As autumn is rolling out the red carpet for winter in Kashmir, the omnipresent booen or gigantic Chinar tree has adorned the valley with crimson hues, complimenting Kashmir’s larger melancholy. With streets, gardens and walkways strewn with Chinar leaves at the moment, Bilal Bahadur captures the fall
Nothing announces the arrival of autumn more emphatically than fire-emitting Chinars which turn surrounding milieu ferrous with their crimson leaf litter.Giant aging trees shed leaves and loom ghoulishly amid thick blanket of mist resembling scenes from thriller Hollywood flicks.The browning Chinars contrast strikingly with the other shrubbery while turning gardens, parks and roads into a palette of colours.The trees dotting Mughal gardens enhance their glory, rendering the landscape as postcard-perfect.The leaf litter shed by the trees not only has an aesthetic value but it contributes to the economy as well.Early morning, sweepers collect huge mounds of leaf litter and set the collection on fire.Tourists arrive in droves during the autumn season to steal glimpses of mesmerizing landscape.People walk over the leaves whose rustling sound, mixing with the calls of tree birds, breaks the deafening winter silence.The mountains rising in the background simply take the breath away.It is a paradise for the avid photographers who scramble to take pictures of the surreal landscape surrounding them.It is common sight to see the fallen Chinar leaves drowned in puddles in water giving look of a glitzy jellified crystal slab.The litter is collected, burnt and a fine form of coal is extracted which locals use to keep the earthen firepots shouldering.By afternoon, aromatic smoke of burning leaves wafts across miles of area. People turn up to witness the leftover ash from the burnt Chinar pyres.Locals too participate in the revelry that the arrival of autumn throws up. Mothers show up with their children, dressed enormously to fend off the bone-penetrating cold.New borns are brought to shrines such as Dargah located on the banks of Dal Lake where wisps of their nascent hair are shaved as part of ritual under the shadow of browning Chinars.Autumn brings the kind of surreality that the one cannot help but strive repeatedly to immobilize the moments in camera.The season is brings cheers to the public mood ahead of the anticipated harsh winter period expected to bring a litany of problems.
