Dharamshala – Live in Heaven in Himachal Pradesh

Finally I finished my satellite imaging and the analysis of the entire thesis. Submissions tomorrow and then FREEDOM!  I could be free for the next fortnight till I joined work at my new company where I have been placed from the placement interview in the campus. 15 days I have at my disposal. I mused over the possible things I could do. I could go to Thol for bird watching, I could go to Jamnagar for the World Nature Conservationists Conference, I could go to Mumbai to be with my parents, or I could go to Himachal Pradesh to be with Jai my friend who has been inviting me since long. Jai, my friend from school now lives at Dharamshala, and is employed with Himachal Tourism. Right from school days he was inclined towards tourism and travel and today runs a complete tour and travel agency with his business partner Sparshy. Sparshy and Jai are going steady and would soon be married in the next four years. They have always missed me in the group as all the three of us were school friends till Jai got transferred to Himachal Pradesh. Sparshy joined him later to pitch into the business.

I called up Jai and he was beside himself with joy. He asked me to take a flight and come and arranged for a free flight ticket as part of his package! That was Jai! Very soon I found myself at the Delhi airport. Jai had come all the way to Delhi with Sparshy to receive me and we drove back in his huge Tavera. As sat chatting with Jai about old times, I saw the lovely scenery alongside. The mountain ranges seemed to travel with us and the leaves of the trees seemed to be dancing about. The entire ambience already had started seeping into my psyche and instead of yapping, I was actually taken in by the beauty outside. The air was spiritual and the natural beauty was breath taking. I felt this was paradise.

“How do you manage to work here, Jappu?” I asked Jai. Jai amused at his nickname in school which I still called him by, just said “I have got used to it. Ask me to come to Mumbai, it’s impossible. This is a permanent resort for me.” The absolute simplicity of the place was what overwhelmed me and I patted Bruno, Jai’s golden retriever who was sitting beside me in the car. I just felt weak in the surroundings and just wanted to give myself to Mother Nature.

Dharamshala – My dad had told me that today it is one of the popular destinations and is much sought after. My parents wanted to come with me, but my mom did not have the chance to take a break due to commitments at work. The pine trees teased my vision as we whizzed past. Far in the distance I could see streams gurgling by trickling down the mountains. Jai had a lot of things to say and plenty of things to share. I listened on as I enjoyed the idyllic surroundings outside. Entirely different from the metropolis that Mumbai is, Dharamshala, without its modernism was yet an eye catcher.

With the Himalayan ranges visible all around in a distance, this place exudes a lot of positive vibrations and peace. This is very spiritual by nature and would certainly be the best amongst the travel tours in the state.

We reached Jai’s house. His parents had gone to Vaishno Devi on a pilgrimage. So we had the house to ourselves. As I entered the house, I saw Sparshy, a beautiful lady by now. All of 23 years of age, memories came rushing in as I remembered how I was smitten by her and later on it turned out that she loved Jai. Setting the past back, we settled down to an impromptu lunch prepared by Sparshy.

“You can cook! “ I guffawed in total amazement and Sparshy too giggled while Jai set the table. There was Bahadur, Jai’s right hand who cleared the table after lunch. After resting for some time, we decided to go round Dharamshala.

We went to the Kangra Museum first. Jai said that this museum was inaugurated in the year 1990. It had the best collection of arts, artifacts, old costumes and many other treasures. The museum was constructed very well and was open to the public. There were items dating back to the 5th century. I was struck by the history that our country has and took some photos outside after taking permission.

There were paintings displayed which showed the rich past of the country. There was a lot of pottery on display. I was amazed to see the works of art of the ancient times. Coins and sculptures were the other objects on display. The tribal jewellery and the embroidered costumes besides the wood carvings were all the items of collection shown here. I was impressed with the way they had maintained everything. Set amidst the background of the Himalayan Mountains, this museum looked every bit a place of education as well as relaxation.

We came out of the museum and had some tea and decided to go home after seeing the Kangra fort. We had to drive around 20km to reach this place. We had some bhajiyas and tea on the way and entered the fort through a small courtyard. As I entered I looked at the two gates on the two sides.

“Patak” said Jai. I looked at him quizzically as Bruno barked along with. Sparshy patted Bruno and asked Patak?

Jai said, “These gates are known as Patak.” “Arrey toh waise bol na,” exclaimed Sparshy. We all laughed together and went head. There was an inscription at the entrance. I took a video of this inscription which described how this place dated back to the period of the Sikhs. We then went up a narrow passage and reached the top of the Kangra Fort. There were two gates here too.

Jai said, “This is the Ahani and the Amiri Darwaza. This was built in memory of the first Kangra governor Nawab Alif Khan.” I couldn’t dispute Jai in history. He was good at it from school and rightly so had picked up the right profession. We went walking around the passage and I smirked as Jai and Sparshy held their hands, and we were taken unawares by a sudden sharp angle that we got into. This led us to another gate – The Jahangiri Darwaza.

Jai said, “This was the main gate of the fortress in those times.”

I asked, “So was this raised by Jahangir?” Jai replied, “It is still not known. But there are slabs and some panels which have some Persian inscription linking it to the Mughal Era. Maybe it was built by Jahangir. We can only conclude that considering Jahangir’s interest to write down his interests and achievements. This was his blog of those days.” Both Sparshy and I hit Jai for his wry joke.

