Kashmir's brand ambassador is no more; mourn Shammi's fans

Srinagar, Aug 15 (PTI) The eternal Bollywood romanticist
Shammi Kapoor had a cherished tryst which he will never be
able to keep.
The 'Yahoo' boy as he was popularly known here, was
scheduled to visit Kashmir next month -- a locale which he
made famous in the length and breadth of India through his
movies -- to stay at a hotel where he started his romance with
the Valley during the shooting of 'Kashmir Ki Kali'.
But to the disappointment of his fans here, the actor
will never make that trip and his death was deeply mourned by
a dedicated group of Shammi fans.
As the news of the actor's death flashed across the
country, the social networking sites in Kashmir saw postings
by his fans and even brief obituaries in remembrance.
"My nostalgia milestone, who divided my life into two
halves of before and after --- Shammi Kapoor --- left us,"
read a message by fan of the actor on Facebook.
Another Kashmiri posted a Youtube link of Shammi
Kapoor's song 'Aay Gulbadan' and wrote, "In a vague sense,
Shammi Kapoor embodied the true spirit of Kashmir".
For Syed Muzaffar, a Srinagar resident, Shammi Kapoor
was a rage during his teenage years. He remembers an incident
when he camped outside a cinema for a week to get a ticket for
the first show of a Shammi Kapoor film.
Today, he said, he will miss the actor and he is
confident that he would not be alone in missing the man - who
infused the image of romance and joy with the mountains and
waters of the valley.
Some of the most memorable songs and sequences of Shammi
Kapoor -- which will be hummed again and again in the Valley
-- like 'Deewana Hua Badal' and 'Tareef Karun Kya Uski Jisne
Tumhe Banaya', were shot in the Valley.
Be it Kashmir's Dal Lake, the fabled Mughal Gardens or
scenic resorts of Gulmarg and Pahalgam, Shammi Kapoor made all
these household names in India.
And tweets acknowledged that Shammi Kapoor was Kashmir's
best brand ambassador.