As the clock passes 4 in the morning, Ashfaq, along with his uncle, will spread nets on Dal Lake, hoping to catch fish in large numbers.
For the last 10 years, I have been continuously catching fish, the process which commences early morning, said Ashfaq. That said, every early morning, we would come to lay the net, drop food grains, and wait for one to two hours.
It is then up to almighty Allah how many fishes we are blessed with, Ashfaq said. He further said, "There are times when we would catch fish in huge numbers, then there are days when we would end up having a few only.
Ashfaq said, "I have learned this art of catching fish from my father. He used to come here to Dal Lake every day and catch fish. We would then sell them in the market while keeping a few for ourselves. He is aged now, so I told him to stay home".
Asked about the condition of Dal Lake, Ashfaq said, "Government has done a tremendous job for the last several years in cleaning the Dal Lake. But, it is the locals that are making Dal Lake polluted.
Much like Ashfaq, there are dozen are people would catch fish every day for their livelihood. One among them is Ghulam Ahmad.
Ghulam Ahmad, who resides inside the Dal Lake, said, "Our day starts when the whole world is asleep. We cast nets into the water during dusk and pull out the net full of fishes in the morning after waiting for a few hours".
We have been using traditional ways since the beginning. Nets are woven with two pockets in which fish gets trapped. It requires a lot of muscle power and hard work to perform the task of catching fish", he said.
"We throw nets into the water and then we wait and pull it out and remove some weeds and then we stir the water with a big wooden cane and again repeat the task until fishes are trapped," Ghulam Ahmad said.
This activity doesn't yield us much nowadays but back then, it was a profitable business as the water was clean and clear. Today Dal Lake has become a hub of plastic littering, which has made conditions of aquatic animals miserable, he said.
"We used to drink water from Dal Lake but today it is beyond one's imagination to drink water from it. Many measures were taken to clean its water but no positive results have come out. My suggestion to Government is that they should try to stop drainage water that pollutes Dal Lake. If they do it, in coming years we will see Dal Lake will flourish again if this is implemented", Ahmad said.