Story of a Little Indian State: Himachal Pradesh (Part 4)

The fourth part of the story was long due.

It was time to move out of the State Capital and romp towards the northern Himachal, 300KMs from Shimla, to a famous tourist destination called Manali. (Not Manila, as many flips their tongue!)

Manali is beautiful, no doubt, but this post is based on the beauty that the roads towards Manali that holds the lens (eye/camera), pop out of the window; throughout the journey. Residing at the foothills of the Upper Shivaliks, near the meet point of Beas, Manali is like Haridwar for Beas. For more than 70% of the journey, which took a good 6 hours in the Alto, we traced River Beas. The pebbles of the river bed executed some of the colours, close to nature.

The river had its own succulent nature. It accelerates suddenly, while slows down the flat valley. On either side lies the barren apple orchards. sibce we visit just after the apple's season, we missed the fruit from heaven, hanging, just like a common "wild" fruit around! Our driver was caring enough to tell us the geographic nature of the place and advised us that Manali and Shimla has two well defined seasons. One must visit in both the seasons, to savor the taste of Himachal. Its April-September (Apple and Sunny time) and November - February (Snow time). I hope to visit on the later part soon.

The vitality of the trip was fresh air and soothing feel. On the way, we went through a newly made tunnel, that was dark, adventorous, four lane big, bypassing underneath the Himalayas. Its 3.1Km long, but thanks to the fading memory and age catching up, I just dont remember the name.

But, the most interesting and beautiful place that I saw in this whole drive of 6 hours was 20KM away from the Manali township. Inexplicable; that's why, I allow my pictures to talk for what I mean!

Lovely!

Story of a Little Indian State: Himachal Pradesh (Part 3)

In this article, I shall love to boast like several Indians, that I have had touched history; meeting it upclose and personal.

After the previous day's bitter experience during the trip to Fagu and Chail, where, unfortunately for the clouds we couldn't absorb any beauty of the places mentioned, the bus driver presented us a platter full of wavy experiences, driving the coach like a mad man. I have had taken the bus ride round the wavy mountain terrains, but never felt so bad.

Hence, Day 2's trip to Naldegra was cancelled and I planned a historical trip. Heard about its beauty from the various shows conducted in the Discovery Channel or the History Channel. Read about it's significance, making the scars on the subcontinent prominent. We were about to visit the Shimla House (as commonly known as); but in original, its the Viceroy's House. The house, where the great Indian subcontinent was torn apart by the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, under the supervision of the last Britton Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten...

(c) Somnath Paul, 2011. The Viceroy's House, Shimla.

Lush green garden, covering over 75% of the property, this building presently house IIAS. Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, which was gifted to the scholar fraternity, but the second President of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan. In his honour, the institute house his portrait at the entrance, being the founder of the institute and thanks for his pioneering activities, our teachers get a deserved day of treats; The Teacher's Day!

(c) Somnath Paul, 2011. The entrance of IIAS, Shimla.

IIAS is housed within the lavish house, which has 332 rooms in total. Un-altered since its 1921 costruct, the Viceroy's House is a marvel of interior decoration using wood! Cedar and Walnut wood have had borne the lustre over the years (and so have the German Switches, which are still being used, unrepaired for 90 years in running!!!)

Irony! German within the British Domain. No wonder, Indians and Germans have had good links!

What followed in the 20 minutes of guided tour, well narrated by the trained scholar of the institute. The pack of 30 odd tourists tried to grapple the history, (thankfully known by me), and hence I could indulge in my minor clicking! I guess you all can understand as to why I mentioned a word of Thanks for knowing the History by Luck! It was not snobbish!!!

The Viceroy's General Meeting room. Now a days used by the IIAS students as seminar room -

(c) Somnath Paul, 2011: Viceroy's meeting room.

The next room that followed, made me shiver once, down my spine. Within minutes I found myself standing infront of that great round table, that had smooth boundaries, but had played the crucial role in making a country's border; rough... Pakistan was carved out from India. And I was standing just behind where Mr. Jinnah sat!!!

(c) Somnath Paul, 2011. Replica of the Partition Table.

The artifacts were great. Had taken some great snaps, but its useless to share all of them here. So, just shared my pieces of emotions!

Emotions... being an Indian, its always high to see such places where the beautiful (geographically) Pakistan is now unreachable. More so, because it had taken away the Indus Valley Civilization with it! Lines of thoughts plagued my heart... when I encountered a beauty of a situation, which made my soul happy... Hence I have named it: Beche Thakar Akash.. Translated to English from Bengali, it means; The Sky to Live For!!!

