Shimla ...old memories

When it comes to writing about places , Shimla finds a special place in my heart.The obvious reason for this bias is number of years of my life which were spent there. I was born and brought up in Shimla and lived quite a considerable part of my life there.



View of Nabha Estate..the locality where i spent my childhood

For a current Shimlaite , my article might seem as If I am writing from some time warped zone because current Shimla is not even 1% of it's glorious gone by era.The degradation has been exponential in last two decades but I want to remember my Shimla as it used to be years back.Let people call me time warped!

Shimla is not called "Queen of Hills" for nothing.This moniker gets a big endorsement when one gets to see shimla hill from a distance at night. The lights scattered in the hills look line a crown of swaroski crystals trying to outshine one another.




Sparkling at night. Courtesy Internet.

Life in Shimla used to be mostly on foot. One could spot only few local vehicles owned by government  or mighty and rich.Children would hike to their schools .They could cross cart road without any fear of oncoming vehicles.Believe it or not -  Cart Road had one solitary traffic police guy !
I used to hike around 4 km daily to my school from Nabha Estate to Mall.I think that at that point of time I never realised the importance of that route.Now when I sit and think back into time ,  realise that there were so many historical buildings which I used to cross - Iconic railway station ,Gorton Castle(AG office),railway board building  and GPO.All are marvels of wonderful colonial architecture.

Railway Board buildig

Railway station

Gordon Castle

Mall road was a place where people used to follow the unsaid discipline.You would not find any shabbily dressed person and there would be no bumper to bumper traffic of people.In the afternoons you would find group of retirees hanging out on ridge.Some would be sipping their cuppa coffee in the coffee house.The coffee house walls were adorned with big black and white photos of Nehru depicting his visit to coffee house.It was  quite a cool hangout joint for intelligent and not so intelligent conversations:-).

Indian Coffee House

I remember doing one of my school plays in magnificent gaiety theatre. What a magnificent building it is. This is the only building untouched and still an epitome of gloious past.

Gaiety Theatre

On Sunday afternoon one would come across groups of children who used to be on their weekly outing.Shimla had/has quite a number of prestigious boarding schools.Trip to Mall road would be incomplete without Horse ride on the Ridge and a softy(ice cream in cone) treat from Embassy.Embassy was the only eatery where you could double coloured softy!Quite a novelty in those days.



The Mall

Horse riding at "Ridge"

Nearby places like naldera, sankat mochan ,kufri were the ones for sunday picnics with family.These places used to be so clean and pristine.Devouring the yummy home cooked food  those were the days when eating out was not very common ) in the shadow of pine trees or cedar trees followed by long sessions of hiking used to be high points of picnics.


Naldera

Sankat Mochan Temple

Shimla has changed a lot over the time.I really wish if people both the natives and tourists can become more sensitive to this beautiful place and help retain it's old glory