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Shoghi Chronicles: Rolling mists, doodles and a boost of confidence

Earlier this month, I traveled out for work. This wasn’t your usual work trip, but a retreat to help some of us unplug from the humdrum routine to think of more strategic matters. And what other place but the mighty Himalayas to make the brain go into overdrive. Fresh and clean air and lush greenery, occasional showers and the mist rolling into the conference room…could one ask for more?

I had my own personal challenge to overcome on this trip. I’ve recently undergone surgery on my knee to reconstruct a torn ligament. Weeks have gone by with limited movement, extreme caution, pain. Shoghi (located a little short of Shimla in Himachal Pradesh) signified RISK….and risk brings in a certain excitement, an element of challenge.

When we reached Shoghi after a train ride and a taxi drive steeply uphill, the clouds were building up and threatening to rain. The walk from the reception to the room was steeply uphill and I laboured upward, taking one step at a time, praying the ground would not be slippery. I texted home: This was a bad decision!

But over the next two days, I learnt to negotiate the slopes. I set my own pace. I asked for support and help. In between the most productive work discussions, I doodled furiously, as I do when my brain is on overdrive. The adrenalin was pumping through me and the confidence (which had taken a wee hit in the weeks before though my optimist hadn’t!) went up and up.

A change of scene can do wonders and the Shoghi sojourn proved that for me. I returned calmer and surer of myself, snapped out of my ‘patient’ mode and stopped cutting myself slack on account of by health. I re-introduced elements of my regular routine (dropping kids to school, the little errands and household chores). I feel so much more hopeful now.

Sharing some misty images and doodles from the trip…..

Posted in Personal, Travel & Experiences

A place of refuge & reflection: Christ Church, Shimla

Jun 6

Posted by ramblinginthecity

Having been to convent schools for many many years, kneeling in a chapel or a church is almost second nature. I therefore stepped into Christ Church in Shimla on the pretext of sheltering from the wind and rain, but actually to relive the experience of being in a place of Christian worship.

This is the second oldest church in North India after St. John’s in Meerut. The brass plates screwed onto the wall tell the story of the times this structure has lived through. Infants who died of malaria, old British couples who died in Shimla having lived their entire life there, Indian Christians who lived their family life with the Church as their anchor and so on.

Kneeling there with Aadyaa and staring at the familiar altar and the impressive organ, I tried to explain to her the bare essentials of Jesus Christ’s story. I need to tell her more, and add to her collection of religious and mythological heroes among whom Krishna and Balram, Ram and Lakshman, Hanuman and Arjun and of course her namesake Durga are all time favorites!

Posted in Travel & Experiences

1 Comment

Tags: Christ Church, Christianity, colonial era, heritage, Shimla, worship

An unexpected splash of art and heritage: Gaiety Theatre, Shimla

Jun 6

Posted by ramblinginthecity

Heritage always turns me on, but more than pristinely renovated heritage structures that are essentially inactive, it is particularly exciting to see heritage in use. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to walk into Gaiety Theatre in Shimla and see it buzzing with a group of local artists hard at work. We wandered through the small intimate space watching a range of artworks being created in front of our very eyes.

Gaiety Theatre was first opened in 1887, in Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Year. It was designed as part of the Town Hall complex and was the hub of cultural activity in the city during colonial times. Designed by the well known English architect Henry Irwin, it is a Gothic building and can seat over 300 people. I learnt from another blogger’s post that this is one of six remaining special Gothic theatres in the World! Known for excellent acoustics, the recent renovation of the building is tastefully done and keeps intact the originally designed screen.

Chancing upon the theatre while walking down the Mall Road

The solid stonework is a pleasure to see

Inside

Artists at work

Niches and artists…

The piece I really liked

Gaeity theatre is part of the Town Hall complex

Gaiety theatre is part of the Town Hall complex

The art event we came across was being held in one of the side halls and later in the evening we were happy to see a buzzing crowd outside the hall, awaiting the inauguration of the public exhibition of the artworks. The Shimla Summer Festival was just concluding, which hosted several performances in the theatre.

An excited crowd awaits the opening of the exhibition

A parting glimpse of the magnificent details of this building

Posted in Arts

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Tags: art exhibition, art scenario, artists, Gaeity theatre, Gothic, heritage, himachal, Shimla, stone architecture

Haunted house in Shimla! #fantasy #heritage

Jun 5

Posted by ramblinginthecity

Wandering a bit off the Mall Road in Shimla stands a dilapidated rambling huge house. It must have been stunningly beautiful in its hey days and one can see that the owners have tried to rebuild the front porch and one side of the house at some point. But at this time it stands forlorn and abandoned, very much the quintessential haunted house! I’m almost glad they didn’t build further. From what I can see, they would have probably totally modernized the building.

