MUSSOORIE

MUSSOORIE

We left Shimla on 22^nd Sept, 2013 after a three days stay. We took the Volvo A/C bus from Shimla to Chandigarh. Very comfortable. It took three and half an hours.  Chandigarh and Dehradun are not directly connected by rail or bus. To avoid loss of time and hassle we took a taxi. We travelled via Dehradun and with a half an hour break on the way for lunch we reached Shimla by 5.30 pm. The mall road where we had our hotel was closed for vehicular traffic. We got down at the famous Gandhi Chowk/Libraray End. We walked about a kilometer to the hotel while our luggage was carried by a porter. We could have taken cycle rikshaws, but we did not like the idea.

The hotel, as in all hill stations was situated on a steep road of about 60 m. surprisingly all the rooms in the hotel faced the road and then on the valley. It was an excellent view from the windows.

Mussoorie is called the Queen of Hill Stations!!!!!! It is one of the most popular hill stations. Its history dates back to 1826 when Captain Young, an adventurous Military officer found the place attractive and laid its foundation.

The weather was excellent. Slightly cold in the evenings but comfortable through the day. We just spent loitering around the bazaars and enjoying the great view of the mountain from various view points.

The following are the places which we found interesting.

1.    Kempty Falls.

Kempty Falls is situated at a distance of 15 kms from Gandhi Chowk. There are buses and taxis to ferry public. From the road, base of the Kempty falls is about 100 meters. There is a cable car service to take you down. The place is not well maintained. There are stalls selling bath wear, towels etc., in case someone wants to get into the water. Heavily crowded with people.

The fall itself quite majestic. Even though water falls from a great height, it is broken at intervals and last fall is just around 40 ft.

2.    Gun Hill

Gun Hill is situated about 400 Metres above the mall and is the second highest point in Mussoorie. It is at an elevation of 2122 m above MSL and offers a panoramic view of the Himalayas. During the British regime a gun situated here used to be fired at noon, thus the name of the place. The water tank for Mussoorie water supply is situated here. Gun Hill can be approached by a rope way car system from mall Road or a bridle path which takes about half an hour.

3.    Camel’s back Road

This road starts from the Library end, is about 3 kms .long and ends near the Rink in Kulri Bazaar. The road offers a good view of sun set. There is a hill which resembles a siting camel and hence the name. It is an extremely pleasant walk/horse ride of about 40 minutes. 

4.    Shedup Choepelling Temple

This is a small Budhist temple about 10 kms from Library End. There are two good paintings on the outside wall. A very silent place and gives a panoramic view of the Himalayas. Dalai Lama visited this temple some time back.

Unlike Shimla, the bazaar in Mussoorie is quite big. The first one starts at the Library and is about a kilometre long. The second and third are Landour and Kulri Bazzars at the other end of Mall road and have bigger restaurants and shops.

On 26^th Sept, we took a taxi from Mussoorie to Jolly Grant Airport which is about 60 kms away for our journey back home.

SHIMLA

SHIMLA

Shimla needs no introduction. It was the summer residence of Viceroys of India during the British rule and is now the Capital of Himachal Pradesh We spent four days in Shimla in the month of September 2013.

KALKA –SHIMLA RAILWAY LINE

After a couple of days in Chandigarh on 19^th Sept, we took the Himalayan Queen train from Chandigarh to Kalka, a journey of about an hour. At Kalka we boarded the Kalka – Shimla Himalayan Queen,the Toy Train. It travels at a speed of about 25-30 Kms and takes 5h 30 mts to reach Shimla. The  travel by this train meandering around hills and valleys through the alpine country is a life time experience.The route has more than 900 curves and turns, more than 100 tunnels and more than 900 bridges. There are 20 stations enroute, the most important being BORG.

Some of the bridges are architectural and engineering marvels. One which impressed me most was a bridge with two tier arches of stone.

