6. Bagh

We arrived in the mountains of Kashmir after five hours of driving on tough and chaotic roads. Our car was loaded with blankets to offer to the people and an American doctor, who brought some money to distribute to the poorest, accompanied us.

Doctor Aftab (the one without moustache) is a heart surgeon and he has operated on more than ten thousand people in the last 30 years. He is an authority for heart surgery. We hope that we never need his expertise.

The tented camp where we have arrived is organized by Shigri, Salim’s friend, the son of Princess Tehzib. We are lodged in the only construction in the camp, which is a house made of a wooden structure covered with thick cloth as walls. The roof is made with iron sheets and the little house is very comfortable, more so even as Shigri’s team immediately brings us a delicious dinner.

There are fallen houses everywhere and near the houses are the tents in which the people live. Even when the houses are not fully destroyed, they are damaged and unsafe, and the people prefer to live in tents because the image of their children trapped under the rubble is still fresh in their minds.

The earthquake, unfortunately, happened during the class hours and many schools fell like the houses.
So this winter everybody is camped in tents and the children would have enjoyed this adventure very much, had it not been for the many wounded and for the fact that everything was missing because together with the houses, the earthquake had destroyed also all the belongings of the people that were inside.

Fortunately, only a few died of cold because the whole country rushed forward to give help in the form of blankets, tents, food and medicines.
Daud Shah related how some poor women sold their jewels in order to give the money to help the victims, and that children used to come to his chemist shop asking him which medicines they could buy that were most needed for the wounded and sick in Kashmir.