Chachu's column #18:  A Trip To North (Part 2) - Shimla

(Continued from #17...)

From Mansa devi, our first stop was Pinjore garden, an hour's drive from the holy shrine. The place was a garden cum tourist resort. Since we had hardly eaten anything in the morning, the first task was to have a good breakfast. At the restaurant there, we had our fill. We also sneaked to see the
rooms. At 2000 Rupees, the Maharaja suite, which looked no less than a palace, seemed a steal.

After the breakfast, we took a leisurely stroll in the lawns of the resort. The Garden presented a majestic site with a paved canal (with fountains and coloured lights) bifurcating the entire length of the garden. Though it was daytime and none of the fountains were running, it was not difficult to fathom the beauty of the garden at night.

Towards one end of the garden, I chanced upon a group of school children. Thanks to the processed and packaged foods, the whole place seemed littered with leftovers, tetra pack of soft drinks and empty packets of chips. The lack of civic sense showed by the children seemed to be aberration given that the last 36hours had created a very good impression in my mind about the citizens of Chandigarh. My yearning to see the place clean got better of me and I politely conveyed my displeasure to the teacher-in-charge. The words made her embarrassed and within ten minutes, the army of school children had cleaned the litter - probably quicker than the time they had taken to mess up the whole thing.

Normalcy restored, we then had chats and golgappa from a local shop (This is a different issue that the chats did not give me company till Shimla as they found their way out during the upward journey!). After spending about two hours there, we headed for the sky, the summer capital of yesteryears and the capital city of Himachal - Shimla. As per expectations, the road till Shimla (a National Highway) was good and our journey was reasonably comfortable. There were adequate signs to keep the drivers on track.

When we about there, a man frantically waved his hand beseeching us to stop our car. Despite my reservations against the mvoe, the car was stopped. The man turned out to be a hotel agent. We explained that we had our reservations but he still pleaded to give him a chance because he could offer us the best deals. Not to be influenced, we left the man and moved ahead. Few meters ahead another man tried to stop us but we did not heed his call. In a desperate attempt, the man plunged on our car like a monkey and managed to get a foot hold on the rear part of the car. Regaining his balance, he asked us not to stop the car because there were others like him ready to pounce on us. Getting panicky, we stopped the car and asked him to get down. But the man did not move. After some not so kind words, the man finally gave way. Soon after, we reached our hotel. It was about three in the afternoon and we quickly had our lunch.

Thereafter, we retired to our rooms and drew the curtains. Inch-by-inch as the curtains parted ways, the Glory of Shimla (or the lack of it) became conspicuous. Even before the journey, we were aware of the fact that Shimla had lost its pristine beauty; that Manali as a hill station was much better option. However, we chose Shimla almost by default. And here, as we stood in our rooms - the landscape was all hotels - hotels built on the debris of nature - hotels built to see something that was buried under them. The whole place seemed nothing short of a concrete jungle, something any urbanite is so used to in his/her life. Just that instead of a flat land, the jungle was located on the hills. The place seemed so stark, so naked and so devoid of nature.

In the evening, we went to "The Mall", the main shopping center of Shimla. The place was bustling with natives and honeymooners alike. The latter oblivious to the lack of beauty - in the make believe world of their own. The market offered all the latest brands, including coffee from the new lifestyle brand Barista. There, we brought a couple of sweaters. I too brought a Monte Carlo piece, which the shopkeeper said was a very unique piece one (only that I saw the same sweater worn by one of my colleagues in my company!). I also entered a leather store to buy a wallet. I asked the shopkeeper when the shop was built - to this he said it was built in 1881. I said it was almost hundred years old. To this he said, "You must be knowing maths". To the wallets he showed, I remarked that they were trifle costly. Then, when I asked him to show some belts he said they were very costly and whether I would be interested in them. I left the shop without buying anything.

After shopping for about two hours, we returned to our nest. It was getting chillier. A hawker remarked that it was not snowing, which made their lives difficult. Snowfall brought along with them tourists and better climate. I could not understand the logic.

In the night, the curtains still drawn, the sparkling St. Michael's Cathedral that overlooked The Mall was a sparkling sight. A knight in the shining armour you may say.

The next day we headed for the nearby tourist places. The first stop was Jakhoo temple. The drive to the temple was difficult, our task compounded by the narrow road. When a car suddenly appeared in front of our Sumo, our driver showed the normal instinct to swerve the car towards left. A few more  inches and we would have been going downhill at express speed. I urged the driver that I would rather choose to break a bone by a head-on collision than to die by falling down the valley. Thereafter, without further problems we reached the place. Since the temple was about half a kilometer further up, our parents chose to stay down. At 2455m, this hill was Shimla's highest peak and a vantage point for Shimla's famous views. Walking up, as we neared the temple, we were urged to keep our spectacles in pocket, lest the monkeys attack us. In front of me, a man was helplessly braving a monkey. I took no chances, and quickly kept the specs in my pocket. After worshipping, on my way out, the unthinkable happened. A monkey attacked me. First he kept his paws on my waist. I gestured with my empty hands that I had nothing to offer to him. But he did not oblige me so easily. He kept his hind legs on my body and with a forward thrust he was on my shoulders. With his hands encircling my head and his legs perched on my shoulder, I thought my end was coming close. Soon, I thought, a horde of monkeys would attack me and I would be dragged to a deserted place and feasted by these beasts. I shouted for help.

A man standing nearby mockingly replied, "Who is here to help you?" However, soon after, he had a change of heart and he wielded his lathi. The monkey got frightened and ran away. When I got down, my parents asked whose temple did I worship. I said, "Without my specs, I could not see anything. Probably, it was the temple of Lord Shiva!"