Dal Lake at First Light

Before the day starts on Dal Lake, the water is still enough to hold the mountains. A shikara crosses, its oarsman standing, and the reflection breaks and settles again behind it.

The floating vegetable market is already trading. Houseboats along the shore are waking up. Somewhere a samovar is being lit, and by the time the light reaches the water, the first Kahwa of the day is being poured.

It is the picture most people carry of Kashmir, and it is the one we carry too. The photographs on this page were taken from a shikara on this lake, on an ordinary morning, which is exactly the point.