Srinagar, June 17: Reuniting with her homeland, a 108-year-old Kashmiri Pandit lady, Prabhavati Nagri, Sunday walked into the lawns of Sangarmaal City Centre with her grandchildren to have a look at the Meeras Mehal, the museum showcasing rare and ancient Kashmiri artifacts.
 While driving down the Munawarabad road, the hustle-bustle at Sangarmaal, City’s fashionable mall, is understood to have made the old woman curious about the landmark. “What’s this place and what are so many people doing here?” the old woman who squinted at the mall constructed in traditional façade asked her family members.
 And this was when the Pandit family decided to venture into the mall, which sometime back got a fresh lease of life when Srinagar Development Authority(SDA), the mall developer, marketed the place with the announcement of a mega shopping festival.
 According to Sangarmaal people, Prabhavati was inarguably a rare visitor to the magnificent plaza where a shopping festival is currently on.
 The centenarian woman who had migrated to Jammu with the eruption of turmoil, is on a special visit to the Valley. Wife of Samsar Chand, the lady was living in Lar area of district Ganderbal before the migration.
 The old woman remained at the Meeras Mehal museum for around two hours as she came across the artifacts many of which represented the Pandit culture and other Kashmiri marvels, the Sangarmaal officials said.
 The grandson of the lady, Sunjay Dhar of Habba Kadal, told Greater Kashmir that his grandmother, Prabhavati, had been longing to visit the homeland. “We are planning to visit many places. She has first opted to go to Sonamarg. She is happy to be in her land once again,” he said as the family walked the Sangarmaal lawns.
 Dhar said whole of his family has got triumphant over her homecoming adding that visit to exhibition of rare artifacts was equally interesting. “She has been feeling great since the day she arrived here,” he said. “She has been telling us to preserve the culture and always be proud of being the sons of the soil. It is great to see her back enjoying in the land she was born in,” he said.  
 The artefacts of centuries old dresses seem to have touched the old woman’s heart most as she keenly looked at them and some utensils typical of Pandit community. Infact she too was donning a typical traditional Pandit dress, a reminder of yesteryear lifestyle.
 While climbing down the staircases of the exhibition at the second floor, many local Muslims including, a SDA engineer Reyaz Ahmed Koul helped the old woman. The SDA man couldn’t resist to ask, how she found Sangarmaal. And the reply was typical Kashmiri word for appreciation:  Assal! Assal! Meaning: Good! Good!
 The Meeras Mehal is being seen a major attraction at the Sangarmaal making thousands throng the mall everyday. The shopping festival on the whole has come as a blessing for the shopkeepers there. “Our business was in red. But Renzu Sahib revived it,” said a shopkeeper adding the business was overwhelming while the old woman walked past the fashionable shop.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 17 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST