A few of us piled into the car and drove out to Kupwara on a whim — none of us had actually been to Keran before. We just knew it sat right on the Neelum, close enough to the Line of Control that the other bank technically isn’t ours anymore.
[Replace this paragraph with what the drive itself was like — the roads through Kupwara town, the checkposts, who fell asleep, what music was playing, the first moment the river came into view.]
What struck me most wasn’t the view everyone talks about — it was how ordinary life still is right up against the fence. Kids playing cricket a stone’s throw from a bunker, someone’s washing hung out to dry with a watchtower in the background. [Replace this paragraph with a specific memory — a conversation with a local, tea at a dhaba, anything that actually happened that day.]
We sat by the river for a long time doing nothing in particular, which might have been the best part of the whole trip. [Replace this closing paragraph with how the day ended — the drive back, dinner, what everyone said about it afterward.]
Good to know: Keran sits close to the LoC, so permissions and checkpoints are part of the trip — go with someone who knows the route, and don’t expect mobile signal for stretches of it.