I saw that the gates were ruined and Jai added that this got destroyed in an earthquake that happened here. They couldn’t be repaired after that. As we walked through the fort, we saw another two gates the Andheri and the Darsani Darwaza. These were also in ruins. There were statues in the Darsani Darwaza.

I went up and looked closely and saw that the statues were of Yamuna and the Ganga. We reached a courtyard through these gates and saw three temples there. One was a Sitala Devi temple, the other was an Ambika Devi temple and the third was the Lakshmi Narayana temple. But what I saw was only some ruins of the temple. All we saw were square chambers with a lot of intricate carvings. There was no proof that these were temples but the architecture revealed a lot of religious touch and there were broken statues of the deities leading us to believe these were the temple areas. We came out of the Kangra fort and as we proceeded further we saw a Jain temple. We went in and were taken in by the sheer architecture of the temple and the intricate carvings on stone seen in the walls. There was a beautiful centre portion on the ceiling bearing the design of a rose. I clicked pictures and took videos and was happy I came to such a lovely place. I had enough to show off when I went back to hostel!

As we went out of this place which was the victim of the great earthquake in the year 1905, I was impressed to see how it still had managed to retain its grandeur notwithstanding the calamity.

We drove back home and had dal khichdi at a local dhaba. After spending an hour looking at old albums and videos, we went to sleep a tired lot and dreamt of being the owners of Kangra fort. !

The next morning we set out to see the sunrise in the nearby mountainous zone, trekked up a little and had tea at a local tea vendor’ shop over some hot bhajiyas. We came back and refreshed and set out to see the Library of Tibetan Archives. For this we had to go to McLeodganj, a small town in Dharamshala. Jai had work to complete so it was only me and Sparshy who set out in the jeep. I was amazed to see Sparshy driving the jeep so swiftly.

As we entered the town, the simple rustic surroundings enthralled me and I was excited to capture the local tribals on camera. The pine and the rhododendrons seemed to dance along as we went around Mcleodganj. Mc Leod was supposedly a Scotsman. And Ganj meant market. So the town meant the market where McLeod lived.  Located in the Central Tibetan Administration complex, this was a huge building with eight departments. The whole area was very quiet and silent and the departments ranged from research, publications, oral history, manuscripts, thangka painting school, wood carving department etc. There was a team of scholars from Tibet who were running the whole library. Jai had told me that this library is internationally famous for Tibetan studies. I saw some classes being held. Sparshy told me that these were classes for Buddhist philosophy and learning the Tibetan language. She said her friend’s mother was a professor here.

Quite enlightened, I came out and sat down in the outskirts of the library for some time. I inhaled the beautiful surroundings and called my mother and told her how much I was enjoying at Dharamshala. My dad was quite excited to know that I was with Sparshy. Nodding my head in embarrassment, I proceeded with Sparshy to the next destination – The Namgyal Monastery with Sparshy quizzically looking at me and wondering what it was about my wry face after the phone conversation. !

The Namgyal Monastery is the private monastery of the great Dalai Lama. It has an institute, monastery and the temples. The monastery is only for the Dalai Lama and no tourist is allowed inside. It was built in the year 1575 and was in Lhasa. I looked at Sparshy in amazement as she rattled away these details. She paused, looked, and enquiringly raised her eyebrows. I signaled her to go on as I was taking a video. She continued to say that the monastery got shifted to Dharamshala later. Also known as the Namgyal Dratsang, it was founded by Sonam Gyasto who was the Third Dalai Lama in the 15th century. The monastery was mainly built so that the Dalai Lama could perform his prayers and interact with the public. Buddhist monks and Lamas are educated here.

As we passed the Namgyal Institute Sparshy went on and added that this is the only institute providing education in Sutra and Tantra. Admission here was very tough and the qualifying rounds test the mettle of the candidate completely. The 13 years degree course had a rigorous routine to follow and the Dalai Lama himself teaches the students.

We then passed the monastery where only the Dalai Lama was allowed. The monastery apparently had 5 monks who come here on an exchange program.

We then drove past and reached Norbulinka which is just around 4 kms away from Dharamshala. We saw the Tibet of yore here. The paths were rough and there were wooden bridges to cross small streams. The tiny but beautiful waterfalls that dotted the place added to the beauty. There were beautiful Thangka paintings and handicrafts here. Himachal Pradesh indeed is a lovely place for arts, crafts and education.

It was almost evening and we had to reach home to be with Jai when he came back from work. When we reached home we saw many of jai’s friends who had dropped over to see me. We had a party, music, dance and good food and wine. It was a wonderful day and the night was even more beautiful when the sky suddenly cleared up and the stars shone and I smiled back at the half moon.

The next morning, we had just one place to visit before I reached Pathankot to take the train back to Ahmedabad. We had a quick omelette and then went to Nurpur Fort. The fort was built many years back and bore resemblance to a lot of past history. It was earlier apparently known as Dhameri. Jai rambled on to say how Mughal Emperor Akbar renamed it as Nurpur. He named it after his wife Noor Jehan. The River Jabbar gurgled as we neared the fort and I had a little bit of battery left to take a video of the Krishna temple her. This was apparently the temple where there was a Krishna idol which was apparently worshipped by Meera Bai. The ruins of the past historical fort were captured on camera by me forever.

I reached the Pathankot railway station and boarded the Adi – Jat Express back to Ahmedabad. Sparshy had loaded my basket with a lot of eatables and food stuff . After a nostalgic bye bye and a hard farewell, the train chugged out of the station and here I am sitting and writing this blog.