The Kashmir discovery - Part 2
Grey blanketed the city. Not from smoke, thankfully, but with the weathering of the leaves on trees, the mist accentuating the cold and the drab colours of the pherans . But women still brought the much-needed cheer with their brightly coloured wrap-and-hang-along head-gears. The bus came - a short, narrow colourful tin-on-wheels with closely set seats. Found a nook beside a window, and off we trundled - across the bleary Jhelum, along the Manasbal lake with its tempting nadrus (lotus stems - a local delicacy), and also past one of the largest fresh-water lakes in Asia, the Wular, which unfortunately had been reduced to one huge mass of algae. All this while, people came in and stumbled out at various stops - all eyeing me curiously, no one asking me anything. Amidst the chattering and the clattering, Bandipora we arrived. Well, I did not see much of the town. The bus simply dropped me at a 'taxi-stand' where I contemplated for a while whether I must find something to eat
