Zahe Naseeb [ON HOLD]

Saira Hasan Kapoor

They say if there is heaven anywhere on earth it's in Kashmir.
The snow peaked mountains, the tall pine trees, the scrumptious food, the warm spicy kawa and of course the beautiful and hospitable Kashmiri's, this place indeed was heaven.

It was peak summers in the rest of India, but here in the valley of Kashmir, cold wind blew as the snow thawed away, a rich green fauna covered the peaks of the tall mountains.

The bone chilling wind blowing from the west made Saira shudder, she wrapped her thin chiffon dupatta around herself in a vain attempt to get some warmth.
She tried to ignore the pain in her feet, the idea of trekking a mountain dressed in just her lawn kurta wearing three inches of kitten heals had been really stupid, but she would rather jump off the mountain than admit it.

It was around 3 degrees on the mountain top, her hand and feet were cold, she just prayed that they would be down at the base before she died  of hypothermia.

"You are crazy Kapoor." Her best friend Anika said rolling her eyes extending her hand towards Saira to pull her up to the flater peak.

At last, after two hours of hiking, with blistered and frozen feet, she had reached the top. She huffed and puffed, trying to get her breathing to even out.

"If you die right now, I'm going to roll your body down the mountain." Anika said sipping water from her bottle.

"Oh shut up, what is love without a little pain." Saira said sticking her tongue out at Anika and grabbed the water bottle from her.

"Which love? You haven't even met someone."

"I will soon." Saira said dreamily.
"But for that my love you need to click my pictures, so Ammi can put them on the matrimonial site." She said with a toothy grin.

Anika rolled her eyes at her friend. For someone as smart as Saira, she sometimes was too thick and dumb for her own good. Her childish enticed and unrealistic perspective on certain things made Anika really doubt her friends sanity at times.

"Rudra, just tell her she is crazy." Anika cried looking at her older brother who stood behind them for help.

"Don't look at me right now, I warned you she was crazy when you were 9, it's 15 years too late now to realise that." Rudra said and walked ahead towards the rest of the group.

"We'll talk about your Prince Charming and his entry later, now come on crazy Kapoor, we have to stick with the group." Anika said holding Saira by her wrist and pulling her towards the tour guide and the rest of the bunch.

Anika and Saira were taking the trip they had planned when they were 14 years old, after a lot of convincing, blackmailing and emotional drama, their families had allowed the girls on the condition that Rudra would accompany them.

So here they were on the peak of the Himalayas, having the best time of their lives.

"We are 2 miles from the LoC, this is the last peak which comes under the Indian territory, right from there." The tour guide said pointing towards the very next mountain. "From there starts the border of Pakistan."

The group craned their neck to see, where their guide had pointed.

"That close ?" Rudra asked astonished.

"Yes, so close yet so far. These borders have divided one land into two." The tour guide said with a sigh.
"Okay everyone, we'll take a fifteen minute photo stop, click pictures and assemble here within the next 15 minutes." He said dismissing everyone, he pulling out a cigarettes from his pocket and lighted it up.