The narrow gauge site recently got a heritage status. Once, you are here, you sure get a feel of the hilly ranges, the wilderness, the bird chirrups from hidings and the threatening monkey faces. It's nostalgic and indulging.
How I felt, I was done....untill I got a second life!
At 2 AM, Friday, an SMS comes beeping....... my eyelids fight with each other......I search lazily for my IM-MOBILE geek, unlock it and cry foul; "shit, silly SMS that gets forwarded from one cell to another," without giving a damn to it ot bothering to switch off the gadget.
At 2.02 AM, another SMS beeps in, my eyes do open, but my torso says, "leave it, just another silly one that gets passed on." But, curiosity kills the cat. I feel uneasy....stretch my hand to grab my IM-MOBILE again....This time, I unlock a treasure. It is the same friend.....but a typed SMS. The good news: SUSPENSE! I reply back to him almost immediately in affirmitive!
6 A.M.
Next morning, I wake up early, do up my ablutions, help my mother at home at the same time waiting for the clock to tick and an important SMS to click. I do up some channel flipping, watch the INDIA-AUS series and look out of my door. Finally, the car arrives!
11 A.M.
My friend had come. We had planned to go out to the hills. Our destination was undecided. Yet, we felt we had time to decide upon things. Two more friends joined us on our way uphill and we successfully passed the police barricades with circimspect eyes. The road from Chandigarh-Panchkula-Pinjore was a challenging one. Heavy traffic, loud noises inside the car, even louder sound tracks, polluting vehicles, truckloads, busses, irritating cycles, snail-paced tractors and sometimes egoistic chauffeurs unwilling to allow overtaking: all this is so typical, isnt it? However, the buzz was nice. Chandi-Mandir, the army base camp that looked immensely regulated, organized and peaceful was something interesting to watch amidst the noise.
While we gossiped inside the car, the hills were calling and the journey was altogether refreshing. It had been long since I acually thought of moving my body from my Internet connection and the daily college route. I was looking for a break and this one seemed just perfectly timed. There was none to stop me as my internet connection was down. LOL.
PINJORE GARDENS- EVERY VISITORS MUST-SEE
At Pinjore, the lovely gardens on my left window captivated me as I had been there a couple of months back with a few friends. Infact, everyone visiting Chandigarh drops in here to watch the perfection with which these gardens are built with fountains and water in the midst and couples in hidings. We had strolled across these gardens with liberty, taken awesome snapshots, posed on the main bride across the water and had rested on the topmost point of the garden, where we did some role-play of the king, assuming we had gone back in time. We had ordered servants be brought, grass be cut, trees be shaped, damsels be called and what not! But, this was just fantasy and memory, when I looked back from the traffic that was now halted. The road towards Kalka and Parwanoo was a tight one as it has to pass through the busy Pinjore-Kalka market. For years there has been a talk of a direct road that would cut distances by several hours. However, leave aside materialize, I have never seen any such project commence.
KALKA
To add irritation to the traffic, the Train barrier was closed. While I did see a few motorists and cyclists give a damn to the railway crossing, I did feel happy: I was to be on the track after some time. A few minutes later, in Kalka, being an Indian by heart, I looked outside towards the drivers window, where the DEVI MATA MANDIR is stationed. I quickly sent off a silent prayer and a small bow at the temple gate.
PARWANOO
A few meters away was the Parwanoo Toll Tax Point with a board saying, WELCOME TO HIMACHAL PRADESH. WOW, I felt! The air itself was different. There was some chill, some childhood nostalgia, a different scent and an awesome feeling. It was bright, sunny and lovely. It looked like a dream had materialized and the world looked just perfect as the car gave a sharp turn at a hilly point on the National Highway from where nothing else except the distant mountains and the Timber Trail was visible. The rest was clear air.....A punjabi track was playing on the car stereo.
We had some good fun inside the car I remember. The topics raised were miscellaneous. And remember, They say, "friends are those who dont really expect you to talk sense." A cherry topping suddenly caught our eyes. A McDonalds outlet just near the Dharampur eateries area. We immediately got out from the car, stretched ourselves and got in. The scenery from the roof top eating space seemed immensely picturesuqe. The red Unmbrella bearing the Coca Cola logo with the chilling breeze and the shining afternoon sun. I sat under it and looked around it, to datant places. Trememdous! We quickly had some cool drinks, burgers, Ice-tea and eye feed: gorgeous girls! I know you must have already imagined things by now!
DHARAMPUR
This is the point where every bus going towards or from SHIMLA for food. This place offers good commissions to drivers who halt their buses here; the reason why it is considered as a eating point apart from its central location. Just behind the eateries, you cant miss out the railway track, the KALKA-SHIMLA heritage track that was built in 1903. This one has 103 deep and dark tunnels through, a serpentile fashioned route, a mountain on one side and the deep valley below on the other, greedy monkeys at a few points and wilderness around the track. The tracks are comparatively smaller than usual train tracks.
TUNNEL NUMBER 15- HERITAGE RAILWAY TRACK built 100 years back
This was our point too. Tunnel number 15 was a navigable one, which had a golf course kind of vicinity, a spine-chilling long dark tunnel and various other things that one imagines when one is all alone on an alien world. At once, we got down to the track through a slippery hilly path, with green pines welcoming us in a unique fashion. The bird chirrups, the busy road, the gusty breeze, scary tunnel and the valley below were clearly on our minds. We began taking aims at a point on the rail track and then a branch of a tree and then a hole in the tunnel wall and what not. We then decided to walk along the tunnel one-by-one. Macho-man, they say. But we all failed. No one was game. The first few steps seemd perfect. However, hallucinations scared the shit out of us. After much of screaming and confusion, we decided to hold hands and walk in together.
The spine-chillin 5 minutes
The tunnel journey was something I cant forget. For the next 5 minutes, we talked about the possibility of the train coming and crushing us beneath it or a ghost coming out of the hiding, a leopard jumping from nowhere, vampires coming out from their hiding or just something unknown jumping up. If nothing else, I just imagined myself falling into the gutter and drowning. One of my friends, closed his eyes. The mobile light seemed ineffectve as we walked with snail-pace, with complete blindness, with no view of the other side, with ignorance, with the acceptance that we were done for sure and then came an unknown stink. It was a cow lying there, dead and half-eaten. Its killer, as we predcted was the train. However, the scavenger could have been something that could pull one of us into his hiding without the others knowing it. Well, fnally there was hope. It was broad daylight, at a stones throw distance. The tunnel was strangely semi-circular. The outside trees were clear and visible. Fallen pines and a KURKURE packet, did make me feel better, safe and back home on earth.
The rest of the time was spent in photography, mischief and fun. These little moments of laughter sometimes change your day. We then drank MANGO FROOTI, sorry if you thought VODKA.... And then, rushed back home, just when the classes get over around 3.30. Well, it was learning, but in a different manner. An outing, an adventure, a physical education practical, we called it, when we reached home!
I must say, the route was lengthier than this write-up!
