Delhi and Lansdowne

On Thursday February 21 the Air India flight from Andal was delayed by four hours (mercifully they have become smart and considerate enough to notify us the evening before by sms) – my first experience here – so I arrived in Delhi only in the afternoon. I bought a smart card and negotiated the Airport Express and then the Yellow Line to arrive home all by myself: I had determined not to use a hired car. If Pupu stays in Delhi for some more time, I must learn to move around the city normally, meaning by auto and metro. The Delhi Metro is a delight anyway.

Pupu arrived from her campus in the evening, and the next two days were spent the way we like best, sleeping, eating savouries, watching all kinds of silly movies and videos, walking around and chatting away to glory about every subject under the sun…

At daybreak on Sunday we took the Dehradun Shatabdi Express (a pathetic misnomer, seeing that it takes more than six hours to travel 310 km) to Hardwar. My old friend Munna was waiting with his car. We paid a quick visit to Hrishikesh and Lakshmanjhula – Pupu had been there last in December 2008, and her memories had become hazy. We saw some white tourists picking up litter at the riverside: shame on us. Then after lunch we went off in the opposite direction. The road upto Najibabad was in rather poor condition, and there were jams on the way, so it was evening and pitch dark before we arrived at Lansdowne, at about 5500 feet above sea level. Pupu found the last part of the journey rather eerie, it being the first-ever drive in the dark through forested hills for her.

The hotel was plush, and they gave us a suite for three for what I felt was a very reasonable price – it being off season helped enormously. Dinner was delicious, and then off to sleep, with extra blankets piled on just in case: one silly weather channel had warned that the temperature might drop below zero (don’t trust advice from the Net too much. Google Maps has a tendency to find the shortest route to everywhere, and manages to push you into narrow bumpy alleys, sometimes blocked by ongoing construction work, even, just to shave off a couple of km of driving).

Late rising next morning, a steaming bath and breakfast, then we went sightseeing. Lansdowne, like Chakrata and Kasauli we’d seen earlier, is basically a little military cantonment town, and so very cleanly maintained, with lavish greenery all around, and multiple rows of rolling hills to feast your eyes upon. Lansdowne was originally called Kaludanda, which in the local dialect means Black Hill, before the sahibs found it, settled it and renamed it after the then viceroy. We did a lot of walking, sucking in great lungfuls of the crisp, clean air, which is the only way to enjoy the mountains, of which we can never have enough. We took in the army’s Durwan Singh Museum, named after the first Indian recipient of the Victoria Cross (during World War I) which taught us a lot of history about Garhwal (did you know that Kotdwar nearby is the place where King Bharata, after whom the country is named, supposedly spent his childhood at the ashram of the sage Kanva?) and the glorious Garhwal Rifles. Then there was Bhulla Tal, a tiny but pretty park, beside which there is a café which served us hot aloo paratha with achaar and dahi, and Tiffin Top – or Tip n Top – which offered panoramic views, and where they have built the new Tourist Lodge. Back via St. John’s Church early in the afternoon, after which we went for another walk, then bathed in the slowly fading sunshine on the hotel balcony, working up a good appetite for dinner. I could have been in heaven.

We left for the trip back a little after 11 next morning, and after a brief stopover at the Siddhabali temple at Kotdwar and Khera Punjabi dhaba for lunch, we arrived at Hardwar at around 3:45 p.m. With Munna waiting placidly, we went strolling along the riverside I know so well. Could hardly believe a whole year had flashed by since I was last there. It had been getting overcast, and Lord Shiva played a joke on us by whistling up a storm along with freezing rain, though it didn’t last long: we sheltered and snacked at the Chotiwala restaurant near Har ki Pauri, and we were at the railway station by 5. On the way back the train ran faster, and they fed us better. We were at New Delhi station by 10:50, and home by 11:30.

Half the next day was spent in bed, and the afternoon, walking around a couple of parks, including one at Mehrauli. Prithiviraj Chauhan was there once, followed by Muhammad Ghori. And so well kept, so well kept. More chatting, an early dinner, and we turned in at ten, because I had to get up at three. IGI T3 was swarming, but thanks to the recently installed self check-in kiosks (Air India has been tardy in doing this, but better late than never) and eight or ten gates functioning at the security check-in counter, the process was quick and hassle-free. The flight took off perfectly on schedule this time round, and arrived – through thick cloud cover and not a little turbulence – before time! I was home by 7:50, and it’s been raining off and on all day, so it is almost chilly. I decided to finish writing this post before the day is out. Tomorrow is the first of March, and it will be time to get ready for another admission rush.

This was not really a travel post. I keep pining for my daughter – five or six weeks and I have had enough – and every time we meet, we try to pack in a little trip. Delhi offers so many lovely places not too far away to pop off to. This time again, for both of us, the hills were calling,  and the trip was just right, short and sweet. Much of the time we had was spent on laughter and stories, and planning excitedly for the future. If Pupu stays on in Delhi, I might be travelling there so often that staff at the airports will begin to recognize me! And things could have been much worse: I can travel in comfort, and swiftly. Today I went from home to home in a little more than four hours – it takes me longer to go to my house in Kolkata. If in a couple of years’ time Pupu is actually working in Delhi, and we have daily, perhaps twice daily flights from Durgapur by then, I might work part time both there and here: that will really be fun! So the Lord be praised; I am looking forward to certain things again.

[for a few photos, click here]