Remembering Jammu- Reminiscing Wonderful Good Old Days

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M.Ashraf has spent almost half of his life in Jammu right from the very birth, the reason being the durbar move. His late father who served in various capacities in the state government had to move in winter to Jammu. During his own service tenure first as the Director Tourism, J & K, and later as the Director General Tourism, J & K, he had also to move with the Durbar and spend six months in Jammu continuously for 11 years till his retirement. Even after retirement he has been spending the winter in Jammu. The recollection of the most of the events of his childhood days has gone blank with his fading memory but there are certain memories of his early days in Jammu and the recent times which he vividly recalls and cherishes. He is sharing these with his friends in Jammu! These writings have appeared as a series of articles under the title, "Jammu Nostalgia" in Kashmir Times for almost a year. Writing of this column in Kashmir Times was prompted by Ms Rekha Choudhary of Jammu University. In a regional interaction during the turmoil of 2008, Ms Choudhary had complained that no Kashmiri author writes anything about Jammu. Ashraf took up the challenge and wrote these articles. He has now compiled these in the form of a book on the persuasion of his friends from Jammu so that they enjoy readings these in their leisure time.

Mohammad Ashraf was born on August 25, 1943 in a middle class family living in Amira Kadal near the famous locality of Maisuma in Srinagar. His grand father was a technical teacher in local Polytechnic and a very well known foot ball player of those times. His father had joined Government Service as a clerk but retired as a Deputy Secretary. Ashraf received his schooling in half a dozen institutions right from Islamia Middle School to Tyndale Biscoe School. He passed his matriculation exam from the S.P.Higher Secondary School and secured second position in the entire combined University of Jammu & Kashmir in Intermediate Science from S.P.College. Being among the first ten, he was nominated by the State Government to the prestigious Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. However, he preferred the locally started Regional Engineering College at Naseem Bagh in Srinagar itself and took admission in Civil Engineering course which he completed in 1965. However, he did not pursue the profession of engineering but completely changed his line and went for training in adventure sports like mountaineering and skiing at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling and in Gulmarg and completed a diploma in French language from the Alliance Francaise in New Delhi. In 1973 he gave a project to the State Tourism Department for setting up of an Adventure Tourism Wing for promotion of adventure tourism in J & K. The proposal was accepted and he was appointed in charge of the wing. Starting his career as a Deputy Director he rose to head the same Department in 1992 as its Director and was promoted as Director General in 1996 from which post he retired in 2003 after a total service of 30 years in Tourism. He has been associated with the Adventure Sports at National level and has been twice the Vice-President of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, the apex body of adventure sports in India. To commend his efforts in introducing rescue measures in Kashmir Mountains, he was awarded "Merite-Alpin" by Swiss in a special function in Les Diablerets, Switzerland in 1993. He considers his greatest achievement the pioneering of Tourism in Ladakh. In 1974, Ladakh was opened for foreign tourists by the Government of India. Ashraf was extensively involved in developing tourism in this mysterious and enchanting land beyond the Himalaya. He considers Ladakh as his first love and is fondly remembered by its inhabitants for promoting tourism in this area. He has travelled to every part of the State. During his tenure in Tourism he had the opportunity to travel widely in Europe, America, and Middle East. Even after retirement he is involved in a free lance capacity with various Airlines and Tourism Organisations in promoting tourism to Kashmir. He is single as he never married. At present he is writing regular columns in a number of local English dailies. He has also been contributing articles to Khaleej Times, Dubai.

**Contents and Sample Pages**