Subir Roy: The road to Kaza

OFFBEAT

Why do you want to go there straight forwardly asks the cardiologist to whom I had gone for a pre-visit check-up and a green signal, considering that I have not been a youngster in a long time. Because I love to go to such places, I reply. He ends the conversation there and gives me the green signal.

Kaza is on a kind of a plateau, surrounded by even higher mountains that look down upon the mortals who stay put at a mere 12,000 feet.

The towering ridges around one side of it make you feel you are in a fortress with the ramparts frowning in permanent grey.

On the other side, next to the little river gushing with the melting snow of summer, are the snowcaps, so near you feel you can hop across any time to say hello.

Kaza has mostly very modest hotels in the heart of town, a couple of good ones have a splendid view but are a bit out of town and difficult to access if you have not come by car. Town is centred around a single winding lane flanked by shops which earns it the appellation of the local market.

The room I take doesn't have a bathroom with a geezer. No matter, use the bathroom with the next room which has a geezer; no one's staying there today. We have only just installed it, says the beaming young manager.

The hotel is as modest as you can get, but the clean neat dining room which doubles as a restaurant, sports a very decent menu whose pride of place is taken by its continental dishes. For one meal, I have a pasta dish served with loads of cheese, for another I go for a sizzler with boiled vegetables and fritters. Do you have some kind of sauce, I ask, not daring to mention Tabasco. True to form, the manager produces a bottle of Capsico, with a proud flourish.The continental repertoire is the direct result of the place having more young western tourists than Indian.

I can recognise snatches of French, the lady on the bus to Kaza with her sardar companion speaks English with a distinct Dutch accent, and the young couple who are so tall and speak so unintelligibly to me must be Swedish.

In front of the hotel is a