Srinagar:
Omar Abdullah gliding down the slopes of Gulmarg effortlessly as he completes one year in office. For the youngest chief minister in the country, the ride has been anything but smooth.
The people who voted him to power, in a historic election in the state, one year down the line are yet to see his best: Be it in governance or politics.
"We have learned lessons from our mistakes. If we don't learn lessons, then we will repeat those mistakes. I don't want to forget anything but will learn lessons from them," said Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Shopian deaths became easy ammo in the hands of the Opposition. The shoddy investigation sparked off raging protests in the Valley.
On August 15 2009 Omar apologized on the Shopian issue: "I was misled."
Speaking to NDTV the young chief minister admitted it's been a tough year and among his most difficult tests was the Shopian rape and murder controversy.
"The Shopian incident is still being monitored by the high court and the CBI has still not given he report to the state government," Omar said.
The promised BPOs never took off, essential services remain just as bad and his employment package is a whimper.
The allegation that Omar's name figured in a sex scandal saw an angry young man, some say it was a case of inexperienced politician putting in his papers almost throwing his state into a constitutional crisis.
Omar enjoys a clean image but Jammu and Kashmir is India's second most corrupt state. Unlike his predecessors, Omar has not spoken out even once against corruption.
"When he came into people, he wanted to prove himself as an excellent leader, but looking down a year that hope is slowly but surely diminishing because nothing concrete is happening on the ground," said Raja Muneeb, local youth.
"He spends more time outside the state than he has been with his people here, and he is not known for things that exactly relate to the daily lives of people here," said Naeem Akhtar, Chief Spokesman, PDP.
In a place where perception is more important than anything else, Omar Abdullah has failed to occupy political thought and agenda even for a single week. Always trying to do a balancing act between the separatists and the Opposition. And after a year on the hot seat, people expect Omar Abdullah to bridge the gap between promise and delivery.