The time of year that John Keats called the ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’, autumn is a season famous for its harvest times, turning green leaves into vibrant colors of yellow, red, and orange, cooling temperatures, and darkening nights. Autumn in Kashmir, locally known as ‘Harud,’ transforms the valley into a vibrant canvas of red, orange, and yellow, attracting tourists to the Mughal gardens, hill stations, and other health resorts of splendid charm.
Poets, authors, and other litterateurs have immensely praised the spring season of the valley which brings newer and fresh life to dead and withered flora and gives hope to its inhabitants to start dreaming big and scaling high. Still, Autumn is a glorious and wonderful season. It is the season of harvest in the valley, and farmers reap the produce of their diligently and tirelessly worked paddy and other crops, Orchardists start picking apples and other fruits to pack them and then send them outside the valley to expect a good income. With the onset of autumn, Vallities start thrashing of walnuts a highly nutritive dry fruit most probably in the months of August and September followed by the hulling of their green husk and then sundrying.
This crop also enhances the economy of the region and gives farmers global recognition as Kashmiri walnuts are world famous and supplied to each corner of the globe. Besides being the harvesting season, autumn in Kashmir has many reasons to be celebrated and entertained. When I recall my memories of this season, I long for its early arrival. During my childhood I would wake up early in the dawn, offer prayers, and venture out in search and collection of the walnuts which were falling from the trees during night hours. After the conclusion of the season, I would sell a huge collection to a village shopkeeper who would give me some hundred or two in return, which was a source of my excitement and bliss for the next couple of months.
Nowadays such early outings have been replaced by online and mobile gaming which has spoiled their childhood and snatched the natural pleasure of our future generation. This season would be the preparation time for our upcoming annual exams because in recent years the exams were held in October or November. I would patiently wait for the sun to rise and study in the courtyard as the temperature and climate of the season best suited me. To perform better in the exams I would study till late at night hours and in the absence of electricity I remember, a kerosene lamp often came to my rescue.
Each year a day before the commencement of the exams, I would purchase a high-quality fountain pen from Bashir Ahmad Rangrez a famed grocery shopkeeper of Chowgam. A fortnight or a month after the conclusion of the exams was the period of playing and support. I along with the rest of my classmates would play cricket from morning till afternoon in a nearby field on the banks of River Vyethvetur because preparation and announcement of the results often took fifteen to thirty days and students were left to relax and enjoy the break period. Some of us would visit relatives and spend the period there and enjoy ourselves to the fullest. After this results were to be ready followed by their announcement by the school authorities which prompted us to get ready for the next higher classes. It was a period of jubilation and ecstasy for we were to get promoted and had to buy new books. Our women folk would prepare charcoal by burning dry twigs and branches of the trees in their orchards which we used during upcoming winters to warm our trembling bodies due to bone-chilling cold. Decades ago during the autumn season, people whose houses had thatched roofs would replace the old worn hay with the fresh lot to make them withstand the harsh winter season.
Parents would store the essential commodities and purchase woolen and other warm clothing for their children to make an efficient winter preparation. The conical paddy bales in the open paddy fields were the palace of playing hide and seek by the little children which we currently seldom witness in our high-tech and tech-savvy age. Flying kites indigenously made by the children in these vast open lands were the sights of recreation and amusement. In our olden days, adults would listen to the cricket commentary from the transistors as international cricketing events such as the World Cup were held probably during the autumn season of the valley.
However talking about the different rivulets and streams flowing through the rural areas, the murmuring and pleasing sounds of the gushing waters cease to give us tranquility as the water levels reach to the bottom of these water bodies. Children of the bygone era would also capture the insect cicadas, cage them in empty matchboxes to listen to their natural music and free them only during dawn times. For this, they were occasionally reprimanded and admonished by their parents. The sweet, mellifluous, and melodious music of cicadas signals the arrival of the autumn season in the valley. The plain and vast saffron meadows of Pampore start radiating purple color due to the appearance of Crocus flowers and farmers soon begin collecting the world’s famous and expensive spice. The nomadic Gujjar and Bakarwal people who enter the valley in the early summers to rear their cattle and other livestock In high-altitude green meadows start leaving back to the other side of the Pirpanchal range along with their flocks of sheep.
The blazing amber colour of the Chinar leaves during the season has even prompted poet of the East Dr Iqbal to compose the famous couplet- Jis Khak ke zamir main ho Aatishi Chinar, Mumkin nahi kisi sard ho wo Khaki Arjimand. In today’s digital age, when every comfort and luxury is easily available to us, such natural pleasures, peace of mind and contentment become almost impossible to buy despite spending all accumulated wealth. Our new generation has deeply become addicted to mobile and other online games. Frequent and lengthy screen exposures have weakened their eyesight and they are turning into couch potatoes. Instead of doing physical exercises and enjoying the mesmerizing beauty of the autumn season, they are focussing on spending hours watching mobile phones and making Vlogs of no utility. So in order to be delighted by the autumn colours, we alongside our children must prioritize natural pleasure over artificial cheerfulness.
The author can be mailed at rayeeskumar31@gmail.com
