A trip to Shimla

Location : Shimla
Date: 11-01-08 to 14-01-08


The Crew Members: Madhukar(Rahul... Naam toh suna hoga), Parthiban( The Photographer), Purnajyoti ( The Cashier), Sundaram( Mr. Kufri) , Ankita( The Himachali Gori..), Harshad( Mr. Photographer of the Trip) Myself ( The Gaon Ki Gori...)


A desire for a short trip to a nearby place of Delhi was discussed by all the crew members for quite a time.... And a weekend clubbed with Makar Sankranti/Pongal holiday on monday 14th jan was apt for us to realise the desire...And the destination.. SHIMLA.. A unanimous choice... Much excitement for the snow and the chillness of Jan at Shimla...


A brain storming session on the participation of the trip was carried on among the crew....And finally the train tickets booked with some cancellation and more booking.... A chaotic planning I must say...

First we had plans of going to Shimla via Kalka by train...The train ride from Kalka to Shimla by a narrow guage train was reccomended by many of the visitors... But the tickets from Kalka to Shimla were all booked so we planned to take a bus from Kalka....The train from Del to Kalka was 4 hrs late so we had lots of confusion regarding the arrival time...Finally, braving the chillness of Delhi's weather for an hour at the railway station we boarded at 00:20 hrs.... Reached Kalka by 7:15.. it was chilly morning... We hired autos till the bus stand which is 3km away... Frequent buses from Chandigarh to Shimla are available.. so it was not a troublesome task to get a bus..

P.S But I would advise to take a direct bus to Simla if one plans to miss the train from Kalka to Shimla...


The journey towards Shimla was similar to that of my journey from Siliguri to my hometown Namchi... The plains trailed by and majestic mountains stood before us.....It was a wonderful scene for Madhukar, Parthi and Sundaram who all belonged to South... Reached Simla by 11... Weather in Simla was cloudy.... We hired a coolie who took us to a hotel..... Hotels in Shimla are expensive as is the case in any hill station... The only good thing with the hotel was the view from our rooms........ After getting fresh we headed for lunch as all of us were starved by then.... Harshad wanted to enjoy the weather with the blankets so he did not join for lunch... We went first to a veg restaurant.. 'AnnaPoorna' in the Mall road... but except for the rotis the vegetable were awfully cooked.... We then decided for a 2nd lunch... that was satisfactory...

P.S Shimla boasts of a number of restaurants which are easy on the pockets and taste... But Annapoorna is a no no...


Myself and Ankita enjoyed the walk in Mall road...Its really nice dat no automobiles are allowed in the Mall Road.. A peaceful and a relaxed walk.... After some photo session in the Mall Road, we decided to go to a popular temple named Jaku... the temple is situated in the hilltop and is dedicated to Hanuman, and the is one among the hills he had taken a rest on, when he carried the sanjivani containing hillock...

Steep uphill and people with sticks are the companion towards the temple... Sticks.. to scare away the monkeys... They even have shops who lend sticks for 5 rs... We were advised by the fellow visitors to hide our purses and even the glasses.. as the monkeys were considered quite notorious...


A fitness chart at the starting point of the temple way indicates a 30 min climb for a fit person.... Rest of the gang turned to be fit except me as I got dizzy on the way due to low pressure... Poo accompanied me during the rest I took.... Finally Jaku was reached and we offered our prayers.... sunset view from Jaku was captured by the photographers and myself and ankita gave them the privilege of gracing the photos.. :)

Photos.. photos and more photos while coming down from Jaku.. I at times wondered... the clicks may had disturbed the silent hills preparing for the nite....

A sumptous chinese dinner with hot soup was warming because by then we were sort of freezing....A good nite sleep was all we desired after a gr8 day...

Nest day morning was sunny and bright.... Snows in the mountains shined and we were excited about our trip to Kufri which boasts of a snow fun world and is 16 km from Simla.. With a heavy bfast at the nearby dhaba we headed towards Kufri in a hired Sumo... The journey was as obvious good... and beautiful scenes were again captured...

