Shimla – Paradise in India

After my daughter’s examinations got over, I decided we needed a break. My son’s music teacher is a very able lady and she often goes on these tours abroad and in India. I decided to plan an outing with her this summer. So after a great deal of planning, and thinking, we finally decided to go to Shimla. We were 15 of us. Three families and total fun unlimited was guaranteed.

Who would not want to visit this land of Shyamala Devi – the reincarnation of Goddess Kali after whom the city has been named. The lifestyle of the Pahadi community and the lovely Victorian style architecture here, coupled with the backdrop of the majestic Himalayas would certainly render our visit worthwhile. The pristine surroundings seemed like they were urging us to reach there soon.

Soon enough we were off to Shimla by the Kalka Mail to Delhi. Delhi was hot when we landed. After a stay at my friend’s guest house and a little bit of shopping in Delhi we were ready to reach Shimla by road from Delhi. The four hour drive brought us to Kalka, which is incidentally the nearest station to Shimla. After this, we had to make way and stand in a queue for the mountain train from Kalka station to the city of Shimla. We had to book tickets for this in advance. But we managed to get tickets at that point of time. As we travelled by this train, we realized that it was no wonder that this track had been given the honor of a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The picturesque view that we got from the train could only be etched in the camera called our brain. Nowhere else could the copy be reproduced as we saw it. The stunning beauty of the surroundings was only the preamble for what was to follow.

“If this is the trailer Mummy then imagine what the place would be!” Kavya my daughter said. All of us formed a lovely group. Me and my two children, the music teacher Urmila, her husband and her son, daughter – in –law with two children, my friend Lata, her husband and their son Ritvik, Sonia my sister in law and her husband Karan and her sister Vinita. Each with a different profession and each with different interests but with the same destination point in mind –Shimla.

“OOOOOOOOh!” screamed everyone in the train as we entered a dark tunnel. All of us screamed so that the tunnel would echo our voices back. It was amazing and exciting. I took a video of the tunnel in the dark. There were around 103 tunnels.

If we had flown down then we would have missed this fun. My husband had wanted us to go by flight and get down at Jubbalhatti , the airport at Shimla. But I decided against it as I wanted to enjoy a train journey.

Finally after seeing the beautiful greenery on the way which teased us by grazing our windows, and after enjoying the pleasant surroundings of an ambience that could only be seen to be felt, we reached Shimla – the land of tourists. Our hotel bookings were all made by my sister Lakshmi. She had a person to receive us at the railway station. Chinnu, the tour guide she had arranged for us, was there at the station with a beaming grin and all ready to guide us along. We were taken to our hotel and then we decided to unwind for the day by just going around the city in the evening.

We went to the main shopping area of the city – The Mall. We saw that the little city was very self sufficient with its in built bank, post offices, restaurants, tourist offices etc. There was also a theatre for movies.

We retired for the night, tired and had a light dinner. The next morning, we woke up and left our itinerary to be handled by Chinnu. First he took us to the Jakhu temple. This was a lovely verdant hill and as we made our way to the top, Chinnu told us how the monkey god of Indian mythology Hanuman is supposed to have taken rest here, while he was travelling to the Himalayas. There are two ways of reaching the hill. Either one climbs up or else one could drive up. We decided to obviously climb up,. I have a ligament tear in my knee, yet with my knee caps, I decided to climb up. So to the chant of a lot of film songs and religious bhajans we climbed up the hill. It was a good 1 hour trek and finally we reached on the top. The only thing that kept us going was the constant threat of monkeys who seemed to pounce upon anything that grabbed their attention. We found some dry twig lying on the ground and took one of them so that the monkeys could be driven away. Once at the top, we got a panoramic view of the whole place. I took some photos and all of us took turns in giving various kinds of poses and enjoyed a lot.

We came down and had lunch and lazed around a bit before going to see the monastery here. This is a monastery which was built in the tradition of the Nyingma. This is a popular tourist spot for Buddhists and other people from across the world.

After this, we went to the Christ Church. We were just on time as the church was closing for some time. The church looked beautiful with its stain glass work on the window and the ambience of peace, faith and purity that it exuded.

“ Radhika, look there, the fresco is so well decorated.” Said Urmila, the music teacher. Yes, the decorations here were indeed very exquisite and I was thrilled to collect a lot for my blog.

All of us, were totally enlightened and we came down to the city again. As we made our way out, we saw the Lower Bazaar which was a congested wholesale market. It had vegetables, and many grocery stalls. We drove past all this and reached the Viceregal Lodge.

Chinnu continued his banter as in other places, “This majestic building here is actually a mansion which was built when Lord Dufferin ruled here in 1888. The gardens here are extremely stylish and they surround the three sides. There is a fourth side where one can relax, and watch the surroundings. The beauty of the sun setting here is a worthwhile watch and many tourists specially come here just to see this beautiful sight. There is a panel of teak here inside the building which is another major attraction.

We thought now it was time that the kids get some excitement. So we planned a visit to the amusement park here which is at a height of 8500ft. The kids went berserk seeing so many activities together. Urmila’s husband, Lata’s husband, Priya and the children went to enjoy all the rides like the Burma Bridge Crossing, Bump Cars, Indoor Golf etc. I wanted to try Rock Climbing but could not as my knees were weak. But all of us did make it a point to get the Telescopic View from the top. WE could see the entire city. Chinnu guided us all the way around.

