{"id":4173,"date":"2020-03-17T10:48:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T05:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=4173"},"modified":"2020-03-17T10:49:34","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T05:19:34","slug":"nostalgia-veshyakh-festive-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/nostalgia-veshyakh-festive-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgia: Veshyakh Festive Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nostalgia\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veshyakh\nand Us<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Z.G.Muhammad <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘I take\nback all the joy that all oppressors have stolen from me.’  People adopted this\nmaxim as their philosophy of life in ‘the\ncity of Srinagar ‘- my birth burg.   Having learnt\nto transcend being oppressed and not allowing deprivations sapping their\nresilience, in all situations, they stole the moments of joy and celebrated\nevery season and festival with great\nhilarity even during troubled and oppressive times of the fifties and the\nsixties.  Having enjoyed almost a three\nweeks long almond blossoms festival on\nthe foothills of Koh-i-Maran. Having enjoyed\nenthralling and soul-stirring musical evenings under the canopies of purple and\nwhite blossoms in the garden laid by Waris Khan. And having relished roasted Gaer <\/em>water chestnuts squatting on the\nsmall hillock, called the tail of Koh-i-Maran overlooking Dal, Nigeen, and\nAnchar lakes, all children waited for the Veshyakh<\/em>.\nIn essence, April 13, holiday the day  Mogul\ngardens after winters were thrown open for ordinary people. None of us, neither\nmy siblings nor my buddies and nor I  knew\nthat the day was of great religious significance to the Sikh community.\nFor us, the day was just a holiday for\nvisiting the Mogul gardens; I believe so\nwas correct about the whole population of craftsmen, weavers and daily wage\nearners living in and around the historic ward-4 of the city. For us, the word Veshyakh <\/em>was nothing but a synonym for a seasonal festival- a day\nof cheerfulness, joy, and excursion to\nthe Mogul gardens.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like,\nother festive occasions, the preparation for going on an excursion to the Mogul\ngardens started much in advance. For closing the workplace on the Veshyakh for\nallowing them to have an excursion to Mogul gardens,  the boys working on the carpet looms, young artisans\nchiselling life out of walnut wood and conjuring magical paisleys with a tiny needle on Pashmina shawls started coaxing\nand cajoling their wousta-kars<\/em>\n(master craftsman) much in advance.  Once,\nthe wousta-kar<\/em> or wousta<\/em> agreed, the apprentices pooled money\nfor meeting all expenses, including getting the best cuisines cooked by a waza<\/em>\n(chef).  The wousta-kar <\/em>was invited for the excursion as a guest of\nhonour. Sometimes, these working boys,\nmostly school dropouts and unlettered instead of getting the cuisines for the\noccasion prepared by professional chefs,\ncooked multiple dishes for the day themselves.\nSome of them would be proficient in preparing tasty foods.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our locality visiting, \nNishat and Shalimar gardens on Veshyakh had become customary for many families.\nVisiting Mogul gardens on Veshyakh had become so much a part of our culture\nthat many poets have written romantic poems about this festive day. One of the\nearliest masterpieces of Rehman Rahi is Veshyakh\n<\/em>and Rafgaar<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those days hardly any family in our Mohalla afforded a car\nand only a couple of city buses plied on the roads. The most available mode of\ntransport for visiting the gardens was boats and tongas. The downtowners\nembarked on shikaras from one or other ghat on the Nallah Mar.  Each Shikara carried ten to twelve passengers.\nOn a couple of Veshyakhs, our family has also travelled to the Mogul gardens in\na  boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, tongas were the most favourable mode of\ntransport.  I remember, we boarded the\nboat either at Bohri Kadal or Naid Kadal ghats. The boat zigzagging its way\nthrough small waterways under the awnings of the willow trees reached Nishat\nGarden almost after one and half hour.  Travelling\nto the Mogul gardens in a boat compared to Tonga was soothing and refreshing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the almond blossom festival, the tradition of celebrating\nthe Veshyakh by of working-class died after the seventies.               <\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nostalgia<\/p>\n

Veshyakh
\nand Us<\/p>\n

Z.G.Muhammad <\/p>\n

‘I take
\nback all the joy that all oppressors have stolen from me.’  People adopted this
\nmaxim as their philosophy of life in ‘the
\ncity of Srinagar ‘- my birth burg.   Having learnt
\nto transcend being oppressed and not allowing deprivations sapping their
\nresilience, in all situations, they stole the moments of joy and celebrated
\nevery season and festival with great
\nhilarity even during troubled and oppressive times of the fifties and the
\nsixties.  Having enjoyed almost a three
\nweeks long almond blossoms festival on
\nthe foothills of Koh-i-Maran. Having enjoyed
\nenthralling and soul-stirring musical evenings under the canopies of purple and
\nwhite blossoms in the garden laid by Waris Khan. And having relished roasted Gaer water chestnuts squatting on the
\nsmall hillock, called the tail of Koh-i-Maran overlooking Dal, Nigeen, and
\nAnchar lakes, all children waited for the Veshyakh.
\nIn essence, April 13, holiday the day  Mogul
\ngardens after winters were thrown open for ordinary people. None of us, neither
\nmy siblings nor …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-take"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4174,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173\/revisions\/4174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}