Again a hill to climbed but this time in a horse.... I was sceptical at first as the climb was steep and slippery, but my friends and the horse caretaker assured that the horse ride would not be that scary as I presumed... Well.. with a heart that was pounding at a gr8 rate.. I was helped to board the horse.... For 5 min I went pale as the horse galloped.. I was calling out Parthi as he was just behind me to assure myself that everything was fine.... Its around 40 min ride.... and after sometime.. I started enjoying the ride... :)

We reached and the sight of snow before us kept us smiling and laughing for nearly an hour.. We played, clicked again, some of us skied, sundaram had a gr8 fall and was clicked.... :) It was fun.... After the darshan of the nag mandir we headed towards our horse stand.... :) the horses were waiting and the ride downhill was more adventurous... Steep and slippery.....

A trip to a zoo was next for our manager cum cashier... I was tired and he could sense how I was not reluctant for the zoo... The worst part of my face is the fact my face shows it all what I feel.... and i sometimes feel that if only I was able to hide it..... coz it spoils my dearest ones mood....

Snow in Kufri was muddled up by visitors there but here it was untouched.. It looked pristine... so we had more clicks.. :) the zoo was worth a visit....

After having parthis favorite chocolate biscuits we rushed for Naldhera... our next stop.. Naldhera boasts of the worlds oldest golf course.. built by the Bristish who were fascinated by Shimla's beauty.... Sunsest captured at Naldhera by Parthi is one among my fav snaps... View of River Beas was our Rahul's aka HoneyTax mission and he succeeded...It was dark by then and so we headed towards our vehicle..

Ankita and Harshad had plans of leaving that nite.. so after a quick dinner we set them off, with goodbyes and wishes...

Lohri was being celebrated that night and we saw people dancing around the fire... It was warm that night.. may be because of the fires being in every galli of Shimla...

The last day of our trip.... we had plans of shopping in Shimla... After a quick walk at the Mall road we headed towards Lakkar market thats fanous for wood work.. We had a good bargain of Wooden items.... Checked out our rooms at 12 and headed for lunch.. It was Chinese, the same hotel and then to the railway station...

The train was a toy train and we all were excited for the trip towards Kalka.. We had clicks, video shooting all the way and the view mesmerising.. I thought if we could also have a train journey in Sikkim.. A tourist attraction...

Reached Kalka by 2200.. we were agile.. and the veg fried rice in the station made us happy..

the train towards Delhi started at 2345... And I was happy about a trip that we all enjoyed.. It was gr8 team expedition and the memories of Shimla are for keeps...

P.S The longest post of mine.. hope u guys did not have many yawning session while reading....

31st December every year...

Let me share my experience on 31st Dec every year..... i realized recently that its been a day, every year, worth writing a blog on......

31st dec during my childhood used to be fun..... Cold chilled night at my granny's place...I remember collecting woods along with my friends for the bonfire at 00:00 hrs... the new year is welcomed by the electricity deptt shutting off the electricity supply at 00:00 hrs...I always used to pity the poor guy who had been assigned the job in the electricity deptt...
We welcomed new year with a gr8 feast on 1st Jan... Picnics on 1st is a must at my place... and there are quite a number of vehicles for the picnics, adorned with balloons and banners with young and old, both, welcoming the new year.....

31st dec celebration during college days was all about having music played in the verandah of our hostel, enjoying, feasting and most important, jotting down ones experience of the past year and making resolutions for the coming year.... which were forgotten in no due time... As resolutions meant breaking them asap... :)

Going for a picnic with friends to Nandi Hills, Bangalore on 31st Dec 2004 was fun... and picnic with parents and frens at Taarey Bhir,Namchi,2006 was a memorable one...

This year, I plan to go out with my friends here at IITD for a lunch.....
but the childhood celebrations of 31st dec will linger around as I look back....

