Pardesi Pahadi: Raja’s Hut and the Kashmir of Iron Khan
Parvez Khan aka ‘Raja’ outside his hut. Photo: Zachary Conrad.
Gulmarg’s Raja’s Hut was the subject of the 2018 documentary Iron Khan. Citing the film and personal experience, Zachary Conrad recalls the guest-house and its owners, in the foreground of the Himalayas, snowboarding, and insurgency in Kashmir.
Author’s Note: The Himalaya are my favorite mountain range. I know that must sound obvious and banal, like being a Yankees fan, or being really into the Beatles. But they’re more than just the tallest mountains in the world. For the seven years that I lived in Landour, Mussoorie, these mountains were a constant presence, a beckoning horizon I could always look up to, and disappear to whenever I had the chance. These trips into the Himalayas were the best part of my life in India and how I connected with its people and its culture. These mountains are like nowhere on Earth, and I hope to share them with you.
Raja’s Hut in Gulmarg, Kashmir, is one of my favourite places in the world, where I have returned to winter after winter, often for weeks at a time. I’m not the only one. Over the years I have made many friends here from all around the world. Swiss and Kiwis, Scots, Swedes, Russians and Canadians, Indians and Kashmiris. We come back because there is something about Gulmarg, and specifically Raja’s, that helps to transcend the smallness of everyday life and become, for a moment, as great at the mountains we seek to explore.
Iron Khan shows the more mundane costs of protracted military occupation, which are often overlooked by the news. And it shows that despite everything, even amidst military occupation, conflict, and war, there is still room for fun, room for beauty, and room from joy.
The bukhari at Raja’s is always lit, with a big kettle kehwah simmering on the top. And in the evenings, after the gondola has stopped, Raja’s fills with foreign skiers and snowboarders who find it preferable to the modern hotels they’ve booked online, in the company of local Kashmiri workers, drivers and guides who feel welcome here, mingling with foreigners, smoking cigarettes, and drinking tea. On cold mornings, Raja himself—Parvez Khan—rises early to drink nun chai and make breakfast as guests prepare to go to the mountain.
This iconic place, Raja’s Hut, is the subject of Iron Khan, a 2018 documentary by Naseer Khanday, filmed over the course of seven years. Watching Khanday’s film felt like a homecoming to me, a chance to see so many old friends again, a chance to revisit a place where I made so many memories.
For far too long, this mountain paradise has been the setting of an ugly and harmful conflict. The Kashmir Valley remains the world’s most militarised zone, with an entire generation raised among soldiers, blackouts, and uncertain futures. This contrast between the beauty and freedom of the mountains and the ugliness and hardship created by years of military occupation and war is the inescapable backdrop of life in Kashmir and of Khanday’s film.
The film opens with Raja and Ashraf discovering that their hut has been sealed by the local authorities and follows their efforts to re-open, while showcasing the goings-on of the hut and the people staying there. Dada and the angrezi teach Kashmiri girls to snowboard and explore the mountain while Raja cooks and smokes cigarettes.
The narrator of the film is Raja’s younger son, Ashraf, and he is also the centerpiece to various strands of stories in the documentary. While his elder brother snowboards with guests, Ashraf stays home to split wood, cut vegetables, and clean the rooms. Through Ashraf, we also see a glimpse of the family’s past: In the early 1990’s, before running his hut, Raja participated in the armed insurgency in Kashmir. His younger brother was killed in the fighting and Raja was imprisoned. After this experience, Raja has committed himself to a life of peace (“We want skiers, not soldiers,” he says) hoping to stay in the mountains and out of harm’s way. The film shows Ashraf caught between his father’s past and an uncertain future, unable to escape into the present like his brother. Over and over again he accepts the lesson that no one teaches, that one could do everything right, and things may still not work out.
Unlike many other films set in regions of conflict, Khanday’s documentary is not overtly political. There is no attempt to draw lines separating parties into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, nor is there an appeal to viewers toward action for one side or another. Rather, the film succeeds by sharing an unvarnished look at ordinary people trying to go about their lives, all the while a dangerous conflict smolders in the background. Iron Khan shows the more mundane costs of protracted military occupation, which are often overlooked by the news. And it shows that despite everything, even amidst military occupation, conflict, and war, there is still room for fun, room for beauty, and room from joy. The characters of Raja, Dada, and Ashraf portrayed in Iron Khan are the same as the people I’ve come to know over the years. The Kashmir of this film is the one I know, and the one I love.
The Gulmarg Gondola is only a few minutes away from Raja’s Hut, and when one considers the quality and quantity of snow and expert terrain it carries you to, it is unquestionably the best ski lift in the world. From its top station, near the summit of Mount Apharwat, several lifetimes of once in a lifetime runs await. Inshallah, I will return.
The Gulmarg Gondola and a small fraction of the mountain terrain it accesses. Photo: Zachary Conrad
View of Nanga Parbat from slopes of Mt Apharwat. Photo: Zachary Conrad
You can watch the full 2018 feature Iron Khan (presented by Yugen Media; written and directed by Naseer Khanday) on YouTube.
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Zachary Conrad is a teacher, hiker and climber. Raised in the woods of Vermont, Zachary spent 8 years in the Himalayan foothills of Landour, Mussoorie and worked in Guiyang, China. You can follow him on Instagram: @zachonrad
