Romesh Bhattacharji has been trekking in Kashmir since his yearsin Delhi’s St Stephen’s College in the 1960s. His last trek was in 2012,forty-eight years after the first one. He continued his trysts with this fabledbut tormented land even after he became a bureaucrat. His last posting as ChiefCommissioner Customs, Amritsar, included Kashmir in his beat.
Bhattacharji is well known as a high-altitude trekker who hasdiscovered trekking routes for mountaineers, and is said to be a phenomenal, ‘walking-talkingencyclopaedia’ on the Himalayas. He is also an avid photographer and has overthe decades amassed a vast cache of photographs. He has previously authoredbooks on Ladakh and India’s Northeast.
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When we think of Kashmir today, we think of militancy and conflict, but it was once an unspoilt land, lush and beautiful-heaven on earth. Kashmir takes us back to this paradise, to a time when militancy had not yet struck and rendered most parts of it inaccessible.
Romesh Bhattacharji first began trekking in Kashmir in the 1960s-it was the start of a love affair that endured for decades. Having travelled to even the most remote parts of the region, where inner-line permits are now required, he gained a reputation for possessing encyclopaedic knowledge of the Himalaya. In this book, he describes, in meticulous detail and with the help of hand-drawn maps, the topography and geography of the region, and the charm of Kashmir’s nooks and crannies, the splendour of its lakes and meadows, and the beauty of its valleys and peaks.
Eloquent and absorbing, Kashmir will put you under its spell and have you longing to set off on your own adventure through this breathtaking land.
