our car didn’t careen over the cliff but i definitely thought it would at several points during our trip. while the road was well developed and had guard rails along its entire length, cars would pass us at blind spots as other cars were coming down the mountain in the opposite direction. i didn’t want to die that way and to be the cause of my parents’ demise when it was my idea to go to kashmir.
we made it to azad jammu and kashmir in record time. breathtaking couldn’t accurately describe the views. when my father asked me what i thought about kashmir, i said, “it looks like the norwegian fjords and the south island of new zealand.”
we checked into the mess hall in muzzafarabad. my cousin rabia’s husband is a general in the army. my father thinks he will soon become commander and chief of the pakistani armed forces because of his meteoric rise up the chain of command. he’s well liked and well respected among army brass. and it’s only through his connections that we were able to stay in such secure accommodations. azad jammu and kashmir has its fair share of lodgings, from hostels to small boutique hotels but the mess hall has the most incredible views of the mountains and the valleys below. plus, we had our own private servant and chef. the pathan servant said the chef would make us anything we wanted. i almost asked for monkey brains and camel meat as a lark but the poor guy already looked so downtrodden, i didn’t have the heart to add to his misery.
the general had arranged for me to meet with dr. munir, the head of the geology department at the local university. dr. munir was kind enough to take my father and myself around muzzafarabad, pointing out where the 2005 earthquake did the most damage and how so much still needed to be done even four years later. at 7.6 on the richter scale, the quake’s epicenter was muzzafarabad but the shocks could be felt as far away as lahore. dr. munir said that relief efforts were slow but continuing. turkey had immediately sent envoys to help and the united nations wasn’t far behind. saudi arabia was also helpful. i would like to think that the saudis did it out of a sense of helping their muslim brethren but i think it has more to do with spreading wahhabism to non-arab countries. sickening.
we met an old woman on one of the streets who was walking with a severe limp. i asked her what had happened and if she needed help. she explained that part of her home had fallen on her and when she was rescued from the rubble, she was immediately taken to the local hospital but since others’ injuries were life threatening, she had had to wait for medical attention. when they set her leg, it was too late and it healed incorrectly. her face was etched in pain but she still wore a smile. she thanked my father and me for coming to muzzafarabad to see the damage and to try to help. i wanted to cry.
thousands of people had lost their homes and some even lost their entire families. one of the schools had crumbled and more than 35 children had perished. many families were living in tents or temporary UN-sanctioned shelters. dr. munir said that kashmir’s fault line is one of the deepest in the world and another powerful quake is around the corner. “why don’t people move to safer ground,” i asked? dr. munir said, “they are kashmiris. their families have lived here for centuries. where else would they go?” he had a point.
as we left the city, several kashmiri children saw my camera and asked me to take photos of them. they were naturally inquisitive as to who i was. i told them my name and that i was american but pakistani born and that i was there to help. they smiled, posed for pics and gasped in awe at the beauty of hawaii (i still had my pics from that trip on my camera).
if you want to help the relief efforts in kashmir or anywhere else for that matter, contact unicef at http://www.unicef.org/ or the united nations high commission for refugees at http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
