A Visit to Shimla
A visit to a cool hill station during the summer months is a great relief. In the months of May and June Delhi becomes hot like an oven. The schools are closed for summer vacations. My father is a CEO in a multinational firm. He allows and finances our visit to a hill station every year. In the earlier years we had visited Nainital, Mussorie, Gulmarg and Kullu-Manali.
This year we made Shimla our destination. Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh and it served as the summer capital of India for six hot months of the year during the British rule. My mother, brother and sister were all excited about the trip to this beautiful hill station founded by the British. We had heard so much about it.
One hot May night we got on Howrah-Kalka Mail which took us to Kalka overnight. Our family loves train journeys. From Kalka to Shimla there is narrow gauge train service. It is like toy train of Darjeeling. At around 9 a.m. Our toy train called Kalka-Shimla Express whistled off from Kalka. Soon we were chugging through beautiful hill sides, trees, green glades and tunnels. It was so fascinating that our eyes never turned off the windows except for the intervals when the train passed through the-tunnels. One of the tunnels was quite long. It took several minutes for the train to pass through. We moved on covering pretty hill railway stations called Dharampur, Jakej, Kurnarhatti Solan etc.
Finally, at around 2 p.m. we steamed into Shimla station. A dream run had come to an end.
Led by porters who carried our luggage we started for the Mount View hotel situated just below the Mall Road. It turned out to be quite a climb because Shimla railway station is almost at the bottom of the town. It made us pant and gasp but the pretty scenes around did not let our excitement die. We chatted and talked about new sight, between gasps. One hour later we were in our suite unpacking our luggage after having our brunch. The coot air felt so refreshing. Then, we rested and talked about sight-seeing programmes with our waiter. My younger sister slept, tired as she was. By the evening we were ready to take on Shimla.
Holidaying in Shimla really starts with an evening stroll on Mall Road and Ridge. It is an exciting experience. The two sites are busy places all day long. But the evenings are special. All the tourists converge on Mall Road or Ridge. Local dandies are also there. That makes them crowded places but great fun. All the men, women, girls and kids turn up in their best making it public fashion show. It is a very colourful scene and sets one in gay mood.
Along the Mall are fancy shops, classy hotels, restaurants, a couple of bars, coffee house, banks and Post & Telegraph office. The Ridge rises over the Mall from Scandal Point. It is a kind of high ground. At right hand yonder is a Church and a cinema theatre below. Gandhiji statue is straight ahead where the Ridge ends. There are wooden benches on the left side on which people sit at leisure and watch the crowds stroll by. During the winters the people sit on them to bask in the sun. From the Ridge we could see snow-capped peaks touching the horizon far away. The sight fills the heart with spiritual joy.
The next morning, we, visited Jakhu hill, a pretty spot over the Ridge. There is a, famous Hanuman temple where the locals and the tourists go to worship or just for sight-seeing. It is a good picnic place. I saw a lot of monkeys there. The visitors feed them bananas or peanuts or they become nasty. My little sister got quite scared of them.
Beyond the ridge a narrow road leads to a cute little Lakkar Bazaar. There several shops display and sell wooden crafts. My mother bought a fancy walking stick for my grandpa. From a lower bazaar shop she purchased a woolen shawl for my grandma.
Shimla kept us busy all the 15 days we spent there. Besides daily parade on the Mall-Road and idling at Ridge we visited interesting places around Shimla. Dali is a suburb. Then, there is Mashobra where we saw apple farms and the horticultural research centre. Naldehra is another tourist attraction. There is a helipad at Anadale grounds and Shimla is also served by a small airport. This city is dotted with English medium famous public schools I had heard so much about. Spotting them was a great fun.
IAS Academy is also worth visiting. Here IAS officers receive training after their selection before being posted. Many ether British legacy buildings like May Flower Hall, Raj Bhavan etc. are also worth a visit. Our 15 days sojourn at salubrious Shimla came to an end. It passed like a sweet dream. But nothing lasts forever.
We returned to. Delhi in our car sent by my dad to fetch us. I shall always carry memories of my vacation in Shimla.
Thank you. I enjoyed reading your essay. I am researching as I am about to write an essay on six destinations I visited during 2017, Shimla was one of the places I visited. The place is so fascinating. I remember seeing the sign for the ice rink which was now closed and it was in an upper level in a building. I would have loved to have seen that.