RSS The Vox Kashmir Global Literal Series
Published On:Wed, Apr 15th, 2015April Issue/Short Story & Fiction| ByThe Vox Kashmir
The Salt Tea
TagsHistory of KashmirIssue 1
kashmir Salt Tea|Sana Shah
by Sana Shah
It was only when I dismounted from my motorcycle that I realized I had toured the entire town and yet did not find a single provision store or a pharmaceutical shop open, rather all I could find before my weary eyes was the infinite stretch of darkness, and added to that the howling of the street dogs resounding through the town made me to realize that I was all alone on the desolated streets with no sign of humans around me.It was a late evening in summers and I was returning from the village where I had been stationed for work. As expected the city had been in flames literally since a week and the turmoil wafted along with the breeze even and yet again the town was under curfew in the view to prevent any further mishappenings or untoward incidents. I had succeeded in getting my leave sanctioned for a day in order to take time off my work and meet my parents who had just landed in thisvale of Sufis and Saintsafter a long time. Just when I had entered the city it dawned on me that I had forgotten to buy some essential items and hence I had been roving around the main city to find an open grocery store or a general store as I wanted to buy some vegetables, medicines, etc to stock in reserve anticipating another long week of unrest, shutdowns and curfew. Moreover, I wanted to get back home with my parents’ favorite beverage- the salt tea, which being the drink by default of our family and given the fact that my parents resided outside Kashmir with my elder brother, thus were not regular consumers of this salt tea, but every time they arrived home here in Kashmir in summers, they would ask for the salt tea regularly, this tea being distinctive and inimitable specifically to our Kashmir.But at present as I stood against my motorcycle pillion looking around, it felt as if I was the only human left in this entire planet. Letting out a sigh of dismay, I engaged in soliloquy, cogitating that how foolish it was of me to search for trivialsalt tea and kulchawhen the entire valley had been set ablaze andthis eerie silence engulfing me was not the ramification of amity or harmony or peace in the least, rather this silence was the harbingerof yet another spell of adversity armed with the munitions of discords, conflagration, bloodshed, loss and devastations which nonetheless my senile parents too would never acclaim. Moreover, I myself was in danger as I stood alone on such an abandoned street and it made little sense to be standing out here alone in open when the other people found salvation in being locked up in the four walls of their houses.Although I had the curfew pass and after checks at intermittent army posts they allowed me to advance towards my destination, but still to be able to get home safely amidst such a horrifying silence appeared as the greatest challenge I ever had been confronted with in my life. The recurring barbed wires in the middle of the roads, the barricades on the turns, the check posts in every sensitive area, the bloodcurdling ambience of turbulence made me to tremble with fear.My soliloquy was disturbed when suddenly I saw a shadow on the road magnifying under the illumination of the headlights of my motorcycle that I had switched on. I looked up the other side and spotted a dim light from a distance approaching in my direction. It felt as if time protracted as eternity, and my heart started thumping louder, my breathing grew heavier and my body felt cold and numb despite the heat of summer. I wiped the sweat beads exuding on my forehead and with difficulty I mounted back on my motorcycle but I did not dare to start the ignition. So many dubious questions and random chancy musings pounded my head that with every passing thought my heart palpitated even more. Who could it be? What he must be doing here at such odd time? What if it is a thief? What if he carries a lethal weapon? What if I am robbed? What if it is some gunmen? What if he arrests me? What if I am shot dead? What if….? The questions were never ending!In the next moment I saw the shadow grew nearer and owing to the headlights of my motorcycle that is when I noticed that it was a flimsy man with a lantern in his one hand and holding some bags in the other hand. But that did not end my apprehensions and I still had no clue who it could be at such a strange hour given the grueling and ambiguous circumstances of the valley, the only thing I was certain about was that it definitely must be some ludicrous and brainless fellow like me to dare the dark and sinister night of such a rapacious and marauding time that our valley was going through. I breathed in deep as the man neared me, and I admitted that I was too frightened to even kick –start my motorcycle. Spotting another fellow human on a deserted route should have been a pleasant miracle for me but instead the place, the timing, the conditions made it more dreadful and formidably extraordinary. Never before had I been so scared all my life. I didn’t move abit.The shadow attained a normal size, the silhouette was revealed to my heavy eyes – The man was finally here, right in front of me. Clad in a patchy unkempt Pheran and a white skull cap covering his hair, the man stopped at me. This got my pulse racing fast, yet I felt inexplicably calm. He glanced hard at me and I too naturally stared at him. I noticed he was an old man with grey hair visible on his temples, and a long black beard with tinge of grey and white. His grey eyes under his knitted eye brows gazed deep into my eyes, his crinkly face reading my tense look. Then he suddenly started smiling, it wasn’t a villainous smile that could horrify me, rather it was a very genial smile that calmed my uneasiness. Patting my back, he asked me what I had been doing at such odd time out here, his honeyed voice overriding the yowl of the street dogs. After a moment of reluctance I told him the entire story pertaining to my presence on such a desolated street on this peculiar night. I expected him to laugh or mock at my stupidity of taking up such a dicey venture that too at such odd times, but much to my surprise, he nodded in approbation and again that warm smile blossomed on his lips.