PADDY SOWING IN KASHMIR

                                                                         

PADDY SOWING IN KASHMIR

 The area is SUMBAL- SHADIPORA Road . I had to go to this area for some urgent official work. Paddy sowing is a Festval in Villages over here. Groups of happy villagers Join and work together singing , joking , talking but essentially sowing tender rice plants in fields full of water. They bring food and eat together and the whole atmosphere is of joy and hope . In kashmir ,this  Kharif crop is usually sown in  May  and harvested in October  .I am informed by a very senior official from Agriculture Department that  The State has about 160,000 hectares of land under paddy cultivation.

Samavar full of Boiling Sheer Chai ( Salted tea ) with Telvoru ( Kashmiri Bakery ) is always carried along when villagers go for rice plantation in kashmir . You could  hear the village women in knee deep water fields planting tender rice saplings and  singing "Cholhama Roshe Roshe " or "Malal Travith Tse Saal Ikh Na "  in olden days .

While studying in S P College Srinagar , i had the privilege to listen to Prof Gh Mohi Ud Din Hajini three or  four times . Prof Hajini was an Erudite scholar and an author well versed in Kashmir's history and culture . He would say that Gh Ahmed Mehjoor was not a poet but painter of images of Kashmir through words which one had to listen thereafter conceive them in mind after closing eyes for a moment. Through him i also came to know that elephants existed in Kashmir till 11th centuary which fact is reflected in many CANTOS of Kalhana's Rajtaringani which i read later . Hajini Sahib was an Arabic Scholar with apparent Harsh mannerism but affectionate and Profoundly knowledgeable person. Peace be to his soul for opening the world of Mehjoor to me.

I end this write up with beautiful lines of Mehjoor . Here they go ;-

"Naseem Boozum Tse Baal Daamin Kamand Heuth Chhuk Shikaar Chharaan

Baa  Shauqe Chaaney Shikaari Andher Panun ye sar Heuth Taray Ha Lalo."

" love ! I Heard at Naseem Bagh that with a bow and arrow you are on a Hunting expedition in Zabarwan Foothills( across Dal lake )

For your pleasure My love, I shall come in a shikara to offer thee my head "

( Autar Mota )

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