Chicken, rice and the traditional saag were packed in our picnic baskets. It was a day-long trip – food wouldn’t be available on the way. We left our guesthouse in Reshwari and walked to the assembly point, 10 minutes away. Ours was the last pick-up.
We had registered for this trip the previous day by submitting our identity cards and photographs. A tourism officer and his wife were also visiting Reshwari. They had asked us if we would be interested in visiting the shrine of Peer Baba. We had just returned from the Amarnath yatra and weren’t really kicked about another religious trip so soon.
However, this was a day-long trip. And saying no to a chance of visiting a place we’d never heard of is sacrilege. We agreed to join them on this “outing” to Peer Baba.
Soon, a fleet of seven Tata Sumos arrived. Each jeep had a list of passengers put up on the front. We were supposed to sit in the jeep assigned to us. We were impressed with the management of the tour company in this small village of Reshwari in northern Kashmir.
The assembly point turned out to be gates of the Indian Army post. We were greeted by an officer, dressed impeccably in his Indian Army uniform. It was our first time shaking hands with an officer on duty. He asked us all to be seated in the jeeps. “Trucks aate hi honge”, (Trucks will be here soon), he said.
We assumed the trucks would be carrying supplies for the villages near the Peer Baba shrine. Since it was such a remote place that access to basic necessities would be tough, we figured.
Instead, what arrived were two trucks of the Indian Army. The seven jeeps now also started moving ahead, led and trailed by these trucks! This wasn’t a group tour – this was a convoy!
