We visited our friend and my Raakhi brother Mr. Ashok Sharma, based in Chandigarh, the only planned city, along with the boys Sandeep and Rahul during the summer holidays of 1997. We could visit them as we were in New Delhi and my husband Vijay was responsible for erection and commissioning of a new refrigeration milk chilling plant project for Mother Dairy, where he had no specific working hours and was invariably on a 24 x 7 work schedule, a confirmed workaholic and a perfectionist that he was and still is !!! Since he had to attend to some related work regarding a vegetable cold storage factory at Karnal, my sons and I tagged along with him in the Contessa, making use of all given Opportunities to see places, which we have never ever seen before. Luckily for us, he had to go to also go to Chandigarh related to his work. Let me confess one thing here, which I had felt --- Travelling on Indian National Highway Roads, Contessa is the safest car than all other Indian made cars !!! We feel so secure because of the length of the car.
At Chandigarh, we had a lovely time with brother Sharmaji and his family. They took us around to see the well-planned city and the late Artist Mr. Nek Chand’s most creative “Rock Garden”, where he has used up all junk items and magically converted the same with his creativity into fantastic forms in a vast area. While we went around sight-seeing, Vijay dear, attended to his official work. Sharmaji, made a wonderful proposition - just out of the blue and that was for us to go to Shimla, Chail & Kufri, as we had not been to these places earlier and our eyes twinkled at the idea of spending the week-end on the hills. He went on to suggest that we leave the Contessa car at his place as it does not have the heating option in the A/C and carry on with the trip in his Ceilo to Shimla, Chail - Kufri. Though Vijay was initially scuffling with the thought of his work and a little ‘break’ from work; he finally gave the green signal, noticing the eagerness in our eyes to take up this trip.
Thus we started on our trip to Shimla in the Ceilo early next morning. We completed all our ablutions, had some tea that Ms. Sharma prepared with a mix of aniseed and black cardamom, which had an awesome flavour. We went to the petrol bunk, filled in the gas, checked the tyre air pressure, bought some fruit drinks and biscuits that was available from a nearby shop and started on with the journey. As we left the summer heat of Chandigarh behind and started on climbing the high ranges, there was suddenly such a change in the outside temperature, my elder son Sandeep and myself felt very chill. My younger son was wearing his sweater and he claimed that he like his dad - a polar bear !!! We had not taken any warm clothing with us except for the jerkins and a pair of gloves. As our trips are mostly undertaken at the spur of the moment as per my husband’s mood and availability, he couldn’t blame me for such shortcomings !!! I had packed up only clothing fit for summer wear. As Vijay can withstand very cold weather than heat, he gave his gloves and jacket to Sandy and me whose nose and ears turned so cold, that and I pleaded with Vijay to turn off the car AC, with my teeth chattering. In spite of the cool weather outside, he had put on the car AC that had a double impact. He finally switched the A/C to warm mode as we started scaling ghat section. Soon the temperature inside the car was bearable, but after sometime because of the heat inside and the chillness outside, condensation set on windshield, making visibility very poor. We had to then alternate between heating and cooling. All of us were craving for some good food. We located a Dhaba on the way and had a sumptuous Dhaba Khana, which consisted of Dhal Makhani, Sarson ka Saag, Aloo Paratha, Curd & Lassi. During all our road trips we freak out on Dhaba food, as that was the best available on the N.H roads, located in sprawling open areas, where we can take a stroll, while we get to see the owner of these Dhaba preparing the hot ‘rotis’ (Indian Bread) and some tasty side dishes skilfully at a very fast pace. Perhaps, they understand the starved traveller’s hunger better, I guess !!!
Due to the hairpin curves, one has to have a good control over the vehicle. Nature showed her supremacy, as we climbed to the higher levels. We reached Shimla at around noontime. There were too many tourists and our chances of getting a room in a decent hotel were bleak. Even then, to try our luck, we enquired at 2-3 places, but in vain. My husband being a resourceful person just called up his friend who suggested us to go to Kufri, which isn’t too far away, where he could arrange for some good accommodation. So we carried on with our journey and reached Kufri. Since we had heavy breakfast, we weren’t quite ready for the lunch. We managed with the snacks and fruit-juice we had with us. We were thoroughly enjoying the trip, what with the breath taking views, cool weather and listening to Jim Reeves, it was sheer magic moments. We never really bothered about the time frame for reaching Kufri. As the dusk gave way to night, it started becoming misty and the vision on the roads were becoming poor. Vijay being a seasoned driver, was navigating very carefully with the narrow road, especially when there was an on coming vehicle. To make things worse it started raining!! The boys, who were singing and cheering all through, were happily sleeping in the back seat, while I kept wiping up the wind screen and kept straining out for milestones to see how far we had to go. There was a small hotel on the way, where we pulled up to have some dinner. We were at a place called Chail. The hot tea was a treat in that chill weather. After having some rotis and the accompaniments, we gave our compliments to the hotel owner and he claimed that even VIPs like Kapil Dev and so on had tasted food from there. We left for Kufri and reached there at around 9.00 pm. As our friend had called up & arranged for the room, we checked in without any hassles, because it was the peak season at these hill resorts during summer. We freshened up in the hot water provided, changed and hit the bed for a good night’s sleep.
Sandy, Raul and myself were already dressed up and ready, as my tired hubby opened his eyes after a wonderful sleep. He too joined us soon after the ablutions and our morning breakfast in Continental style. We walked slowly, enjoying every inch of the place and went to a place that led us to a breath-taking view of the Himalayas in the horizon and it seems somewhere down there lies the Indo-Tibetan Border as well. As it rained the previous night, the place was quite slushy. We happily rode on the pony-sized horses & went to see that marvelous view. The horse – attenders took us to a temple too. It was so quiet and serene there. We climbed up to a very steep height and came to a beautiful place with some lone huts made with thin stones. Residents of that area told us that many Hindi movies were shot there.
After going around, drenching in the enchanting beauty of Nature and capturing it through the lens, which didn’t have the power of capturing the distant snow-caped ranges, we went back to our suite to rest for the day, but only after having a finger-licking lunch. We were hungry enough to swallow an elephant, after all those walk and trekking. I never fussed around with the food. I ate as long as I knew that it was made in a clean surrounding. To make myself doubly sure, I make it a point to personally go and inspect the kitchen areas under some pretext or the other. While my sons and Vijay retired for the day and enjoyed pampering themselves under the cosy blankets and quilts, watching the TV show, I sat out at the balcony making pencil sketches of the scenic natural beauty from that area. I had fallen madly in love with that place.
The next day after an early morning walk, and the usual ablutions, I went to the main dining room for having an elaborate breakfast. Later, we checked out around 10.00 am and started our downward journey back to Shimla. At Shimla, we went to the Mall and did some shopping – my dear hubby bought Pashmeera Shawl for me, some warm clothing for my sons & some gift items for friends & relatives.
We were so much merged in harmony with the Mother Nature, that we felt a pang of sadness as we started descending the mountains. The mountains are so serene, splendid and spiritually alluring that it evokes a feeling and an attitude of meditation in the aspirant. The wild flowers and greenery were enough to make me go insane, with their gorgeous shapes and colours. Even a person with no expertise in poems would be tempted to write some verses in praise of what dear Mother Nature has given for her children to enjoy and preserve for the future generations…We sang in chorus the beautiful songs from the movie “The Sound Of Music”…THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC…!!! promising to go back to her, whenever we needed her caressing touch to soothe us from the routine every day rat-race life in the cities. It was a memorable trip and we carried all those precious nostalgic memories along with us to Chandigarh and back to New Delhi.
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