Srinagar Streets: "Have it. Have it"

Srinagar, Kashmir - Narrow alleys that twist and turn make the city of Srinagar. It seems to have it's own smell. And apparently, though just a 100 or so meters from Dal Lake, a population distinct from the "boat people."
Shops are low, cramped structures with most of the business happening outside on the streets. You have to duck under whole pigs hanging from hooks outside the meat shop to make your purchase.

Crates of vegetables and fruit protrude onto the street. About every three or four stores, there's a stand selling soda and candy and potato chips and other Western junk food. Look up and there's laundry strung along most of the windows.
Strolling along, snapping away, window shutters bursted open above my head. A young, very regal looking women in a peach sari called down to me.
"Where are you from?" she asked. "Come up. Have something."
She, her sisters and her parents welcomed me into their humble living room and served me tea and cake, which they insisted I eat every bite of.
"Have it. Have it," they would implore when my fork stopped moving for longer they would have liked.
The sisters were sweet and well educated - at an Irish Catholic school of all places. The youngest, Fazaleet, wants to be an aeronautical engineer. She said she was 18, but then added that she would be 18 in November. My friend, Gustav, said tell us your birthday and we'll send you something.
"Oh, I love presents!" she said.

The sister wearing the peach sari, Hinna, has been married a year and teaches English and science. Her older sister, Sabia, is engaged to a diamond trader from Goa and will be married next May.
"You should come to the wedding," Fazaleet said.
The others nodded in agreement. Really, they said, I must come back to Kashmir and stay with them. For a month next time, not just a few days.
When I returned to the Snow Goose, I told the youngest Shalla son, 23, that I had meet two eligible women. I could arrange a marriage, I joked. The Shalla women in the room perked up at the mention of marriage and demanded to know the names.
No, no. These names were no good. They were city girls.


(Bathing in Dal Lake, in which I spotted a dead cow)