Pardesi Pahadi: Raja’s Hut and the Kashmir of Iron Khan
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.
Personal Essay by Prachi Sharma: ‘My father pauses in every retelling of this tale. He wants me to see it. A man in the uniform of an Indian working for the English, in a village courtyard in the late 1920s, his face turning to one side from the force of an open palm. The villagers watching. The Daroga’s hand going to his cheek. A pigeon somewhere on the roof, taking off.’