But one has to escape to the bazaar to experience normalcy and let its animated chatter drown the ominous silences that have thrown a ring around the country much like the mud hills that surround the Kabul valley. Elsewhere, the threat blows in without warning like the late afternoon wind which develops suddenly and leaves only after the warmth of the landscape has been replaced by a chill. The topography permits such occurrences as the Kabul valley lies in a triangular gorge between the Asmai and the Sherdarwaza ranges at an elevation of 6,000 feet. Much of Afghanistan is also similarly located — plains dominated by heights in the vicinity or simply one fold of the mountain merging into another — daunting even at first sight. There is nothing picturesque about them, only a ruggedness that instills fears.

Much has changed since the first shot rang out in the valley on October 6 last year announcing the start of Operation Enduring Freedom. The international coalition led by the Americans that had launched the attack to overthrow the Taliban regime and destroy the Al- Qaida network following the bombing of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001, took all of 36 days to enable the Northern Alliance to enter the capital city. Since November 11, a resemblance of normalcy has returned. Roads within the city are motorable. Schools have opened. Women are now free to discard their ‘shuttlecock’ burqas and take lessons in the English language. Shops are open and doing brisk business. Mostly importantly, there is music in the air — music from Bollywood films. There is, of course, still a curfew in place in the city but it starts at midnight and ends at 3.30 am.

However, even a year later, movement beyond the Darul Aman, once the Afghan King’s secretariat and palace that is located at the edge of the city, is ill advised. “The area is with the Al- Qaida. It is very risky to even drive on the road even during daytime,” says the taxi driver. “I will not go,” he says firmly and turns the vehicle around. Government officials do not disagree with the risk part. “Yes, it is a bit unsafe. Bandits are there. Not the Al-Qaida,” says one with a sheepish grin on his face.

Operation Enduring Freedom, it seems, ceases to exist at the edge of large towns like Kabul and though officially Afghanistan has been ‘liberated,’ peace and security of life is still at a premium. Apart from the remnants of the Taliban and the Al-Qaida that have demonstrated their capacity to strike even in the capital, central authority is routinely defied even by the warlords that have supposedly allied themselves with the Northern Alliance that runs the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. Anxiety and fear, consequently, rule the roost. The President of the transitional government, Mr Hamid Karzai, is therefore protected not by an elite group of Afghan commandos but by a special crack team of the US army. Mr Karzai has already survived two attempts on his life in the recent past. The last attempt was in Kandahar on September 5. Two of his senior Cabinet colleagues were not so lucky. They had mistaken foes for friends and paid with their lives.