Being born, brought
up and educated in Simla, as it was called then, had to be a rare privilege.
Simla was the
summer capital of the British Raj says Raaja Bhasin.
It was a
spectacular town, built with British thoroughness. They had transplanted a
little bit of Blighty onto a Himalayan Hill Top. The residential Bunglows was
exact replicas of what they had back home. Buildings for the Viceroy,
Commander-in-Chief, the Secretariat, the Governor’s residence were some of the
most grandiose buildings in the Empire.
The administration
of the town was also very British. No spitting!
The fine was Rs. 25.00! That was a labourer’s monthly wage in those
days. There were public toilets conveniently situated along the roads from the
outskirts of the town to the Mall Road.
Simla was neat,
clean and functioned perfectly. Never a shortage of water or electricity.
And of course, that
speciality exclusive to the Himalaya, the Deodar tree, Cedrus Deodara. The
Whispering Deodar of this tree had medicinal properties.
I have two deodars
in my garden in Chandigarh. With the slightest breeze the pine needles whistle
exactly as they did in Simla. They also gave me a bag full of cones. The cones
are great to start a barbeque. The aroma wafts for kilometres!
We drove upto Simla
for the summer in the month of March which is also when the schools opened. The
car would be garaged till we were ready to go down to the plains for the
winters.
After that the only
mode of transport was on foot! We had horses which my parents would ride and
the children, my two sisters and myself rode in a rickshaw.
I did all my
discovering of Simla and the surrounding area on foot. As I grew older and
could ride a horse alone, the excursions got longer and more daring.
The horses from the
farm would also move up for the summer. I took advantage of this and would ride
a horse from Kalka to our house in Sanjauli.
From Sanjauli it
was a beautiful ride to Wild Flower Hall, Lord Kitchner’s residence and onto
Kufri. I loved that area. I have pushed a bike upto Kufri so that I could roll
down the 10 kilometres at high speed!
One time I walked
upto Kufri and came down on roller skates! I held a long strong bamboo pole in
between my legs to use as a brake!
The area around
Simla was unspoiled, sparsely populated and excruciatingly beautiful.
I got to know it
like the smile on my Mother’s face!
After college I
worked in Delhi. Any opportunity I got I was back in Simla to show off the magnificence
of the mighty Himalaya and the beauty of my hometown to my friends from Delhi.
Enclosed is a photograph when I took my friend Jack, who worked at the Canadian
High Commission in Delhi. Beings a Canadian he missed the snow. I took him upto
Kufri to make him feel at home. As you can see we are bundled up against the
cold. Do not the miss the milestone. Kufri 0! And Jack was only 192 miles from
Tibet!
Recently, I came
across another photograph, taken at almost the same spot, actually one mile
apart.
It is summer time
the convertible top of the car is down, as it the windscreen. Great feeing!
That wind in the hair feeling.
The car is a
pre-war Singer I know it well having driven it often. It belonged to H.H. Sunny,
the Maharaja of Jind. On weekends I was his A.D.C. and ran errand for His Highness.
It was one of the best made British cars at that time.
Here it is in an another
Avatar. At the wheel is Lord Mountbatten and a lady in the front passenger
seat.
Our future Prime
minister, Mr. Jawahar Lal Nehru is in the rear seat. It is an educated guess
that lady Edwina is in the back seat also. A good move. Cars in those days did
not have heaters!
These photographs
are taken about twenty five years apart and they do tell a tale.
How things have changed!
Himachal, who inherited this Paradise, have systematically destroyed the town
and the surrounding hills. Today it is the world’s highest traffic jam. The
Township parking lots was designed to accommodate 2.500 vehicles, today it has
around 1.2 Lakh vehicles registered in Simla town.
No planned
expansion of the town, no rules or regulation which has resulted in concrete
buildings dotting the country side and ruining the environment.
They call it
progress.
