Into the Mountains

I in back in Delhi after an off for 10 days, I was visiting my parents at Nowshera (my home town), about 100 kms from the city of Jammu (J & K).This is a beautiful small town surrounded by hills from all the sides so as to give an appearance of a valley.I was accompanied by my friend, Irshad, who wanted to see mountains, rivers, greenery etc. We arrived in Jammu by a train and then hired a tempo for Nowshera. It took 3 hours for us to reach our destination.That day, we rested at my place and the next we started exploring Nowshera, I was the guide to Irshad. I showed Irshad various parts of Nowshera. Prime attraction of the town is "a temple,a mosque and a gurudwara" all built adjacent to each other.

Irshad was amazed to learn that this town is at the Line of Control of Indo-Pak Border, approximately 5 kms (in air) from the Actual LOC. He said to me that it is so close to the Border, but one doesn't feel this way. I've lived at this place for more than 20 years and I never felt that I am residing at LOC. This has always been a very quite place and people live happily and definitely more contented then their counterparts living in cities like Delhi, Mumbai,Chennai...This is what Irshad was surprised at, he had the picture of a border town as totally devastated by Mortar Shelling, poor people with no education and meager resources and everytime firing between the Indian and Pakistani soldiers. All his notions met with blows at stages of this trip.

When we went to the main city market, we met some of my friends, they are doctors, engineers,contractors, businessmen. Irshad was amazed to learn that after business, most common profession here is teaching, there is a teacher at almost every house, I've 3 teachers in my family only and also there are families where every member is a teacher (I've showed Irshad such a family.). And 99% of the teachers are trained (B.Ed) and Postgraduates in different disciplines. The literacy rate in J&K has always been very good, but this town is particularly famous for the number of postgraduates. We were around 40 students in my class, when I studied here and todays most of them are postgraduates in Sciences, Arts, Environment Studies, Home Science, commerce & those who are not in this pool are either in business or pursuing medicine, engineering, veterinary science etc.

We went to see the shrine of "Khori Baba" about 20 kms and at an altitude of about 150m from Nowshera, this was a quite a pleasant experience. We drove into the mountains. This shrine is maintained by Indian Army and marks the last point of the Indian soil, there is a wired fencing here beyond which no Indian except for Indian Army is allowed to enter.Irshad was particularly enthrilled by the experience. We visited some other places in trip, Mata Mangla, Jhangar(a small village at LOC, you can see Pakistan from here, also my father stayed at this village for years before moving to the Nowshera town.), Baba Bhiram Shah Gurdwara, a beautiful agricultural village Jaba (my mother's village) and to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah Shrine at Shahadra near Rajouri (Rajouri is one of the districts in J&K, Nowshera is the most important town in Rajouri). This is the most famous tourist destination in the Rajouri district and is built on the tomb of Baba Ghulam Shah and his family, I was visiting this place for the very first time. The route from Nowshera to Shahadra is really beautiful, you drive amidst the lush green villages and beautiful mountains. We stopped at various places for photography. This place is maintained by BGSB Trust and few years back this trust has opened a University in Rajouri which offes courses in Computer Science, Mathematics, Management, Wildlife Diversity among others.

This time I viewed Nowshera through a tourist eye and I'll to admit that this place presents a wonderful tourist destination, where one can relax, enjoy the greenery, mountains, rivers, forget the worries and feel the freshness of air.