“Now what kaka, where should I find the salt tea or the vegetables or the medicines? I think I will have to get back home empty, I won’t find anything here this odd time”, I declared, starting the ignition of my motorcycle.After a moment of reflection the old man spoke, “Son, there is nothing in this world that you cannot find except one. You will find or get everything in life again and again, but the only thing you will not get again are your parents. Rest, all is possible to find”, he smiled at me, patting my shoulders and left in the tank of darkness. I didn’t understand all that he had just said, so I turned and ran to call after him but I was puzzled to see that he had vanished somewhere in the dark, as if he wasn’t here ever, there was nothing except this abysmal darkness. May be he walked fast I thought but I got Goosebumps anyway. Nodding my head in perplexity I started the ignition and zoomed away, hoping to now stop only straight at home.Just few kilometers before my house I spotted a small stall lit up by a little lamp near the corner of a lane. I halted my motorcycle and ran to the man owning the stall. As I got close I was much amazed to see that it was a tea stall of a tea vendor and I swelled with jubilance to find a tea vendor here out in the middle of an empty and derelict road. It all looked like a fancy story in which all the fortuitous miracles and wonders happen out of the blue against the expectations.“Eh- tea? I mean salt tea? Do you have salt tea?” I asked out of excitement, rubbing my hands together.He smiled as he nodded, “Yes of course”. He packed the salt tea along with some bakery for me.“Great”, I said aloud paying him the cash.I was filled with ecstasy and it felt as if I was inspirited with a new life. Never had I experience such a flush of exuberance and joy before, it was an alien feeling to me that now I was experiencing and the sequence of events of the evening added to this special feeling of mine. It looked as if I had surmounted the highest peak of the world although I could not find the vegetables or medicines but being able to find a tea vendor and buying that salt tea was a feat ardent enough in itself and the smiling faces of my parents flashed over and again in my mind as I drove home.“Son where were you, we got so worried”, said my mother embracing me tight as I finally reached home. I briefed them about my search for the salt tea and other items and thus my late arrival. “What was the need of this, son. The situation is so critical and it is not feasible to roam outside even in the day, let alone the nights and that too for something as trifling as the salt tea, come on my boy!” my father scolded me.“My darling son is far dearer to me than any salt tea”, mother hugged me again. And for me my parents are much important than my own self, I thought and hugged her back.The next morning I woke up late. After getting ready I left my room to join my parents for the breakfast. I heard them discussing the turmoil in Kashmir as they listened to the news on the radio.“It is heart-wrenching to see what has happened to our Kashmir, our paradise is in flames!” mother lamented.“Yes, our lovely land has been put to test again and again, how many ordeals will it bear now”, father added as mother poured him the pinkish salt tea.“Come son, join us”, mother said on seeing me.“Yes dear, come. The salt tea tastes scrumptiously perfect”, father complimented as he sipped the salt tea and lowered the volume of the radio.I nodded and joined them as I was reminded of that old man who met me yesterday night. I smiled.Today after so many years as I am outside Kashmir to see my parents at the residence of my elder brother, that salt tea episode that once held little relevance for me, now flashed at the back of my mind and stirred the emotions in me as I sit here today waiting in the car of my brother’s friend who has just gone to drop his old mother inside a soaring building that has a garish board fit on the entrance which reads:‘THE HOME FOR THE ELDERLY AND THE AGED’
I sighed as my brother’s friend returns and start the ignition of his car.“You see here we have such a busy life ha”, he says, whistling the tune of some pop song. I nod.Today after so long I now understood the precepts which that old man, I once met that uncanny night, had shared with me. Perchance the gaudy life that appears satisfactory to us is in reality founded on the shifting sands of broken relations and dismal escapes from our prime responsibilities and may be the tumultuous turmoil back in our land has taught us the value of our loved ones,the losses we faced somewhere have paved way for a gain and that is the gain of discerning the place of prime relations in life and this is what reserves the right for Kashmir to be called as the paradise on earth.Now as my brother’s friend drives past this high building ensnaring the longings of the compassionate hearts, I recline back letting out a sigh of relief and feel contented and proud to know as I thank God, that our Kashmir has no old age homes.
Credits:
Author:Sana Shah-
a young aspiring freelance writer and a poet who attempts to encapsulate themes related to identity conflict due to the tumults in the valley and mostly with structures of metaphysical themes and stories that accentuate the ordinary juxtaposed in the light of the extraordinary.
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