On Thursday, a 17-year-old Kashmiri boy swapped the oars of his shikara for a kayak paddle and whipped up a frenzy generations of his family hadn’t known – shouts of “Mohsin! Shabhash, Mohsin!” from the banks of the lake as he neared the finish line of a 1000m kayaking competition to give J&K the first gold of the ongoing Khelo India Water Sports Festival.
