The 11-member team that left for Kashmir from Gulbarga hoped to spend time on a houseboat. Instead, they spent two horrific days in Anantnag in a van surrounded by five feet of water.
“We were not sure whether we would return to Gulbarga alive,” said Amar N. Bannurkar, an architect who led a 11-member tourist team, including his wife Uma Bannurkar. The team returned to Gulbarga on Sunday from New Delhi by the Karnataka Express, after spending a suspense-filled week at Srinagar, Anantnag and Khaji Kunda in Jammu and Kashmir.
The team, including Mr. Bannurkar’s two children, had originally planned their trip to Vaishnodevi temple in Jammu and Kashmir and they planned to visit Srinagar and other places on the way back.
All went well until they reached Srinagar on September 3. It began to rain heavily and they were warned by the local people about the possibility of a thunderstorm and heavy rain for an entire week. The team decided to return to Jammu via Anantnag. It was horrible in Anantnag, with heavy floods inundating the roads. “There was not a single lodge to stay in, and we were forced to spend more than 50 hours in a van. The nights were the scariest; we could hear the gushing waters,” said Ms. Bannurkar.
Ms. Bannurkar was full of praise for the local people and the Army. “The local people provided us apples and biscuits and saved us from hunger,” he said. They were all praise for the taxi drivers and hotel and dhaba owners, who did not fleece the tourists. In Khaji Kunda, where tourists stayed for five days after leaving Anantnag, dhaba owners provided food free of cost and taxi drivers said if the tourists did not have money, they could send it to them after reaching their homes. “Such gestures amid despair kept us alive,” said Mr. Bannurkar.
