The Almond Alcove in Srinagar, locally known as 'Badam-Waer', is teeming with visitors, both tourists, and locals, as the light pink flowers in full bloom in the verdant greenery signal the end of a long winter in Kashmir. Almond trees are the first ones to flower as if it were nature's way to tell the peasantry to prepare for the new farming season, after three inactive winter months. The mesmerizing beauty of Badam-Waer inside Srinagar's old walled city at 'Kalai Andar' in the Rainawari area might have a different effect on the visitors. "Kashmir has four different seasons and the winter almost shuts down everything due to snow and cold. This almond blossom is the indication of the arrival of spring," Tajamul Islam, a local resident, said.
Aquib Ahmad, another local visitor, is so enamoured by the beauty of almond bloom that he feels every visit is like his first. "We experience this beauty every year. I have visited it so many times but every time I feel like it is my first visit. In Kashmiri, we have an adage 'sheen galeh, wandeh zhaleh baye yee su bahaar' (the snow will melt, the winter will go and the spring will be on us again). So this is the sign that the spring has arrived," he added. The fame of the Almond Alcove has now reached beyond the mountains of Kashmir to the plains of India as tourists visit it in large numbers.
"This is my first visit to Kashmir and I am here at Badam-Waer. I really like this, it looks really serene and beautiful," Tejinder Singh, a tourist from Chandigarh, said. Ankit, who hails from Chandigarh, said it was a great experience for him at the alcove. Ankur and Shubanghi, a couple from Punjab, came to know about the garden through social media.
"We came to know about this place through social media. Our experience after coming here is very good. We took a lot of pictures here, mountains behind these flowers, the green garden, all looking very good," Ankur said. The couple feels the flowers in Kashmir were different from what one can see in the plains of the country. "It's a different experience all together, picturesque. It is called 'jannat' (heaven), I think, because of these flowers only," Shubangi said.
