Baisaran Valley, Pahalgam

On a bright sunny day (yes, it really was!), we started from Srinagar, got into our white Maruti Suzuki Dzire cab and readied ourselves for the two and half journey ahead. On the way, we stopped at a seemingly well-known and popular spot on the side of the highway and bought dry fruits. At the shop, the salesman’s portrayal of kesar was tempting – pure, high quality, aromatic, premium, handpicked and what not. Convinced just a wee bit, we bought a small packet and got back in the car.

Next stop was a small apple farm and shop. Amidst more than 15 varieties of apple trees - including Royal Gala, Gala, Amritbani, and a golden yellow cultivar - planted in a geometric pattern, there was a small clearing with some chairs and tables. As we got comfortable, came the trays - trays and trays of jams, pickles, chutneys, juices and mixes. We drank a refreshing glass of freshly juiced (plucked and juiced right in front of us) apples each and sampled a veritable array of apple, lotus stem, cherry, and fig-based jams, chutneys, and pickles. With two big bags to show for the visit, we left the apple farm behind and climbed back into the car. 

Collective Force of Good, in Action

We live in the age of AI and disruption, where technology advancements are aplenty and not very far apart either. But they feel almost recursive in some sense. Don’t get me wrong, am sure the iPhone 17 will be “the fastest ever, best ever” iPhone Apple has ever made (pun intended). Am sure the next iteration of OpenAI’s LLM - GPT 4.2 or GPT 5 will break all the benchmarks of the earlier versions. But all these “breakthroughs” feel incremental to the sane, logical man and moreover these are from individual corporate behemoths or deep tech companies on their path to becoming the behemoths. 

When was the last time you recall multiple sectors of society coming together to achieve something phenomenal? The true power of the human race, so to say.