On my Friends Request...

Hi all...
My first blog seemed, short and crisp, to one of my dearest friend......And a request of describing my not so recent trip(Oct last weeks) with my parents came from my friend...So here I go, with this second Post of mine....

A trip to Delhi by my parents was planned a long time back... They take all the details before venturing out to a new place.... And before I could list them out the places I planned to take them, they already had a good list of the places they did loved to visit.... And that made me easier to plan the trip....

The place that topped the list was ' Tso-Pema' , at Himachal Pradesh... I did hear my appa, mentioning over the phone enquire about the plausible transportation... I had searched in google... but could not find it... and was wondering if such a place existed.... My parents interest in Tso-Pema was purely due to religuous reason...

My parents arrived on 18th Oct by the NE Express... And I was glad to receive them... Weather in delhi was good... Delhi is good to visit during Oct and Nov... Rest of the year.. either its too hot to handle or just chilled out.....

Our first destination was Dehradoon... Mussorie and Haridwar being the side dishes... Mussorie being a hill station, I felt I was taking my parents to places similar too Sikkim.... But they enjoyed the trip.. My friend Beckham was the perfect host at Doon.. Haridwar trip was gr8... one of my friend Manish's native place... and his mum is a darling.... We went to almost all the temples and had a gr8 evening at Hari-Ki- Paudi, by the sides of River Ganga.... Appa had a slight fever in the night and I was worried whether we could make the trip back to Delhi by the nite express... But we made the trip.. Thanks ama for being so assuring... I love you.....

We did Delhi sightseeing in the evenings, after my classes were done.. So weekends were kept for long distance trips..I sat with ama and searched 'Tso- Pema' again.. and this time I was lucky, Its popular as Rewalsar.. Got all the details and also more details from my friend Parul, who belongs to Himachal... My senior Pratiksha also came along for the trip...

We reached Mandi,in HP, early morning.. it was cold... The wollens came handy... We hired a cab till Rewalsar and the cab driver was a friendly chap.... His Hindi was sweet and the songs in his cab was all that dard bharey of mid nineties.. I thought he must have been heart-broken... Much too my thought... :)

We reached Tso-Pema at nine... Monastery in Tso pema is famous for its historical past... It is believed that the great Guru Padmasambhave had came to Rewalsar and the king there had ordered his men to burn guru... And when the orders was executed, Guru was found to be seated in a Lotus and a lake emerged where he was burned...
We Hired two rooms in the monastery itself... It was reasonable.. Rested for sometime.. Offered our prayers....And headed for our lunch.. Lunch was Tibetan cuisine, myself and di did not enjoy the meal eventhough my parents liked them... The lake in Tso-Pema was serene.. and we headed to the caves where Guru Padmasambhave meditiated... It was a gr8 experience... The caves are still maintained and many of the monks still meditiate there.....

We planned a visit to Manali and Kullu for the next day, and hired the same cab fellow.. Nite at Tso-Pema was similar as in Sikkim.. Quiet by 7.. We settled for North Indian dinner at nite.......... :)

Trip to manali was beautiful... We were driving opposite to the flow of River Beas...... Seemed similar to Sikkim but the experience was differnt... The valleys were beautiful and on the way we had a good sightseeing... Kullu Dasera festival was on.. We did a fair amount of shopping... :)

The same nite.. we boarded a bus to Delhi... The trip was a memorable one... and the one thing I found that people in Himachal loved the most is mid nineties Hindi dard bharey songs.. I will let you know how I came to this conclusion later... :)

My first Blog

I loved jotting down my experiences during my High School days... And the diary of my experience still lies in my room at home.... and I make it a point to go through it, whenver I visit my hometown... I never had the urge to carry the dairy along.... And whenever I sit with the diary, I feel that I am going through it for the first time... my visualization of the experience in the diary is always different every time i go through it....


A decade gone by.... Dreaming....Realizing the dream... and experiencing Life.......

And I see more of it coming my way....