Shimla: The erstwhile summer capital on seven hills.

A man without ambition is a dead man! But is it always good to have himalyan ambitions? History testifies that even those who have abode in Himalayas have other aspirations. Man of history has always fought with his neighbors as he yearns more or out of insecurity. He who has not fought, the history does not remember!!

Millions of years ago as the Indo-Australian plate broke into Australia and India, Indian plate started moving towards the Eurasia at the great speed of 15 cms per year to meet its beau. However, the meeting was not a smooth amalgamation of two souls merging into one, rather a rocky affair that lead to folding of earth to form the Himalayas and the Indian plate continuing to nudge the Eurasia forever. 

Highest of Himalayas, the Himadris quickly step down on southern side, to form Himachal and Shivaliks. Total span being less than 300 kilometers, but on the northern side it continues to soar high at a height of 4500 meters forming the tibet plateau with a span of 1,200,000 kms. 

Mankind has reached everywhere! And Man decided to house in the Himalayas. Nepal, not so small a country lives  wholly in the holy Himalayas. Nepal may represent the center of the human population that lives on the Himalayas. Even they decided to fight with their neighbors. They fought in the east, in the west, in the south and even towards the north.

People living in this region have been called Gurkhas by the Imperial people. 'Gorkha' that originally meant any Nepali, eventually evolved as a connotation for soldiers of Nepali origin. Named after guru Gorakhnath, it is said that Nepal expanded from the district of Gorkha, literally meaning 'savior of cows'.

The wars that nepali kingdoms had been involved in were called 'Gorkha wars'. Nepalese crossed Kumaon, Garhwal and reached hills of present day Himachal. East India Company sent their officer with his forces who succesfully evacuated the area of 'Gorkhali', but also appreciated their valour. After the Gorkha wars of 1814-1816, the Imeprial forces decided to keep a post in the area, which gradually developed into Shimla.

In colonial times it was called 'Simla'. The English might have developed it, but it was inhabited before their arrival. The area of Shimla sprawls over seven hills. Jakhoo hill is the highest of them. It was probably inhabited by significant population in pre-colonial times. The Jakhu temple is considered to be ancient.The folklore says that Lord Hanuman stopped here seeing Sage Yaksha (Jakha-Jakhu) to learn about Sanjivni Booti. It is also said that there was a blue cottage of a fakir near the temple - shyamal kutir after which shimla came to be known. Others say that the name is after Goddess Shyamala devi or Kali, whose idol was also there on the Jakhu hill, but was later shifted to another hill, Bantony hill, where it is present in the Kali Bari temple today. Another structure on the the top of Bantony hill is what was built as Bentick Castle in 1829 as residence of Governor General William Bentick. It later became premises for Dak Bungalow, Bank and Club. Finally it was purchased by a confectioner and changed into a hotel and then acquired by the Government. Today it houses the Grand hotel where we stayed. It's a great property, especially after its renovation in 2010 and is self sufficient for water due to rain harvesting. However it lacks services.

 Grand Hotel directly leads to the Mall Road. Mall Road of Shimla epitomizes the spirit of Shimla and the spirit of every Mall Road. If one has to understand the meaning of the term Mall Road, one has to spend time on Mall Road of Shimla and one would  spontaneously imbibe meaning of the term.
Just as one leaves the hotel is a dilapidated building good enough to be an old castle. In fact it is the old palace of Mahraja of Sirmur and is reportedly being restored.  But some people say it was the bantony castle built by Lord bantony. This is the third important place on Bantony hill. However nobody spares it a look. Even the hawker sitting in front of this 'Palace' had his 'Chhabba' of Litchis confiscated by the Police.

Erstwhile Palace on Bantony Hill

 There is a huge and old but well built BSNL building on the right. And as one crosses  the GPO on the left one reaches THE Mall Road!
The GPO is one of the oldest post offices in the country and is a heritage now. It started as Conny Cottage and may have housed Shimla bank and shops of European tailors initially.
Bantony hill is the central hill of Shimla. From the Grand Hotel it gradually leads to the Scandal point, which is the main 'chowk' of Mall Road. The lore is that Maharaja of Patiala eloped with the daughter of Vice-Roy from here and hence the name. As shimla was the capital of Punjab after independence, a statue of Lala Lajpat Rai, the Lion of Punjab was erected here. The Scandal point is also the highest point of Mall Road as it ascends from south-west and descends to south east.