I loved staring at the house, clicking these pictures and imagining the life of this lovely old building. In reality these are two separate structures on what appears to be a single property, but for fantasy’s sake let’s imagine them to be a single haunted house and enjoy the ghost stories running around inside our heads!

Posted in Travel & Experiences

5 Comments

Tags: architecture, haunted house, heritage, house, Shimla

What the kids loved (or hated) in Shimla

Jun 4

Posted by ramblinginthecity

It’s a very simple list, seen from the eyes of 6-year old Aadyaa. Along with her friend Myrah who is a year younger, the children’s’ perspective on the vacation was an important one for us, for keeping them in good humor was the vital ingredient in our holiday! Here’s my attempt to reconstruct our day out in Shimla from their perspective!

#1 The mandatory horse ride

Yes, the mandatory horse ride must be ticked off the list in a place like Shimla. I did it in Mussourie when I was perhaps the same age and here is Aadyaa astride Badal, the horse who wore her “kathak ghungroos” around his neck!

#2 Roadside eating

From pastries to the local phalsa fruit, the kids had fun demanding on-the-go food at regular intervals. Besides the energy shots, the food served as able distractions from the changing weather!

#3 Picture posing

For some inane reason, the kids would yell “Aaloo parantha!” and “Pasta!” each time someone asked them to pose for a pic. It gave us all a hearty laugh each time and I loved the way they infected us grown-ups with their wonderful inanity. Check out their wide grins!

#4 Battling the winds and the rain

I don’t think the children expected the cold winds and the rain. Aadyaa had a windcheater on to help her out, but she found the wind quite uncomfortable. Her legs were cold in the rain and she has to ask me to buy her new pajamas in the mall. Myrah too needed to buy a thicker jacket.

We spent quite a lot of time walking in the drizzle and then taking shelter wherever possible when the rain increased. One time it was the crowded porch of the post office, another time the porch of the church. Yet another time it was a long long wait under a sturdy old tree. They didn’t mind the latter too much as they had space to stretch and play and we passed the time singing rhymes and laughing!

#5 The monkey menace!

The monkeys were everywhere. Despite several instructions about not looking at them, ignoring them, not being scared etc etc, it was hard for the children to not worry about the monkeys. I was scared that Aadyaa might try to be too friendly since she loves animals. In the crowded part of the city, we managed to avoid the monkeys, but on a lonely stretch they managed to terrorize little Myrah and snatch away a bag we were carrying. From then on, monkeys became Enemy no.1 on the trip!

Posted in Travel & Experiences

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Tags: children, hillstation, Himalayas, kids, Shimla, vacation

From dread to delight in Shimla, the Queen of the Hills

It was a rude shock getting back the heat of the plains after a weekend in Shimla and Mashobra. It rained quite a bit while we were there and though it cramped our sightseeing attempts a little, we weren’t complaining about the cold at all! A couple of us had to acquire more clothing, a jacket here, a pair of pajamas there, a small matter in the joy of being in the Queen of the Hills, Shimla.

I’d only been to the famed hill station as a very small child and had no memories of it at all. It seemed strange to me to have lived for so many years in the environs of Delhi and never having been to the most popular holiday destination of my fellow citywallas! So I grabbed the chance.

What struck me most getting into Shimla is the sheer density of the city and how precariously positioned it is on the massive mountains. As my friend Henri said in his comment on my Instagram pics from Shimla, it is a “disaster waiting to happen”! Certainly, it is a city run wild, with its older cramped parts intermingled with the recent multistorey additions, hotels and government offices all crowding together helter skelter.

The sheer density of Shimla hits you as you drive in

Much of the building stock is old and diaplidated

The city rests helter skelter in the midst of the most stunning hillside scenery

We stayed at the Club Mahindra property in Mashobra, which is a quiet village ahead of Shimla. When in town, we parked and took the elevator up to the Mall, which is the only sensible thing to do! Because is it entirely predestrianized, the Mall in Shimla (despite the summer crowds) has a certain old world charm. I enjoyed the old colonial buildings and the ‘sense of place’ in the city. The weather, which turned from rainy and windy to sunny and bright in the few hours we were there, showed us the city in many different lights. I don’t want to crowd this post with too much info and I’d rather highlight some of our experiences separately. But here are a few glimpses!