Age-old Ramzan tradition endures in Kashmir valley as drum beaters wake people for pre-dawn meal
SRINAGAR, Mar 12 (PTI): Before the break of dawn, when darkness hangs thick over the valley, hundreds of men alight onto the streets of Srinagar, drums in hand. They will go from one locality to the other, beating their drums as they wake the slumbering masses for their ‘Sehri’ — the quintessential pre-dawn meal during the holy month of Ramzan.
These men have arrived to the city from remote corners of valley, donning the role of a ‘Seharkhwaan’, drum beater. They assume the responsibility of waking people ahead of daybreak, with the noble intent that none is not late for their Sehri.
Mohammad Rafiq Kataria has come to Srinagar from the remote mountain village of Kalaroos in north Kashmir’s Kupwara. A Seharkhwaan for three decades now, he wakes when the valley still shifts in slumber, and sets out on the street at 3 am, wielding his drum.
