TRAVEL IN KASHMIR

FEBRUARY – APRIL 2006

Travel to Kashmir Aru Valley

 

bimbe mie

1. To my daughters

Children should have an understanding that money is not just for buying things. In any amount that comes to us there is always a part for the poor. A person with money, is responsible for giving some of it to someone who needs it. The other…
badjee Nasim

2. Daud Shah and Badjee Nasseem

When Daud Shah and his wife Bajee Nasseem came to Italy 6 years ago to buy my perfumes he was our guest and Fatimah who was very small called him "Nonno"; granddad, so this is how we call him now. Nonno Daud Shah. They wanted for the essences…
ucelli 1

3. The Mynahs

  There was a bird seller sitting in the street and I stopped by to take a picture. "Why are these young birds in a cage? Have they stolen the jewellery from houses?" No Sir, these are Mynahs, the talking birds, we teach them to answer…
ciapatti

4. The Bazaar

I have had some new tunics made for me according to the fashion of Pakistan so that I shall look like someone from the country, and I thought to make a pair of them for my driver Riaz so that the people will think that we are brothers because…
internet connection

5. Internet easy

It is very easy and affordable by all to connect to the Internet in Pakistan. All you need to have is a telephone, a modem and then the prepaid cards of 50 rupees (75 Euro cents). The card has some secret numbers hidden by a coat that one removes…
cena

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…
cigri

7. Commodore Shigri

Air Commodore Shahid Hamid Shigri is a fighter plane pilot and he drives his car as if it was a Mirage 2000 jet aircraft. When the earthquake happened, he had just taken leave from the Pakistan Air Force. The quake made the Islamabad’s…
villaggi

8. People of the mountain

  It is enough to open one’s eyes here in order to understand that only a small part of the population lives in cities like Bagh or even in villages. Kashmiri people have lived in these mountains for thousands of years, scattered in…
shigri camp

9. Shigri’s camp

  Life in the camp means always being at the service of the people and Commodore Shigri gives us the example in a way that we never forget the reason for which we have come here. No one here is sent away, be it people who come to ask…
house view1

10. New houses project

by Air Commodore Shigri The problem here is that the poor people, who are so many, do not have the money to rebuild their house, and they cannot start working to earn the money until they can live a normal life in a real house. So millions…
tessuti

11. The colored cloths

  As I have received the measurements of the waist and shoulders, of chest and of neck, of arms and of the legs, of Mariam, Fatima and Aisha, I went with Colonel Daud to buy coloured clothes in order to make Pakistani dresses for all…
fayaz1

12. Fayaz

  In the first week after the earthquake, Shigri had trucks coming from Islamabad to Bagh with tents and blankets for distributing to the people. There used to be a crowd of desperate people and some of them behaved badly. Fayaz and…
doctor sharif

13. Doctor Sharif

  I became ill and Bajee Nasseem sent me to her homeopathic doctor, Brigadier Sharif. His son himself prepares the medicines that are prescribed in a room behind his father’s office. The medicine is in small white packets, which contain…
velo

14. The Kashmiri veil

  As soon as I arrived in Kashmir, I was impressed by the elegance with which Kashmiri women wear their veil. I asked Shigri if I could be shown the manner it was wrapped and he said: "Certainly, the 2 schoolteachers of Surbuland camp…
popcorn venditore

15. The popcorn seller

A popcorn street seller was passing by the house. I was curious to understand how he was making it, cooking the grains in hot salt. It is very simple. The maize is put into the very hot salt heated by a fire under the iron plate.   When…
moschus moschiferus pods 1

16. The Kashmiri Musk deer

There is a perfume so famous that everyone on earth knows its name but it is so rare that only very few living human beings can boast at having ever smelled it. It is the Musk. The Musk comes from a small deer that has two fangs that he uses…
fragole venditore

17. Travel in the Bazaar

I came across a strawberry seller and marvelled; I have never seen so many strawberries at one time. In Pakistan, there are so many cultivations of this fruit that they are sold by full carts in the street and they cost very little.     There…
casa fayaz frame

18. House in construction

Fayaz’s house is not as ready as I thought it was, only the metallic structure is manufactured. Mr. Agha has an army of workers under his orders, and he is like king Salomon with his army of Jeenis working for him to build the temple of Jerusalem.…
pakpattan derbar retro

19. Travel to Pakpattan

It’s a long road to Pakpattan and as renting a car is quite cheap, I have decided to do so and to travel in comfort. In Pakistan, the cars are hired together with their driver so that I won’t even have to drive. My driver’s name is Riaz,…
bahawalpur mazare

20. The Sheikh of Bahawalpur

  We proceeded until Allahabad where the Sufi sheikh who was our friend is buried. When we were young, he had much love for us mystic youngsters, new converts to Islam. I had the desire to pray for his soul on his grave for a long time.     After…
riso pentolone

21. Baba Farid’s restaurant

Every day in Pakpattan many people arrive, coming to pay a visit to the tomb of Baba Farid, to greet him, to pray in his mosque and to invocate God with the hope that their prayers will be answered by virtue of their nearness to the saint’s…
gettata dua

22. A prayer for the new house

The news came that the house will arrive in Bagh within 2 or 3 days. Fayaz has already prepared the place where it will be installed, building a platform with the stones from the rubble of his old house.     Now we have to put…
prefab ceiling 2

23. The new house of Fayaz

It has not been an easy job to transport the pieces of the new house to Fayaz’s place. The truck could not reach us because the road was too steep, and we had to make many trips with tractors to bring the panels up to the path that leads to…
fiore arancio

24. The perfumes of Kashmir

We are working immersed in perfumes. The mountains of Kashmir are full of flowers and aromatic plants which make the air that we breathe fragrant with so much joy. Fayaz has roses growing all around his place.     Fayaz has planted…
addio family2

25. Farewell to the family of Fayaz

The house is now ready, the cement will dry up within a few days and the family will move in. 12 days have already passed since we started the cement platform. We have been working continuously often during the night as well, and I have been…
house view2

26. The reconstruction of Kashmir

  Someone, after reading these pages, may feel the urge to do something, to participate in the reconstruction of Kashmir, to build a house for a family or to personally go there to help.   There are three sizes of houses and…