In the ‘Queen of Hills’

A click outside the IIAS, Shimla

After every six months, I have a habit of visiting hills, just to find peace and to get a break from my daily routine. This time, the destination was Queen of Hills- Shimla aka Simla. On 1st August, I and my friend Rahul (name changed) left Jalandhar around 4:00 pm thinking it will take mere five hours to reach the hills. But we were totally wrong. We reached our guest house at 12:00 midnight. Pheww! It was a long drive, but enjoyable.

On our way, we didn’t stop at any point except to have a short meal at McD in Dharampur. After entering Shimla, we were looking at each others face because we didn’t know the exact way to Kasumpti where our guest house was located, though I have visited the same guest house once, two years back. Ooops! Then I thought I need to have ‘badaams’!

The day ended in driving and after settling our luggage, we had a sound sleep in cold weather. Next morning, we managed to wake up early and were ready at 9:00 am. We decided that today we will visit each and every place worth watch. I called my friend who resides in Shimla itself, named Akshay. He then said to move ahead to Mall road, and will catch us there in a while. The major problem on reaching Mall road was lack of parking. If private, then they charged bloody Rs-100 for two hours. What a loot!

After getting a space in parking, we took a lift, yes Shimla has become advance, from old Bus Stand to Mall road, direct up. After reaching Mall road, the rain drops started pouring upon us. The weather became pleasant once again. We were so excited that we reached the spot at 9:30 am and there were a few tourists. I remembered the place of breakfast that I had last time and successfully located this time too. We had ‘bhature-channe’ (though I was on dieting), still then I was on picnic! After heavy breakfast, we stepped ahead to the shopping street and did window shopping. Mall road has a number of showrooms, department stores, shops, restaurants and cafes. A Himachal emporium that offers handicraft products of Himachal Pradesh like locally designed woolen clothes, branded cloths, pottery items, and jewellery is also located here.

At 1:00 pm, Akshay reached the spot and we had a ‘gehri’ of this famous road and witnessed the tourists as well as locals. I observed that there were more couples than singles! Unfortunately we were singles looking at the couples romancing there! He took us to Indian Institute of Advance Study, a research institute built in 1888. The interesting feature about this was that crucial decisions were taken here by Mahatama Gandhi and others at the time of Independence. After walking the road, we started feeling hungry and started looking for lunch. Then, Akshay took us to Sanjauli, the main suburb of Shimla. It is like a small town with all shopping brands available. We stepped inside ‘Diamond’ bakery and restaurant and had delicious Chinese and sipped cold coffee. The main feature of this bakery was the land is owned by Bollywood’s old actress Preity Zinta. After lunch and having ‘chai @ khoka’ we headed towards ‘Jhaku temple’ at 6:00 pm. Two kilometers from Shimla, at a height of 8000 ft, Jakhu hills is the highest peak an offers a beautiful view of the town and of the snow-covered Himalayas. At the top of the Hill, is an old temple of Lord Hanuman, which is also the home of countless playful monkeys waiting to be fed by all visitors. After paying homage, we observed and laughed how the monkeys tease the tourists by snatching their shoes or phones etc.

After the tiring day, our watches displayed the time at 8:00pm. And we were full tired. I was astonished that in a single day we visited almost every tourist place and that too enjoyed peacefully in a pleasant weather, whole day. After dropping Akshay, we came back to our Guest House, had dinner and slept. In the morning next day, we left the beautiful hills and peaceful weather at 7 in the morning as Rahul had to reach back by 12:00pm.

Though short, it was a wonderful outing with a good company. At the end, what mattered to me was that my mind was refreshed and I was ready to work again with full energy and dedication.