We were tired but excited after the first day’s visit. We came back to the hotel and unwound to a dinner over light music being played in the background.

The next morning we left to pray at the temple of the Goddess of Stars – Tara Devi. We had to go by bus to this place and is at a height of 6070ft. Situated around 11km from Shimla, this was a place where one could get a tranquil and serene surrounding set against the backdrop of the distant Himalayan ranges and the lovely verdant expanse of the region.

As we came down, we bit into the berries being sold by a vendor sitting on the way. We also had some juice at a local stall and then halted at a hotel to have a light breakfast. The State Museum was our next destination. This again was a building with a lot of British kind of architecture. With more than 10,000 artifacts to boast of, this is a storehouse of collections brought from all over Himachal Pradesh. There were miniatures of Paharis, sculptures dating back to the Gupta Era. Cameras were allowed here but without flash. The entry fee was also very nominal.

We then went to the Photo Art Gallery. This is a photographer’s paradise and  Lata’s husband was quite happy going around as he is a photographer professionally. My son also went round with a great deal of enthusiasm. The rest of us, walked around understanding each and every thing displayed. I think more than 20,000 photos were displayed. The scenic beauty of Potter’s Hill, the area we were in, and the fresh air from the Himalayan ranges added to the occassional wildlife we saw made us feel we were in the right place at the right time.

We came back to the city and visited the Sankat Mochan temple – This Hanuman temple gave us a beautiful view of the whole of Shimla. The last place we went on the second day is the zoo. Located at Kufri, this zoo had the choicest of species like the Himalayan Snow Leopard, the musk deer etc. The zoo with its green surroundings calmed the frayed nerves, yet I was feeling sad to see the caged animals. I prefer an animal safari any day. At least it is we who are behind the cage not the animals.

After returning to the hotel, I spoke to my husband and then we had a round of scrabble and guess the good word. After a walk down to the local shop and a late night ice cream, we retired for the day tired but happy and excited.

The next morning, we decided we didn’t need Chinnu with us, so we gave him a break and went to do some ice skating. We could do it in Shimla or in Kufri or in Chail. It was said by the hotel attendant that there are better facilities at Chail and Kufri but we decided to stick to Shimla. All of us enjoyed skating and falling and screaming and fooling around in the ice.

We had a delicious breakfast of only fruits available on the way and then trekked up the mountains here. The roads which seemed to lead us to no man’s land meandering their way up, were beautiful with the evergreen pine forests all over. We reached a very remote village called Mashobra. The road here suddenly turned into a gravel laid path. There was a signboard there which said that it was the road that led to the wildlife sanctuary at Seog.

“I want to go there “said my son Shiv, but we told him we would go there later. We trudged up and then came down the same way we had gone up. A refreshing walk and a tired lot , we sat at a local inn and had some hot rotis and an equally lip smacking sabji.

Chinnu called us and we told him we wanted to visit the Golf Course here. He brought our car along and we drove a good 25 km. The way up to the golf course was as enthralling and beautiful as any other place in Shimla. We were truly in a paradise lost in India. The golf course apparently was built by Lord Curzon in the 19th century. Chinnu our walking encyclopedia, said that it was at a height of 2050 m and we could see that the ambience here was getting more and more beautiful as we went up. The greenery was enhanced by the pine and deodar trees which bordered our entire way. The 9 hole golf course finally came into view and we had a good look at it and even tried playing a bit but we weren’t allowed.

We came back and had tea with some light snacks at a nearby motel. We were quite tired as we had been roaming around since morning, so we decided to call it off after the trek to Kinnaur. This place supposed to one of the most beautiful ones in Shimla, is not really very popular. But Chinnu took us there and when we saw the surroundings of the Himalayan ranges, the Valley of Spitti and Kulu along with the River Sutlej flowing here, rendered all of us helpless and we just inhaled the beauty of the surroundings and the serenity of the ambience.

All the 15 of us, had thoroughly enjoyed the day and at the end of the day settled ourselves to some room service and television watching. Some phone calls here and there and a game of UNO and we were dreaming of skating with the topmost golf players of the world in our sleep.!

The next morning, we lolled around in the hotel and had breakfast and left to go around the local market. There were shops which were selling shawls and wooden articles. The Kullu shawls were sold her and also the world famous Tibetan carpets. It was nice to see the jams and squash being sold fresh here for a change. We shopped for whatever we wanted and then stopped at a juice centre.

“You know, Himachal Pradesh is the fruit bowl of India.” Chinnu proudly said. Yes, I remembered having read something like this in school. We were amazed to see the freshness of the fruits here. We stopped by at a fruit juice stall and had some fresh strawberry, litchi and guava juices. We bought some bottles to bring back home and took turns in tasting all the juices he offered.

With all this in tow, and with a sentimental good bye to Chinnu ,we returned back to the hotel, and packed to come back to Mumbai. We watched the videos that we had taken and I planned to make a movie out of it.

Settling down in the flight back, I jotted down the notes in my diary, of the entire trip so that I could write a good blog and here I am writing about it.

A word for the diary : If you want it,  go for it.