The Viceregal Lodge at Shimla

You can't visit Shimla without seeing the Viceregal Lodge so I am devoting a whole post to it. It must have been such an ambitious project for its time and it was executed succesfully in every respect.

This is India in the 1880's - not much mechanization and before the hugely important completion of the Kalka Shimla railway. That will be my next post.  Difficult terrain and harsh weather but Henry Irwin, the architect entrusted with building this, used local grey sandstone and teak wood and created a magnificent building in what is called a Scottish Baronial Style that is stunning to this day.

What makes it particulalry noteworthy is that this was the first place that had electricity in Shimla, hot and cold running water and even a system for collecting and storing rain water since perhaps surprisingly water is in short supply in these hill top towns. There were extensive terraced grounds, a huge ballroom, an indoor tennis court and elaborate kitchens. You walk in to this building and you cannot help but be awed by its construction and grandeur.

Its historical significance cannot be underestimated. This was the site of the Shimla Conference of 1945. More importantly in 1947 representatives of Congress, the Muslim League and the British sat around a small circular table in one of the rooms and decided the inevitable and irreversible partition of the sub-continent.

Since 1964 however it has been the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies and has flourished under the auspices of the government and many renowned researchers and fellows. The old ballroom is now a valuable library. Times move on, buildings stand firm, but all that goes on inside them is constantly evolving.

Wildflower Hall and the forest in Shimla

If you are looking for a special place to stay in Shimla go to Wildflower Hall. it is quite exceptionally beautiful.Others appreciated its unique location when it was built as a residence circa 1876.

A picture of the original house and one of the subsequent hotel.

The original house was burnt down and the second residence built was where Lord Kitchener stayed. He developed the extensive gardens but this house was demolished and a three story hotel was built which suffered a similar fate as the first and it was destroyed by fire in 1993. The present building was constructed in 1995 and is the perfect luxurious getaway from the summer heat of the city.The rooms are wonderfully comfortable, the staff is one of the best trained and most obliging I have met and the hotel is run by a charming couple who are very willing to share all of Shimla's charms with you.

The present day hotel

 The wildflowers in the garden

 The view from our room

 The wonderful jacuzzi and the view from its vanishing edge

 The beautiful indoor heated pool

 Some happy customers

 An even happier one. He stole the oranges from our room and then sat on the edge of the verandah and ate them greedily

Un unknown species

 A hedge blue seen on one of our walks

 The cedar forests are the most extensive in the Far East

 A giant Malabar Squirrel

 

Enjoying the views, the fauna and flora and the mountain air.

Shimla Town

This place so reminded me of my childhood when my father used to send us to a wooden cabin in the Troodos range of Cyprus for some of the summer months. We would while away the hours picking pine cones, going for walks in the woods, riding tame horses and putting on our finest for a walk and an ice-cream in the main square.

That is what Shimla town is like. A big plateau perched on pointy hillsides with stunning views in either direction with a grand central pedestrianized walk called the Mall full of eateries and tourist shops, hotels and restaurants. Christ Church is perched on the highest plateau together with statues of Indira and the Mahatma.

Indian tourists in their finery stroll with their children, they sit on benches and eat their chaat, they slurp at their ice-creams they gaze at others, so many others around them. Children take pony rides and eat candy floss and here is a joviality that is hugely missing from the daily Delhi density.

There is a mixture of old and new. The established hotels, the Cecil and Clarkes in the centre of town,  the old bakeries, the men carrying everything from gas cylinders, to sacks, to furniture strapped onto their backs. The Levis and Hilfiger stores and the modern sneakers and trainers hanging ready to go from shop fronts. My favourite of the town was the sweet shop with such enticing colours you just had to walk in and beg to be sweetened.

Clarkes Hotel in the Mall

 The shops in the Mall

This bakery was established in 1876 in the Raj Heyday.

A picture of the main square in fading light

 The sunset from the plateau

The enticing sweet counter

Shimla

44 C and possibly on the way up - walking into my kitchen is like entering a furnace full on. They say heat rises and of course it does - it all seems to be in my kitchen- but you will be happy to hear that this does not happen at 7,234 ft above sea level. There it is positively spring- like, warm but with a fresh breeze blowing, cooler out of the sun and in the evening a chill allows you to wrap your pashmina happily around your shoulders. 

We escaped and we headed to the hills and were soon reminded that in the olden days it took them four days of back breaking travel to get from the burning plains of hindustan to the hills but they considered it well worth it. When you go you too will realise what a completely different feeling Shimla gives you.

The Britishers as they are called, collective name for a bit of a disparate lot but we all know who they are, discovered this area around the 1820s and by 1864 it was crowned the summer capital of the Raj. A place that Rudyard Kipling said was "full of frivolity, gossip and intrigue" and which brought much relief to the many who wanted a respite from the summer heat.

Shimla was dicovered and within a short period summer residences dotted the hills and grand baronial buildings were built to house the officials and their administration. You can see much evidence of old Shimla  in Shimla today and that has an enduring appeal to me as I am always curious to see the history and live the present.

It is built on seven hills- that is what makes it a meandering, high, precipitous place which is both colourful and congested, refreshingly different but familiar. The houses are high rises built on the sides of the mountains with many having their parking at ground level. All houses, eateries and even offices have monumental views and the roads wind and twist around these seven hills in a slow slithering line of traffic which mercifully still moves at snail's pace but where soon the vehicles on the road will simply out strip the horizontal ground available to park them.

Much to write about in the next blogs from the wonderful Wildflower Hall to the Viceregal Lodge but I leave you today with pictures of Shimla at a distance and a crazy cow with a head for heights ( see behind the parked car by the edge of the building works ) !

Arushi Girls home - a Salaam Baalak Trust Home

It is to my good friend Celia Marsh from Switzerland that I owe this initiative as she very kindly and generously supplied the money for it and I put it into operation. I visited Arushi girls home sometime last year and was struck at how well organised it was and how the girls supported one another. I asked what they lacked and the idea was planted - the girls love to dance and listen to music but they didnt have a proper sound system so today a compact but top of the range sound system was delivered to them.The girls wanted to know about Switzerland and I said it had snow and lakes and was very beautiful like Kashmir and that quite a few Bollywood films were made there. They wanted to know how people earned their livelihood so I told them about Swiss cows and banks. Someone jokingly said yes that is where Indian politicians keep their money !

They were curious about Anthony and me and how we liked India and what we were doing here. I practised my few words of Hindi but much more impressively they talked to me in almost fautless English that they learn in school

Once installation was complete we needed to try it all out so we did at full blast and the girls danced away and I joined them for some faulty Bollywood moves at the end. Great fun.

Rewari

Did you know that there is a special place not far from Delhi where Steam Engines and their controllers live ?

Yes, for all of you out there who were brought up on Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends and model railways this is a little corner of India worth exploring- it is called Rewari and it is some  80 kms from Delhi, an easy car journey to Rewari itself but be aware the shed is tucked at the back of the Main Station and there is a detour of some interest to get to it.

Rewari was one of the biggest junctions of the meter gauge route dating back to 1893.It existed for some 100 years but was shut down in 1993. In 2001 it was decided to convert it into a heritage shed and since then wonderful locos have been brought here from all corners of India and lovingly restored and fired up. Usually one is fired up every Sunday but check before you make the journey if you want to see them in action. It now has a little coffee shop and a small but very interesting museum with all the coats of arms of the various districts and the implements used all those years ago. It is the pride of dedicated lovers of steam engines and it will not surprise you to hear that on the day we visited a coach of British steam engine fans arrived, all the way from the UK, on a special Indian steam engine trip of considerable excitement to them all