(c) Somnath Paul, 2011.

Story of a Little Indian State: Himachal Pradesh. (Part 1)

Little as it may look, the undulations of the lower Shivalik Range makes it a tall order... Tailor made but God Himself, Himachal Pradesh is all but boring!

It is a learning trip for me. The first time ever, I ventured with mom, all by ourselves. No relatives, no touring companies... unknown of the fate as to whether we will ever make it happily. Thank god, we did!

As the Cleartrip would say: Every trip has a reason, my reason were two; to mention. After 2007, it will be the first major trip for mom, who had been getting bored at home. Secondly, I wont get any more spans of such holidays in near future, thanks to PhD commitments, so it would be a good exercise for my Nikon D5000.

The planning started well ahead. In the month of June, 2011 for the October 2011 trip. There were several choices, like Madhya Pradesh; Rajasthan; etc... even thought of Arunachal Pradesh. Looking at the time leave of just lucky 10 days, it was impossible to browse through these places without an expert guidance (Touring companies) or a group! I had neither of the two options. So, thought of the Himachal's most stepped in places: 1) Dharamsala-McLeodgunge from Amritsar (Punjab);

or,

2) Shimla - Manali.

It was tough, but thanks to the internet. It was smoothened!

Before I go into the intriguing beauties of the mountains, I would like to put forward certain points to be kept in mind. May be, this first post, as any other posts might look total travel planner, but heed you amateurs. Its a helpful advice.

1) Go to the nearest tourism office and get to know about the travel routes.

2) Book online, at the notice of 91st day..keep trying from the 91st one!

3) Cleartrip is cool and all things are done on time. Travelguru.com is a cheat and they have all the lollies to harass you! DONOT GO FOR TRAVELGURU!!!!

4) Plan your trip, taking help of Google Maps. Its cool!

 My plan was simple and initially made online:

1) Boarding Kalka Mail from Howrah to Kalka. The journey is 36 hours long, and in the middle would seem lagging. But, this mail, luckily for us entered the terminal station on time.

2) From Kalka, we boarded the Toy train upto Shimla. Its a journey, which made me remind of Kirandool Express Journey, from Vizag to Araku Valley (AP). It had tunnels, sounds, views and chilling beauty!

3) We stayed on in Shimla for the next two days. ( reached on 1st October, 2nd and 3rd stayed at Shimla).

Let me get into the main stream of good writting....

There was a third hidden reason behind moving out to the mountains, during the festive seasons in the plains. And that too... after identifying myself as a Bengali who loves Kolkata Durga Puja like anything! Actually, for the past three years, my habit had been spoiled by my beloved one... this year, she has been to States, so I thought I wouldn't enjoy... feeling lonely...which is the last thing I want to feel back, during the Pujas. So the escapade, under the mask of the deserved vacations for mom!

Reaching Kalka and smelling the cold breeze of the lower himalayas, the morning of 01.10.11 was as easy as the binary... 011011... Atlast the trip would be a lovely escapade from the humid plains! More so, the journey in the Sleeper class was not worth enjoying...except that the two nights, we got good company who did lend the lower berth for my mom...

IRCTC has had played its own joke! The morning ticket (connecting rail) of Shivalik Express had been confirmed for only me...my mom was in the WL1. With 6 minutes for the second train to leave the platform, I rushed in mom to the Rail Motor coach...with one confirmed! But again...lucky us, we found a cordial Bengali family welcoming us and sharing their seats! The misty journey unveiled into a lovely sunrise, which my camera took as the first shot of the trip!

(c) Somnath Paul, 2011: Good Morning Himachal!

The bents and tunnels; 92 in all... made the lofty mountains reachable... touchable (like the iPhones)... the clouds seemed reachable... fluffy cotton making their way to noman's land... Looking at them, the pungent soul cleared it's thinking rays from the forehead... The soul now followed them...longing to be inside them! Himachal Pradesh has...something which I longed to absorb as a taught! a good taught!

The windings kept on!

(c) Somnath Paul, 2011: Windings twine towards Shimla.

Memories clouded my mind. I remembered the ride during such a November, 2005. B.Sc, Physiology. Araku. I also remembered the trip to Ghatshila with my M.Sc friends, in 2008 January... But I also hoped that 2011 will be a new beginning of the "Globe-trotter" Somnath Paul...

With this thought, I welcome all my Blog readers to Shimla,

(c) Somnath Paul, 2011: The Ridge View of Shimla.

.... the capital of the Little Indian State; Himachal Pradesh!!!