In The Valley of Gods: A Personal Journey

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Mittarjee,

``The kind who go to hill stations for honeymoon now did not know what honeymoon meant a generation ago.``

So what did it mean to go on honeymoon a generation ago? ;)

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#3 by sameerJB

Sameer

``second is the proliferation of temples. It means Himachal Pardesh is going to remain backward state for longer time than others. ``

LARGE Nos of temples = Backward State?
what kind of Rationalization is that.
That is what makes a place like Himachal culturaly, historically and architecturally rich. You should see some of the details temples in India have.


#12 by Tipu on April 29, 2003 7:59pm PT

Tipu
Hi There.
do You have something against south indians :)

you are forgetting that the root of hindi (and may be even URUDU) is sanskrit!

Thank you everyone for your positive comments. [How come I still get a puny 2-star rating?:-)]
Studebaker:
Yes, Majrooh did a better job for literacy with ``alaf zabar aa, alaf zer ay, alaf pesh au`` than with his ``c-a-t cat, cat maane billi``.

dullabhatti:
Yes, there were certainly some couples in that category. But most of them were genuine with tell-tale signs of laal choorhas and all that.
As for my trying ``ghota``, I make it a point not to drink anything unless the water used in it was guaranteed to have been boiled for five minutes at least.:-)

SameerJB:
Is Murry the only hill station in Pakistan? Does it have snow? How about its Mall?
As regards to why do people in our part of the world go to higher altitudes for honeymoon, I am not sure but I think that until recently, hill stations were the only places where people went for holidays to escape the summer heat, other than visiting relatives. So, these places had the aura of the exotic and special places around them. This is no longer the case. Now, only those on economy budget go to hill stations for honeymoons and even for special holidays; those who can -and more and more do- prefer to go to Mauritiaus, Singapore, Bangkok, London, etc. The kind who go to hill stations for honeymoon now did not know what honeymoon meant a generation ago.
The large number of temples does not necessarily mean that people are more religious; it could just mean that you-know-who did not get there to demolish the old temples. Himachal is actually doing very well after the trifurcation of Panjab, thanks in large measure to the enterprising Panjabis living in their midst. Literacy rates have shot up and horticulture and tourism have really taken off.

temporal:
Thanks. My next one will be probably on politics!

More later.
temporal:

The other Valley of God at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2986625.stm

Ras

Stuka, momos and chang at TibDhab area under ISBT clover leaf confusing flyover, one wrong turn and you reach Seelampur where you get half-way decent Bangladeshi kababs from thelas.

Dariba has momos and chang now?

After your 12th Board at Chail. Hmmm . . . I remember some youngsters dancing to Didi Didi that Arab song to stay warm in the cold, this would be October`93. Wazzat you? Thanks for helping push start our frozen Gypsy. If it is any consolation, a few hours after that I drove off the mountain and 300 metres down into a gorge,we survived only because the roll cage was tough.

A great travelogue by dost-mittar here.

Strange to think that the place is now best known for the

``Shimla Accord`` which neither side actually takes seriously anymore.

Ras

Hello Farzana, what there is to write about Mumbai, behn? I telling about Bombay no boom-a-boom. All pao-vada maska bun ragda pattice men. One time pass Gateway one time pass Juhu. Hungry having one snack, more hungry having two snakes. Fail film star all making eating shop Linking Road 300 rupees thin soup of salt water with bread hard outside soft inside.

Ending story no want sound Ahmed Madani, where is he?

Zzafar: You still get Momos and cheap Chang. Uss ke liyey u don`t have to go to Manali. Good old Dariba Kalan in Delhi has it.

I went to Simla after my class 12 Board exams with a bunch of friends who were basically Kanjars and spent all their time trying to hook up with local Tibetan women. We almost got beaten up in the Tibetan market after a friend asked a Tibeti if ``Seeta and Geeta`` are available. The guys seem to be like Dulla Bhatti`s friends. :)

I then decided to leave my kanjar friends and went of exploring on my own. Chail was very nice as well.