All details about the railway are on a plaque at Barog station which is the one of the highest points on the line. Barog is located at a height of 1560 metres above the mean sea level. Barog is named after Colonel Barog, an engineer involved in building the railway track in 1903. Barog  was responsible for designing a tunnel near the railway station. He commenced digging the tunnel from both sides of the mountain, which is quite common as it speeds up construction. However, he made mistakes in his calculation and while constructing the tunnel, it was found that the two ends of the tunnel did not meet. Barog was fined an amount of 1 Rupee by the British government. Unable to withstand the humiliation, Barog committed suicide. He was buried near the incomplete tunnel. The area came to be known as Barog after him.

Later it was completed under Chief Engineer H.S. Harrington's supervision in a short period from July 1900 to September 1903, at a cost 8.40 Lakh rupees.

 Barog tunnel is said to be one of the straightest tunnels in the World. This is 1143.61m long and is the longest of the 103 operational tunnels on the route of the Shimla-Kalka Railway. Barog station is immediately after the tunnel. Trains take about 2.5 minutes to cross this tunnel, running at 25 kilo metres per hour.

The ancient Neals Token Instrument System of communication and track control is still followed here. This involves exchange of tokens at all stations on the route to get line clearance. This must be probably the only route in India following this system. This route has now been given the status of World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Climbing from Kalka at 656 Mts above MSL to Shimla at 2076 Mts above MSL in a distance of 96 kms,.has also been a Guinness World Record.

SHIMLA

We were greeted by an excellent weather, neither cold nor hot. A very peaceful place where things move leisurely. Extremely clean and neat place. No plastics. You have to carry paper or cloth bags for shopping. Taxis are available to take tourists to all places of interest .We tried to walk to most of the places as we had plenty of time at hand. There is the Mall road typical of all hill stations. Apples, Pears and Kiwis (grown locally now) were available in plenty and were very cheap.Rs.25 to 30 per Kg. Most of the hotels are off the main roads and one has to negotiate some steep roads to approach them.

The Ridge, Christ Church, Mall Road, Scandal Point( the place from where the Maharaja of Patiala kidnapped the daughter of the British Viceroy in 1892),Kali Bari , Jakhho temple(a 108 ft high statue of Hanuman is erected here) ,Budhist Monasteries are some of the attractions of Shimla.

GAIETY THEATER

One attraction which caught our attention is the Gaiety Theater.

Today’s Gaiety Theatre is the stump of the once colossal edifice that was the Town Hall. It was opened on the 30th of May, 1887, Queen Victoria's Jubilee Year and its God Father was Lord Bill Beresford. The formal inauguration of the club took place in the year 1888 and since then plays have been staged in the Gaiety with unfailing regularity. The Simla Amateur Dramatic Club was managing the theater The history of the club goes back to the times when theatre was looked upon as a major and serious source of entertainment and, therefore became a cultural necessity for the English elite. Hence, Shimla became the home of amateur theatre and the Gaiety Theatre produced the best of the plays performed in London. In 1911, the upper portions of the building were dismantled as the structure was found to be unsafe

Among the leading theatre personalities connected with the Shimla Amateur Dramatic Club are: Field Marshal Lord Roberts, who remained president of the Club from 1891-1892 during his tenure as Commander-in-Chief of India; Major P.H. Dnyer, a distinguished producer and actor who acted in Loyalties, Interference and Mary Rose; Lord Bill Beresford, V.C. who was the Military Secretary to Viceroy Lord Lytton, famous poet and author Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchner, Mrs. Deane, Major General Sir Godfrey Williams, the Chief of Scouts, Colonel Baden-Powell, and Sir Dennis Fitz Patrick, Lieut-Governor of Punjab during 1895 and many others. Notable film personalities like K.L. Saigal, Prithvi Raj Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendall, Raj Babbar, Anupam Kher, Manohar Singh, Nasseerudin Shah, frequently performed on the stage of the Gaiety theatre.

The theater has been renovated from 2004 to 20/9, with the original structure untouched to keep its heritage preserved while making it more attractive. Sanjana Kapoor, theater personality (daughter of actor Shashi Kapoor) and Anupam Kher(who belongs to Shimla) took active role in the restoration. The restored theater is adorned with beautiful paper mache panels, reminiscent of the old colonial era. The stage is equipped with unique curtain arrangement having sand bags and pulleys, and natural acoustics. It has a seating capacity of 320 persons in two levels. Anupam Kher has conducted some theater workshops and plans to hold a theater festival shortly.