A Line diagram of central hill of Shimla

 Towards the north-west from scandal point up goes the ridge or the highest elevation of the hill towards the Church. One can view the northern valley from here. A small 'pagdandi' kind of a trail descends northwards from the scandal point, on which is located 'The tibeti bazar'. It is the most steep and narrow path that I have seen any tibeti bazaar on.
Ascending on the ridge is a pleasant walk. On the right one gets the Ridge side of the Gaiety theater complex that houses some shows. 'Jadugar samrat Shankar's show was on, during our visit, we mused ourself on the 'water of india', that had kept us giggling in one of his past shows. Ridge was supposedly 'upper bazar' earlier but a fire cleared it and this area was used to build this complex.

The theater complex from the ridge side

 Further above one reaches the main square always full of hustle-bustle of visitors. Kids can be seen taking pony rides. The unique feature of Mall Road and Ridge area is that municipality has kept lot of seating arrangement and one can usually find a place to sit even in the peak tourist season. A tall pole with national flag on it now adorns the ridge!

The municipality has built a stage at a height with places to sit and view the shows. It is said that many popular open-air shows are held here during summer festival. On the back of the stage goes the trek towards the Jakhu hill. On the Right, lies the 'Christ Church', that serves as emblem of Shimla. If one moves further towards the left there is a slope on which is located 'Lakkad bazar'. This is another hill of Shimla known as Elysium hill.

View from the ridge

View of Shimla in 1884 from Jakhu Hill. The church stands out!

Scandal Point during Rain

'Tomorrow's Antique' That holds true for Lakkad Bazar even today!

One has to keep coming back to Scandal Point in Shimla! There are interesting shops around on The Mall. One shop called Rama & Sons sells a vast variety of umbrellas. The proprietor claims he has ranges from 200 rs to 7000 rs. They have tent shaped umbrellas and chinese umbrellas in their range.If one starts walking downhill on the mall road from the scandal point towards the lift, one is taking 'The walk on the Mall'. As no vehicles are allowed here, roads are all to the pedestrians without a need to reclaim them. One crosses fire station and then there is the gaiety theater complex on the left that houses the police station. 

It is said that, on the lines of Royal Albert Hall, London, five gaiety theaters were built around the world and this is one of them. This complex has an old theater, that gives the original Edwardian era feel. It is said that lot of plays, where even vice-roys enacted were played here. Post independence theater artistes including prithvi Raj kapoor have performed here. Three hindi movies, Kudrat, badalte rishte and Gadar have been shot here.Besides the theaters it has hall that houses exhibitions! Immediately after the theater is a flight of stairs that descends from Mall Road to the middle bazar, this houses some of the famous traditional food shops.One has to walk down further to reach combermere hotel, Lift and the Wax Museum. Though shops close around nine, food shops remain open till 11 pm.

Descending down on the other limb of Mall Road from Scandal point, one comes across Indian Coffee House and Himachal Emporium, that ends at CTO.

After the revolt of 1857, Queen Victoria decided that company was not able to handle the affairs, and took control of India directly under British Government. This is when instead of Governor-General, India was to be ruled by a Vice Roy. Highest seat of government needs to be at the highest. This is when a Vice-regal house was planned at the top of Observatory hill as Shimla was the summer capital of the country. Earlier Murree in rawalpindi was the summer capital but Shimla was more convenient though still far from Calcutta, the main capital. Vice regal lodge was built during the time of Lord Dufferin. While the exterior was built with the locally available stone, wood for interior was teak from Burma and Ceiling was designed with Walnut wood from Kashmir with traditional kashmiri craft. All the furniture was brought from England. This building has marvellous fire-fighting system installed and a fire station has been built within the campus. This building was designed with provision of electricity though there was no electricity in India at that time. All the lawns have underground rain harvesting tanks.

The kashmiri ceiling design is known as 'khatambandh'. 

Khatambandh-seen on the ceiling of Vice-regal lodge.

"Brought to Kashmir in 1541 by Mirza Hyder Douglat, Khatamband is an art of making ceiling, by fitting small pieces of wood (preferably walnut or deodar wood) into each other in geometrical patterns. All this is done entirely with hands without use of nails. The wood is processed, cut into buttons and panels and fixed in the ceiling in various floral and geometrical designs.Indeed a painstaking work, which once used to take months to finish a 10 feet by 10 feet ceiling. The uniqueness of this art is that when the ceiling is complete, it acquires a unique geometrical pattern. With fewer or no nails used at all, the Khatamband ceiling can easily be dissembled and re-assembled at another place."

