A Day in Shimla...

  On 9th February, 2013 (Saturday)

The man with the "Chana Prasad" box

Let me begin the Shimla-Trip story-board with an interesting incident at the Jakoo Temple of Shimla. All was well until I returned to the entrance of the temple where people stood along with the “Prasad-seller” at the entrance. I was there for a couple of minutes just to relax and get back in form for the descent. Just when I stood up and was looking around for the scenic view, a monkey took my specs all of a sudden in a filmy style- within a fraction of a second. People around me pointed towards the monkey which was a few meters away towards my north, while one of them suggested me to take the “Chana” Prasad as the ransom to get back my kidnapped specs. And you know, with -5 for both eyes, I am simply paralyzed to do any feat. So I requested the seller to do the honour for me and he very sweetly got me back my specs. My cost- IRS 20/-. Within seconds, I recollected that the same person had brought back another specs for a girl just before the “incident” with me. Now let me connect: The monkeys were “planted”; they are conditioned and trained to snatch specs off the eyes of people standing there for the Chana which would earn the person a few bucks. What an idea, sirji! Don’t know how many of them are victimized each day. You may doubt on my conclusion, but I can say this with strong conviction because, throughout the way and even inside the temple, I went pass by many monkeys (they were all around :P ) and none of them were so mischievous to snatch my specs off, (and that too without hurting me or for that matter my specs) like the ones at the entrance.

I believe this way of building the story upon the pics is more interesting and engaging. So here goes another:

This is the place where we brushed our teeth and had our breakfast, guess what, Jumpin juice :P. The shopkeeper was kind enough to provide us with warm water in the icy cold morning at 7am. (Are you thinking why the hell did we brush our teeth in the open? Actually the trip was made totally spontaneously and was just for one day, so didn’t need to book any lodge or hotels for that)

We reached the Mall road on foot from the Old bus park of Shimla. The ascent to the Mall road was also awesome. Here are some pics taken en route.

The start was absolutely brilliant. At 7.30am in the morning, we are up there infront of the Christ Church at The Ridge of Shimla. The panoramic views and the sheer silence of nature there was really exciting and activating. The statue of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Bapu Mahatma Gandhi and the founder of Himachal Pradesh Mr. YS Parmar along with the historic buildings and architects. No less, No more: simply nature.

Then comes the time for a long stretch towards the Viceregal Lodge of Shimla. But before that a few snaps in between that captured the historic architectures since the British regime, like the Shimla General Post Office, Khwaja Building, AG’s Office, and then the first hotel of the Chain Oberoi Hotels. (You can see that snap with Audi beside Ashish Negi, btw that’s not what we drove into and its not where we stayed :P )

This is the way towards the former Viceregal Lodge which is now the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies  (for Social Sciences scholars). This combines a variety of architectural styles like Scottish Varonial and English Renaissance. The interior has remarkable woodwork. Entry by ticket for Rs 50 (including Camera) where you will be accompanied by the guide who will “walk you through” the history as well as the building. For the next 30 minutes or so, I was busy listening to the “history-stories” recited by the guide and looking at the splendid architecture since late 1800s.

One of the most exciting feature of the building was the automatic Fire Extinguisher system. The top of the long hall way, which has most of the Woodwork all around, is fitted with Water supply pipes and tanks wand the mouth of the pipes is blocked by wax. In case of fire, as soon as the temperature rises above 60 C, the wax will melt and the water flows inside stopping the fire. Brilliant! Besides, the woodwork is all made of Burmateak, the most long-lasting wood that can last upto 400 years.

Another one is this clock, which is simply maintenance free, as in it has not been maintained since 1884, just has to be “springed” at regular interval.

After that, we went back to the Mall road, thanks to the Army Bus for the lift. I had Paranthas at the Sher-e-Punjab restaurant and then went on to the Himachal Tourism’s Marketing Office and Information Centre at the Scandal Point, The Mall. I got my “checklist” info for the rest of the day.

From there Kali Bari Temple was my next destination. The temple is dedicated to the goddess Kali and is believed to hold the original stone image of the goddess ‘Shayamala’ after whom the town of Shimla may have been named.

Next was the 35 minutes hike towards The Jakoo, dedicated to Lord Hanuman. The journey uphill was interesting, albeit badly wanted to do skiing! (Mission Impossible at that moment).

The statue is 108 feet in length established on the 4^th of November, 2010. Below was an awesome play spot. Did some of sliding there!

After the descent, really exhausted Vipul went to eat Momos at a restaurant with some strangers. (My colleague was away for some work and the restaurant had lots of people in queue. Lucky me, didn’t had to wait for long because a group of 3 men were already waiting so long to get a 4-chair table, I managed to sit on the fourth empty one!)

Then, its turn for the Gaiety Theatre. The same theatre where the song “Main nikla gaddi le ke" in Anil Sharma's hit Bollywood film "Gadar", starring Sunny Deol was shot. Built in Neo-Gothic style of architecture, it was recently restored as well as expanded with another theatre with the state-of-art technology to host shows fairly regularly.

Still, I had plenty of time till the day ended. It was just 4pm. I went to the church, read a few pages of the New Testament. Went to the Rani Bai Park and also strolled along for some time on the Mall road before perching onto a spot where beautiful and picturesque sunset views could be captured.

Finally, it was time to have some dinner. We headed for the Fascination and the food was indeed fascinating! Then we hurried down the path towards the Old Bus Park of Shimla where our Volvo of Himachal Roadways waited. The awesome trip ended awesomely, with a very very comfortable and relaxing journey back home.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~That's All Folks~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~