THE HOTEL GRAND MUMTAZ, SRINAGAR

As the taxi pulled away from the Grand Hotel & Restaurant, I believed I had not seen the last of Srinagar. It turned out I was right.

At 1130 I was handed a boarding pass for SXR to DEL from the good offices at Jet Airways. It was just the beginning: Check-out time is 1200 and the departure flight leaves at 1430. I still had to pay and tip the Grand, arrange a cab and skip to SXR, and go through the airport dance - getting processed, screened, stamped, and patted down - several times over.

We hadn't travelled twenty yards from the Grand when the cabbie was out the door and engaged in a shouting match with another driver who looked ready to slap his beard right off. I was mulling about some other way to the airport when the argument suddenly ended and we were rolling out. I stared at the cabbie and my gaze was returned by goggling saucers of magnified iris. Could glasses be that thick? He told me not to worry about anything - he had been driving a taxi for the past 55 years. (I hope he started at age 10).

We made record time to the airport. Some pedestrians in or near our path almost didn't survive. We went window-to-window with another vehicle, quickly narrowing the distance between us and a huge bull on the center line. It cooperated by staying put and we were past it and on.

There was no need to hurry - after the pat-downs, after the waiting, after five hours it was announced that all flights out of SXR were downgraded from "DELAYED" to "CANCELLED". We would all see one another at SXR again tomorrow, but for now it was back to Srinagar, to the Hotel Grand Mumtaz.
Photo credit: MHIP