Vice-Regal lodge at Observatory Hill

This is the place where Shimla conference took place in 1945, where all the major leaders who were stakeholders for Independent India took part like Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Master tara Singh, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Maulana Azad etc.

Post-independence this building was donated by Sarvpalli Radha Krishnan for Insitute of Advanced Studies, where scholars do post-doctoral fellowship. The entry process to this insitute of highest academic level in India is saidto be rigorous. Scholar who have studied here are Bhishm Sahni, Salman Rushdie, Aung San Su kyi and similar. Now there is a big library with rare books.

We went to Shimla from kalka by 'Toy-Train', one of the oldest railway lines. One enjoys the ride as the train stops at various station over 5 hr journey. I had enjoyed toy train as a child near Darjeeling and still remember, how train took turn at the Batasia Loop.

One knows one has reached Shimla, when one reaches the station of Summer Hill, one of the farthest shimla hill on one end along with the Prospect Hill that houses the Kamna Devi temple. Summer hill had the house in which Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur used to live, where Mahatma Gandhi is said to have stayed. As the first health minister of India and the Governor-general of World Health Assembly, she managed to set up AIIMS for highest medical teaching and care in India, with the help of foreign aid. Her dedication can be assessed from the fact that her erstwhile residence serves as 'guest house' for AIIMS now.

Between the Observatory Hill and Bantony Hill is the Inverarm Hill that houses the state museum and the bird park.

Tunnels have been made to reach from one side of a hill to another without climbing them. I found the 'Khacchar tunnel' or the lower bazar tunnel to be very interesting as it connects the two sides of the joined hills Bantony and Elysium. Only pedestrians are allowed in this 150 meter tunnel that opens in Lower Bazar on one end and Tibet bazar on another. probably it was built for mules to carry loads. However, the most famous is the Victory Tunnel.

Besides the tunnel another connectivity channel is the "lift" that takes you up to The mall in two stages from the main road downhill where you can park your car. I wish they had made it transparent and big. I think then the charges per trip will go up from rs 10.

One wonders what's so special about Shimla? Is it the Toy train or the Imperial connection or the scenery or the weather or a combination of all of them. One can go back to the beginning! As The Indian plate, collided with the Eurasian plate and started prying land up, mountains were formed. They were formed in stages. Himalayas are said to be highest as they are young fold mountains in contrast to Aravallis which are old fold mountains and may have been highest at a point of time in history. However, that analogy can not be extrapolated. Amongst the Himalayas, the tallest himadris are the oldest, followed by himachal and the youngest Shiwaliks! While himadris are too tall and the terrain too difficult for a routine tourist to enjoy a family trip, shiwaliks are too low to provide a change. That is why most of the hill stations are in the Himachal range of himalayas. Though there are different versions and a geologist may be able to state the perfect truth, the general understanding is as follows. The himadris form the Zanskar range just to the east of karakoram, while Pir panjal forms the westernmost part of Himachals. The valley between Zanskar and Pir Panjal is the most beautiful valley on earth, the heaven on earth, firdaus-e-zameen, Kashmir! Zanskar separates Ladakh from kashmir. The himachal range that is 3700-4500 m high from west to east is divided into Pir Panjal, Dhauladhar, Mussoorie, Nagtibba and Mahabharat range. Simplistically speaking Pir Panjal is in J&K, Dhauladhar in Himachal Pradesh, Mussoorie in Garwhal, Nagtibba in kumaon and Mahabharat in Nepal. Shimla is in Dhauladhar! It is easily one of the most developed hill stations that is quickly approachable from Delhi. Now a four lane highway is being built upto Shimla. So many tourists have been visiting this place, that this was being considered as a crowded place with no water. Also, it led to overspill of tourists to nearby places. As one ascends from Kalka, small offshoots to places that are considered scenic views for people who want to avoid crowd, leave the highway. There are lots of hill stations right upto Manali, that can be approached via this route. From Shimla we also went to Kufri, that is known as a ski resort during winters and Naldera that has scenic meadows. Both places can be diverted to from the historic place called Dhalli. However, my experience was a complete one in Shimla!