Page 34 - Seniorstoday June2023
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quite a chaos. Another observation is that The major places for visiting are
the locals providing most of the services Pahalgam, Sonmarg, Gulmarg etc these
are young and educated and have realised are destinations everyone goes to but
the importance of pampering tourists and the biggest attraction during April-May
visitors professionally and treating them is in Srinagar itself. Asia’s largest Tulip
with courtesy. Most young Kashmiris speak garden. The Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip
in English now; some attempt Gujarati and Garden is attracting hordes of people.
Marathi too, having picked up a few words This year an estimated four lakh people
from the visitors. were expected to visit during one month!
All roads leading to popular tourist The garden was set up in 2007 in roughly
destinations are very good and well eighty acres of a slope at the foothill of the
maintained. In fact the villages along the majestic Zabarwan range overlooking the
route too have a modernized look now. A scenic Dal Lake. The garden boasts of over
big boon is good toilet facilities everywhere seventy varieties of tulips in various colours
whether the big shop owners have made it brought from Holland and Amsterdam.
for use by their customers or they are the It’s a magnificent sight to behold. Rows
pay-and-use ones.(In earlier times lack of and rows of neatly planted tulips are
toilets was a major problem tourists faced.) breathtaking. What we had seen in movies
Driving through the countryside while like Silsila, it is a great feeling to see it
enjoying nature’s bounty is a memorable personally in our own country and we are
experience. In this season, white Apple standing among this riot of colours - it’s
blossoms and rich yellow mustard flowers almost surreal.
greet us everywhere. The picturesque
scenery forces you to stop time and again to
click photographs.
Tulip garden
All these flowers do not claim any
particular fragrance, however there is an
intoxicating floral aroma touching your
senses with every whiff of cool mountain
breeze. Each colour of the tulips is so
attractive that one can easily go crazy going
from bed to bed to take a closer look. The
colours range from pure white to whites
with streaks and stripes of pink and yellow,
to every shade possible that you can think
Apple blossoms of from yellow to orange to pink, red,
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