Just 40 kms away from Kullu to the north, Manali is situated near the end of the valley on the National Highway leading to Leh. The landscape here is breath taking. One sees well-defined snow capped peaks, the Beas river with its clear water meanders through the town. On the other side are deodar and pine trees, tiny fields and fruit orchards. It is an excellent place for a holiday, a favorite resort for trekkers to Lahaul, Spiti, Bara Bhangal (Kangra), and Zanskar ranges. From temples to antiquity, to picturesque sight-seeing spots and adventure activities, Manali is a popular resort for all seasons and for all travellers.
Shimla
Shimla - Holiday Khoj
With all its intricacies, history seems to have been the mortar for every brick and stone that has built Shimla. As the summer capital of British India for well over a century it was the seat of one of the most powerful governments in the world. From its cedar-shaded heights, one fifth of the human race was ruled and the decisions made those decades ago affect our lives to the present day. The town of Shimla rose in the nineteenth
century when the Gurkha Wars came to an end in 1815-16 and the
victorious British decided to retain certain pockets as military
outposts and sanitaria. In 1822 the most rigorous of dandies and the
greatest of sticklers for form Captain Charles Pratt Kennedy, Political
Agent to the Hill States directed that a house be built for him at the
village whose name is variously reported as Sheyamalaya Shumlah, Shimlu
and Shemlah. Kennedy House led the vanguard of the hundred-odd houses
that were to scatter themselves by 1841 over every level or gently
inclining space. Lured by the climate and terrain scores of European
invalids began moving to the station and the only stipulation of the
local chief who owned the land was that no tree be cut or cattle
slaughtered.
In 1864 the Viceroy, John Lawrence anointed Shimla – then spelt
Simla, as the summer capital of British India. With Lawrence came the
Viceroy Council, the Imperial Secretariat, representatives of the Indian
princes and foreign envoys. As the town grew to become the workshop of
the Empire, an awed visitor observed, every pigeonhole cradled an embryo
of a war or death. Despite the fact that up to the time of Indian
independence in 1947, Shimla officially remained only the summer
capital, yet the Government spent more time in these hills than at the
actual capital Calcutta and later New Delhi. As the bearer of the
Viceregal sceptre this tiny pocket became the cynosure of British
Empire. Imperial grandeur, and all the panoply and trappings of power
came along for the ride. And there was a popular local saying that went,
“You cannot sleep the nights in Simla for the sound of grinding axes”. A
social whirl of parties, gymkhanas, balls, fancy fairs and affaires du
Coeur ensured that a heady mixture of scandal and intrigue constantly
wafted through the town.
Quite inevitably the freedom movement had a close connection with
Shimla. Ornithologist and former Civil Servant, Allan Octavian Hume
created the Indian National Congress which spearheaded the struggle
while living in the town. Stalwarts like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru,
C. Rajagopalachari, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and Maulana Azad
regularly visited Shimla. Major events that took place in the town were
the Simla Conference in 1942, the deliberations of the Cabinet on and
finally the decision to partition India.
And while the British Empire may have ceased to exist, its echoes
linger on in the architecture and ambience of this hill resort. The
elements of nostalgia may be strong but Shimla also has a youthful
vigour in its pace. Its easy accessibility and several other attractions
have made it one of India’s most popular hill resorts. There are many
unforgettable walks, day-excursions by the dozen, a variety of
convenient shopping and entertainment museums, and ice-skating in
winter. Shimla is the base or the unwinding point for numerous
exhilarating routes to the state interior.
Today the town is distinctive for its variety of architecture. It has
one of the rare surviving urban forests, made all the more unique, for
its species are temperate to alpine ones in what is otherwise a tropical
zone. And then Shimla’s famous Mall offers one of the longest stretches
of pedestrian shopping in the world.