of images from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that focus on the the southern part of Srinagar city. The total absence of any kind of human settlement is striking. Photograph taken from the Takht-e-Suleman (Shankracharya Hill) circa 1865 An engraving in &#039;Letters from India and Kashmir&#039; by J. Duguid, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-kashmir","category-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}