Sensational Shimla

Shimla must be our favourite place in India.  We spent 12 days in this fabulous hill station and loved it.  We headed to Shimla to beat the heat of Delhi but Shimla turned out to be so much more than a respite to the heat wave on the plains. 

Shimla was the summer capital of India during the years of the British Raj. The entire government moved from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Shimla every year around April through October. It is this very British looking town teaming with Indian tourist here on their summer holiday. 

India or Britian?

 

Stained glass windows of Christ Church. Kipling's father designed some of the area around the altar.

 

Hills of  Shimla

Throngs of tourists

Shimla through the Deodars

The weather was lovely - mid 20's to low 30's - and the city of 170,000 is nestled on steep hillsides with endless multi-storey hotels that have a bottom entrance and top entrance from different winding roads that zig zag throughout the city. The air was very hazy so we couldn't see much of the famed views of the mountains but it is a very pretty place all the same.  Shimla is known for its Deodar cedar trees and they are magnificent, rising 150m with the ubiquitous monkeys frolicking through them. The monkeys frolic through the city streets as well.  They are everywhere and provide great amusement with their naughty antics and by their everyday chilling out in sweet family groups.

Shaded roads under the Deodars

Who's got fleas

We got to Shimla by taking the early morning train to Kalka, on the Punjab - Himchal Pradesh border. The train was a 1st class AC chair car and the service really good. Indian Railways has redeemed itself after our horror trip to Varanasi.  The ride and the service of morning tea and breakfast to your chair was tempered somewhat  by the view out the window,  hundreds of people squatting in ditches and on rubbish tips answering natures call. So as I am having a nice cup of tea I am seeing bare bottoms relieving themselves because their homes have no toilets. Around half of households in Delhi have no toilet and fewer still in the country.  I don't know if anyone else on the train felt guilty being treated to such nice conditions while such poverty was outside, but I certainly did.  The new Prime Minister, Modi, campaigned on ‘toilets before temples’ and I  hope he makes some headway on this issue.

From Kalka we transferred to the World Heritage narrow gauge "toy" train,  It was built by the British in 1903 to transport the government to Shimla for the summer.  More cute than comfortable it zig-zagged up the mountains going through over 100 tunnels. The trip took about 5 hours, 3 hours too long but fun anyway.  Without the haze the views would have been quite spectacular.  We took the train again on our return to Delhi but this time got comfortable soft seats in the chair car with waiter service.  There is quite a nice, but hour long Youtube video about this train and Shimla:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFHw3L1FXvw

 

Kalka - Shimla toy train

The infamous Barog Tunnel.  The engineer killed himself because the two ends of the tunnel didn't meet.

This place is just loaded with history.  The ghosts of the British Raj and great events are everywhere.  We took a tour of the Gaiety Theatre.  This was the main cultural centre for the British community in colonial times and the home of their amateur dramatic club.  The beautiful grey slate and sandstone building had been left to ruin after Independence when it was under the care of the Indian army dramatic club but about 10 years ago it was restored and is fantastic.  We spent about 2 hours looking around.  The tour guide, a dapper retired Indian lawyer, was so thrilled to have some people interested in the history that he took us to the nooks and crannies that no one  else sees.  

The seating for the Gaiety Theatre

Restored ceiling

Gaiety Theatre from the Ridge Road

Sadly most Indians are not interested in their history and for the Gaiety Theatre only want to know if some Bollywood star was there.  Speaking of stars, Michael Palin did a great segment on the Gaiety Theatre in his travelogue series Himalayas.   In the exhibit hall of the theatre there were all these old publicity stills from the various plays performed in the early 1900's with the names of the actors underneath identifying Mrs. This and Col. or Major That.  Fantastic!  You could just imagine the life they lead back then when Shimla was the summer capital.  

 

Publicity photos for the amateur productions

On the Western side of the Mall road about 2.5km from Scandal Point (the  main town centre near the Gaiety Theatre) is the old Vice Regal Lodge where the Viceroy lived and worked.  It was designed as a Scottish  castle and  is magnificent with stonework columns and turrets outside, all teak and walnut inside and beautiful gardens all around.  Not only was this the summer residence (April to October) of the Viceroy and Indian government from about 1890 until Independence but it was also the location of deliberations and development of Indian Independence and partition.  There were pictures of Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Montebatten on the grounds and it looked just the same today.  

The building is now the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), a place for scholars to come to do research in the humanities and social sciences.  The Institute accommodates 60 scholars who are selected by a vetting panel in Delhi.  They are given a room and stipend and can stay for 6 months to 2-3 years, in which time they are expected to have written a book which is published by the Institutes press.  The program is not restricted to Indians and anyone can apply post their doctoral studies.  It is a wonderful opportunity to research in such beautiful and auspicious surroundings.
On our way to the IIAS we stopped at a bit of a driveway / terrace to admire the view and an old gentleman came out of the house.  He started chatting with us asking us where we were from and the usual questions and mentioned he had "lived in England for 15 long years but never been to Australia".  After England he had come directly to Shimla in 1969 to do research on AO Hume.  We knew about Hume as we had stumbled on his old house, Rothney Castle, and then looked him up on the web.  He was the founder of the Indian National Congress and a renowned amateur ornithologist.

The old man was then so excited that we knew about him that he brought out a thick book published by Oxford University Press that he had co-authored entitled The Selected Letters of AO Hume.  We didn't catch his name, being hard to spell, but vowed to look up the book and find out more about this amazing 84 year old.  We didn't have long to wait for as we were taking the official tour of the Vice Regal Lodge (In Hindi and English - Hindi for the 50 Indians in the group and English for the 4 Westerners), the old man passed us on the way to the library (one of the biggest in India and housed in what was the ballroom and dinning room - book stacks instead of dinning tables and chairs but the crystal chandeliers still hanging and providing light).  We asked the tour guide about him and it turns out he is a famous historian and former director of the Institute with several well regarded books to his name.  The guide wrote down his name and address for us (Professor SR Mehrotra) and we looked him up on the web.  It really was a special encounter and fuelled my interest in the history of this place.

On the Eastern side of the mall is Jackhu hill covered in Deodar trees.  At the top of the steep climb is a temple and a huge statue of Hanaman, the monkey god.  Appropriately the place is teeming with monkeys who have learned to be very naughty and steal people’s sunglasses, knowing they will be given treats while people try and entice the monkeys to give up their prize.

Hanuman

Hanuman overlooking the town - reminiscent of the Christ figure in Rio

The Indian Coffee House became a favourite haunt of ours.  This is run by the Coffee Growers Co-operative and was started about 60 - 50 years ago  They serve great coffee and it is a classic old shop frequented by lovely old gentlemen from the old school - very dapper and wonderful to watch them chatting and doing business.

The waiter in his uniform

We could have spent even more time in Shimla, exploring the hills and researching the history.  We were very sorry to leave but there are more places to see in our travels.