Waiting for sunny days in the mountains

“I go home only to take a shower,” says Mirza Mohammad Khan in a cheeky tone. He is sitting inside Khan Tea Stall in Tragbal, a stop for tourists on their way from Srinagar to Gurez valley. In this sparsely populated corner of Kashmir, the stall and its hoarding are unmissable.

“We get 500 liters of water every four days,” the 32-year-old stall owner continues. “I have to use this for making tea, washing utensils and other necessary things. I cannot afford to take a bath here and waste 20-30 liters of water! Every cup counts,” he adds

In Tragbal, with the Razdan mountains serving as a backdrop, Mirza has been running the stall for 12 years, serving tea, coffee, Maggi noodles and other light snacks to tourists. “I call this my second home as I stay here for five days a week from Wednesday to Sunday. I go home on Monday as it’s a working day and we get very few visitors,” says Mirza. His family home is in the Pethkoot area of Bandipore district of north Kashmir, some 30 kilometres away. In Tragbal, Mirza sleeps in the stall, which has a store room and a 3 x 6 feet bedroom.

April to September is the peak season for tourism and Mirza makes around Rs. 15,000 a month, working from nine in the morning to seven at night, serving around 100 customers a day. He is the sole earning member of his family of six – his wife and four children. The journey home in a local taxi costs Rs.300, an expense Mirza cannot afford on a regular basis.

Supplies have to be brought up the mountains and Mirza has to pay extra. “Usually, there is a profit of one rupee for a five rupees biscuit packet. But when I have to bring it here from Bandipore I have to pay a hefty cargo fare, which brings down my profit to 50 paisa,” Mirza explains.

Mirza had started out with the hope that the influx of tourists will help steady and grow his business, but now feels somewhat stuck. “It is not easy to run this shop here, but I don’t feel like shifting to something else where I have to start again. If the flow of tourists to Gurez valley increases, it will increase our sales as well.”

He keeps a radio in his dhaba to listen to weather updates. It’s an important asset as bad weather spells bad news – a fall in the number of tourists to Gurez. Mirza waits for sunny days!

Once the tourist season comes to an end and winter is approaching, Mirza returns to Bandipore in search of other odd jobs as a mason or a carpenter. But work is hard to come by in winter. “I have to sit at home and spend whatever I have saved from my earnings,” Mirza says.