Visitors are attracted not just to its architecture, but also to the rare British photographs of plays staged from 1894-1904 and British era drama scripts housed in the historic building.

The Gaiety Dramatic Society (GDS), which now manages the theatre, has also acquired scripts of about 400 plays. These include 108 scripts of original English plays that were once staged by the British. Some rare books on stagecraft and theatre of the British are also available in the theatre's library.

The management has recently started guided tours of the theater

HANUMAN STATUE AT JAKHOO

VICE REGAL LODGE

ST. MICHEAL'S CATHOLIC CHURCH

CHANDIGARH-NEK CHAND'S ROCK GARDEN

CHANDIGARH

We visited Chandigarh on 18^th Sept. It is a well known fact that Chandigarh is an extremely well designed township. The roads are all parallel and perpendicular. Sectors are exclusively marked for shopping, administrative buildings, residential and sports facilities.

The one place which attracted us most was the World famous NEK CHAND ROCK GARDEN. It is an absolutely stunning creation with waste material. It is also unique that one single man could create such a masterpiece.

 I am giving below an article which appeared in THE HINDU some time back which gives all details about the man and his creation.

NEK CHAND'S ROCK GARDEN (From THE HINDU)

Nek Chand's Rock Garden is unique. It is not home to the usual roses and other exotic flowers, instead it is a garden of art.

The right combination of a little ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness can go a long way, and perhaps one of the most striking examples of this is Chandigarh's famous Rock Garden. Also known as Nek Chand's Rock Garden, this vast enclosure stands as a symbol of its creator's brilliance.

The garden was discovered by a team of government malarial research workers, under the direction of Dr. S.K.  Sharma, the Assistant Director of Chandigarh Administration Health Services. S.K. Sharma claimed he was, “very impressed to see such a hidden art treasure” and informed Dr. M.S. Randhawa, the first Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh. He was instrumental in the landscaping of Chandigarh as well as securing its art collections. Randhawa recommended that the garden be saved and, “preserved in its present form, free from the interference of architects and town planners”. It was inaugurated as a public space in 1976. It is now run by the Rock Garden Society.

M.S. Randhawa named the site, “The Rock Garden”. In a later interview Nek Chand said that this was not what he had in mind, claiming that he had envisioned it not as a garden of cold rocks but his poetry as well.

HONOURED!

The Rock Garden gained immense popularity during the 1980's. Nek Chand received the Padma Shri in 1983 and a sculpture from the garden appeared on an Indian postage stamp. Nek Chand also began receiving attention from outside India and was awarded the Grande Médaille de Vermeil in Paris in 1980. Ann Lewin, the Director of the Children's Museum Washington DC, also requested Nek Chand to construct a garden at the museum. Nek Chand accepted the commission and even imported some sculptures from India.

During the later years, attempts were made to demolish the garden, this time to make way for a road to Kaimbwala village just north of the Sukhna Lake. Bulldozers were sent to start the demolition process but thousands of supporters gathered as “human shields”, protecting the site from being destroyed.

The Garden is built in three phases; with several thousand sculptures set in large mosaic courtyards linked by walled paths and deep gorges, a wonderland of human and animal statues and other fanciful sculptures. The garden proceeds in a chronological order of its creation.

Starting with a few natural forms and objects, like misshapen rocks, to minor landscape modification finally leading to a large scale architectural setting.

In the second phase Nek Chand created open courtyards along with pathways decorated with sculptures, complete with the king's and queen's chambers. The whole garden, in fact, is designed to look like a lost kingdom with doorways and archways constructed out of discarded bags of cement.

One can see a large waterfall, a canal, and even a miniature village. These have now become interactive spaces, where plays and cultural performances are often held.

In the third and probably the final phase of development, large horses and camels were constructed out of waste material.

The garden has come to face problems of maintenance and staff shortage in the recent years. This lack has resulted in some of the sculptures not receiving enough attention and thus becoming susceptible to damage and weakening.

Despite this, The Chandigarh Rock Garden remains one of the modern wonders of the world, and what began as a whimsical flouting of city regulations has fast become one of the main tourist attractions in Chandigarh.