Arq e Gulab- The Fading Aroma from Kashmir
Mohsina Malik
Inside a gnarled wooden outlet, Aziz looking proficiently into a bottle, that holds a liquid, once the most loved in Kashmir, the wrinkles on his face, and these empty bottles lined up on the shelves, stained and largely unused, perhaps have a tale to tell, a tale of fading love for Aroma, for rose water.
Recalling his childhood days, Aziz rejoices the days, when as a child, he would watch the entire process of Rose water making, and his whole family would take part in making rosewater and other syrup, “now we rarely have visitors, the demand has dropped down drastically.”
He remembers how his mother would keep heaps of rose petals in their courtyard. “Women would prepare the best syrups. Now it is only me with my sense of duty left,” says a nostalgic Aziz.
Aziz ...
