Jammu And Kashmir Pandits, Muslims Feast Together, Celebrate Navaratra

Around a peepal (sacred fig) tree, where knots of red threads and coconuts lie at the prominent Durga Nag temple on Srinagar’s iconic Dalgate, Gulshan Akhtar and Babita Bhatt, sarpanch of Khar Ladoo village, can’t stop exchanging notes on their diet patterns. The belly-laughs follow.

Bhajans and aartis blare out from the loudspeakers as the jovial duo talk about the Ashtami’s bhandara (community feast). As the Valley’s first Navaratra — an elaborate, 9-day Hindu festival — since the annulment of Article 370 comes to an end, hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims on Sunday came together to partake of community feasts in the Valley’s prominent temples and shrines. Politicians, bureaucrats, and retired Army personnel from both communities also took part in the feasts.

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