Women make waves on the Dal Lake

Mist engulfed the Dal Lake, spread over 16 sq. kilometres, in Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar, on the last Sunday of October. For most of the day, the autumn sun struggled to shine over the lake that is central to life here. The still waters, however, slowly gave way to ripples, turning into short waves. Seventy-five shikaras, Kashmir’s traditional boats, each 15 feet long with narrow pointed ends, swarmed the lake.

A honeymooners’ dream ride, the shikaras did not gently waft across the lake, allowing for romance and a few ‘couple selfies’. They were ‘driven’ by women gliding down the lake with dreams in their eyes and a determination to win. A rare boat race saw 150 female participants, mostly from families living in the adjoining areas of the lake, row their hearts out. Many were trained, some were not.

Paddling in her green shikara, Shagufta Shafi, 27, and her partner lined up with the other boats near the Char Chinari side, an island in the lake. The race would end at the boulevard on Makai Point, where people congregate for a snack every evening. Shafi lives in Nehru Park, an island in the lake, and has been kayaking and canoeing for nine years now.

The race, scheduled to start in the morning, was deferred to 2 p.m. due to cold weather and mist that impacted visibility. Donning traditional salwar-kurtas or jeans and tops, none of the athletes wore gear for a water sport, because they couldn’t afford it.

Even Shafi — who has won four golds, a silver and two bronze medals at national-level competitions — turned up in regular wear. Shafi stood second in the boat race and received ₹10,000 by way of prize money. The first prize was ₹30,000 for a pair of athletes who completed 2,000 meters distance in less than an hour. This was a test of strength, endurance, and coordination. The athlete pair had to ensure they followed each other’s moves in close coordination, as a minor lag could mean a major trail.

“I was 15 years old when water sports began to fascinate me. It was not easy to pursue my passion,” says Shafi. Her father, Muhammad Shafi Gagloo, is a boatman. She lives in a family with six siblings, including five sisters and one brother. Pursuing a Master’s degree in Sociology from the Kashmir University, her dreams took flight when she participated in events outside J&K for the first time in 2015.

“The kayaking events in Punjab included 2,000-metre and 500-metre all-women races, besides a mixed race with male participants. Between 2015 and 2017, I competed in Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. I have earned four gold medals for Kashmir in kayaking since 2015,” says Shafi, who saw the sport as a ladder to an employment opportunity. But, “Medals have failed to fetch me any decent job so far,” she says.

Societal pressures

Most women living in and around the Dal Lake take to water early. Shafi’s locality, Nehru Park, has over 25 female athletes preparing for national and international events. The challenge for the women is both physical and societal. Most have managed to push social boundaries and normalise women taking part in sport, without being jeered at or taunted in private and public.

Zahida Bashir, 35, a resident of Nehru Park, belonged to the generation when relatives and neighbours would take exception to women taking up a sport in defiance of what was expected. “When my relatives started objecting to my joining water sports, which meant going out and wearing sports clothing, it was my father who stood by me. He would say, “I have faith in my daughter’. This line kept me going,” says Bashir, who has, over the years, won eight gold, three bronze and two silver medals at national-level competitions outside J&K. “I would practise for two to three hours every day. It’s not just balance and physical strength; it’s also a mind game,” says Bashir, who has not been able to pursue her education after Class 10.

Navigating life between studies and sport, 31-year-old Mariya Jan, with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Amar Singh College, Srinagar, dreams big for herself and for India. She aims to participate in international events like the Olympics. She recalls how women athletes endure pain and muscle cramps as they begin to learn the techniques of kayaking and canoeing.

Jan, who too had to put in an effort to convince her parents to ‘allow’ her to join water sports, explains how the practice makes an athlete ‘khatron ke khiladi‘ (players of danger). “My parents believed that the lake water had an evil spell in it and could engulf me. I proved that it has no evil spell for women,” says Jan, a resident of Srinagar’s Khanyar area, in the old city.

Most participants had to convince their parents and relatives before they could take up the boat racing as a profession.
| Photo Credit:
IMRAN NISSAR

Over the years she has bagged three gold, two silver and five bronze medals at the national level. “Kayaking is a discipline that requires flexibility, because of the sitting position you have to maintain for long durations. But it also needs muscle power to run a double blade. In canoeing, an athlete is trained to adopt a kneeling position and has one single paddle to row,” she explains. She adds that it takes over two years to actually get into the sport, because the first step is to learn swimming. Then there are exercises for strength and balance and learning the actual technique.

She watches online videos in her free time to keep herself motivated and updated about techniques. “I follow Arjun Singh, a canoeist, who won the men’s sprint C-2 1000 metres event at the 2022 Asian Games. I also closely watch the games of other athletes,” she says. The women say the sport is tough and needs the support of corporates and the government, “like in cricket and hockey,” says Jan.

Floating hope

Behind the island of Nehru Park, named after India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is a U-shaped shallow channel created for training. Three floating walkways help the women manoeuvre the kayaks and canoes into the water. Every day about 200 women train facing the expanse of the Dal Lake and the Zabarwan hills.

The pivot of the training centre is its female coach, Bilquis Mir, 36, whose personal story and achievements have earned her the sobriquet of Kashmir’s ‘Aqua Queen’. Her parents too opposed her passion to dive into water, returning home as she did, in wet clothes. She lives in Khanyar, in the old city.

Bilquis Mir, Kashmir’s ‘Aqua Queen’ and a kayaking and canoeing coach. She was a judge and India’s first ever technical officer at the Paris Paralympic games in 2024.
| Photo Credit:
IMRAN NISSAR

“I joined water sports in 1998. It was not an easy decision given the fact I was a woman from a conservative society. My parents, who wanted me to become a doctor, thought I had plunged into a dark future,” says Mir, who is also the secretary of the J&K Water Sports Kayaking and Canoeing Association.

She was the main motivating factor behind this first-ever boat race for women, and was supported by the J&K Association for Rowing & Sculling (JKARS). “There were women participants who stepped out from their homes for the first time. The smile on their faces was worth so much,” she says. The idea was to trigger a debate around why water sports were not getting the same attention as cricket or hockey considering Srinagar has such a large water body.

Mir has trained over 3,000 water sports athletes so far, she says. “When I started, there were just two old boats. Today we have state-of-the-art equipment for training. I have won 28 medals for J&K and became the first Kashmiri woman to participate in the International Canoe Federation Sprint World Cup in Hungary in 2009, reaching the semifinals,” says Mir, proudly.

She has fast become an icon for water sports enthusiasts in Kashmir. Her day starts early with loud directions to players to start their warm-up followed by practice. The women hit the cold water in kayaks and canoes. Players do tough Eskimo rolls, where a boat is rolled by another player clockwise under water.

“Coaches are the backbone of the game. It’s a coach who has the responsibility to infuse professionalism, besides working on players’ endurance, strength, and flexibility. The girls are going to make a mark,” she says, adding that more government support is needed. “We hope the infrastructure will be upgraded.” Plus, she looks to other women athletes for support and motivation for her team.

Mir was invited by the Asian Canoe Confederation as a Chief Finish Line Judge in the Asian Canoe Sprint Olympic Qualifier in Japan this year. She was also selected as a judge and as the first ever technical officer from India, for the Paralympic Games held in Paris, France, in August-September 2024. “I see Kashmiri women sparkling at national and international events soon,” says Mir.

Jan too credits Mir for motivating her to hit the water. “Shikara racing is much more difficult for women than the nylon boats. It’s very hard to use wooden oars in a heavy wooden boat. The fact that we do it with ease shows our ability.”