Great article sirji, just great. Thanks for reviving some of my memories, mis-spent youth spent pelting up and down those mountains.

a) On honey-mooners in pairs/groups, often it is about unmarried couples managing to get away, the girls would be allowed out only with ``sakhee``. Also, 4 travel cheaper than 2 when hiring cars etcetc.

b) For the full Maharaja of Patiala story, visit Chail. There was a time in history, say around the `70s or so, when every second pretty Sikh girl you met would claim to be a direct descendant. Probably were, too.

c) Scandal Point had more to do with the ladies of the Raj coming up in the summers with the mai-baap sarkar. Some of the said ladies of the sarkar being stuck in salubrious climes with husbands down in the plains made for a few scandals. If you ask around in Lakad Bazaar you will still get some amazing wood painting work depicting the artist`s impression of how the gora ladies and sahib enjoyed themselves, dehab mainly.

d) Did you have the sakar paranthas at Bhuntar, on the road drive from Shimla to Manali? Next time, you must!

e) The road from Manali to Rohtang Pass leads to a junction after you cross and come down. Turn left for the LOC, turn right for China. You can even do the full loop, and discover for yourself how these mountains came out of the oceans, and how political borders lose meaning as you meander along.

f) The Kalka-Shimla mountain narrow gauge railway is full of amazing facts. One of the many ``strange but true`` has to do with a tunnel built, I think near Barog, where the alignment got mis-matched. So they used the uphill end as a reservoir and started all over again. The Scottish engineers who built the alignment for the Cart Road (now unused), Kalka-Shimla highway and Railway apparently used local mystics who guided them about the best alignments. Till the `50s and `60s even the Swiss would visit this stretch to learn. Now we go there?

Farzana..I saw one of your snaps in some feature article in one of Indian newspapers..Outlook or some other I don`t remember.....you look very nice and graceful indeed...

Beautiful article Dost-Mittarji - reminded me graphically of the times I had gone to Kulu-Manali (no, no honeymoons, sorry). At that time Manali had this huge Tibetan temple in the middle, and the bazaar was run by Tibetans (you could feast on momos and...I admit...cheap chang). Zamana badal gaya, I guess. Btw, the snow peaks you would have seen in the Western Himalayas would have included Nanda Devi, Trishul, Hemkunt, Nanga Parbat...which is why the whole area is called the Devbhumi. I am looking forward to reading about your visit to Bombay (and to Nizamuddin).

All the best,

Zafar

dost-mittarji:
Chalo...since I have not been to these places, at least umdaa jhalak tau mil gayee... hope to visit Dharamshala soon though...

Aur haan...don`t tell me Mumbai is not worth a piece :)

Regards,
Farzana

Ref 12-Head #12

[North is still Hindi /urdu]

Nope. Pakistan is Urdu. North is Hindi, as in something like `smoke-spewing cart` for `train`.

[Hima= Snow
Aanchal = dupatta as in Chor do aanchal zamana kya kahega]

That would make it `Himanchal` not `Himachal`. Note that there is a new state called `Uttaranchal` so use your `aanchal` there.

[Now go watch Tamil movie of Simran ,Soundarya and Shakeela all fake names borrowed from NORTH]

Simran herself is borrowed from Punjab, not just her name. Shakeela, one would think, is borrowed from one of the -stans.

Dost-mitter

I like the way you bring out India`s colours, culture, history and geography interwoven into an enjoyable text.

Hill stations, cantonements, Malls, railway stations (with easy chairs where the hands further fold out), Dak Bungalows and the Company Baghs which the British left have the same flavour in Pakistan.

But in Pakistan, we have done considerable damage by destroying the statues of the British Nobilities and renaming the old historical names.

I wish we go back to the old names and restore the old buildings as they were. My guess is that India has done better in this regard.

Thanks again for taking me through a joyful trip through India.