Arrived in Dehradun on Wednesday evening. The journey from Delhi to Dehradun is very short. We arrived here on a chilly evening. The weather here is very cold. We were given accommodation in the Golden Jubilee hostel. The food is bland, la canteen style and it is mostly potato and paneer. The IIRS campus is beautiful with a number of trees inside. We could see fir and mango trees mostly. The lecture halls and auditorium are state of the art and well maintained. The theme of the seminar is space education for educators. I felt elated about being in this part of India Uttaranchal or Dev Bhoomi.
It is always a novel experience to visit new places and meet new people. I had two Punjabi and one Nepali in my water rocket team event. The sights of a new place and the landscape make interesting views and offer a different perspective of things. What I found most striking there were the hills and the tall trees. Hyma enjoyed the experience the more I suppose; especially the flight travel and the transfers between airports.
The ISRO-JAXA seminar was a great success. I received the certificate of participation from the dignitaries. As the seminar ended we started our itinerary, determined to have our share of Dehradun and the beautiful visions it had to offer. We started by worshipping Lord Shiva at the Tapakeshwar temple where sage Dronacharya is said to have done penance to be blessed with the birth of Ashwattama. It is a serene place.
We visited the local shops and the paltoon bazaar to buy some winter wear. We bought round shaped radishes which were unlike those we get down south but were sweet.
We visited Robbers cave- Gucchu Pani, IFRI. In Mussorie we visited the Company Gardens, Gun Hill point, Trolley, Gandhi Chowk and Mall road.
A visit to Dehradun would be incomplete without a description of the Robbers caves-Gucchu Pani. We walked through the cold water which was gushing down from a small hillock. Above us caves weathered for years by natural forces, closed the skyline and a thick canopy of trees lined the exterior of the caves. We could not venture beyond a point. But for the young and the bold, it is really an adventure.
Our next stop was the IFRI building. It is an architect’s delight with symmetrically arranged corridors and columns. The style is reminiscent of the colonial designs of the British era with large pagan columns and high ceilings with half-mooned windows. The entire structure supports the passage of air, ventilating from both ends and there are magnificent grounds in front, extending to more than half a kilometer. Our guide called it the Hawa Mahal. There are different kinds of trees and four different museums around and we went around acquainting ourselves.
After the Dehradun sightseeing part was over, we moved towards Mussorie –Pahadiyon ki Rani (The queen of hill stations). Mussorie is roughly 7000 feet above sea level. Owing to the high altitude and thick vegetation around, it is very cold there.
We visited the Mall Road, Gandhi Chowk, Company Garden and Gun Hill Point. The clouds hang over Mussorie and the mercurial Himalayan fog ascends and descends at will. I had to keep my hands inside my pant pocket as exposure was nearly freezing them. We had a cup of hot tea on Gun Hill point and it certainly revived my spirits. A memorable experience of my Mussorie visit was the sighting of the snow capped Himalayas, and I felt ecstatic. Travel made this possible and my visit opened my thoughts about India’s villages and towns.
I felt my teeth chattering and my words faltering. I was forced to put my hands in my trousers pockets and hope for a quick climb down from Gun Hill Point. Later as we descended, I was witness to the most beautiful sunset of my life. The misty sun was radiant enough to distill color into a blue evening sky and the result was a vivacious violet backdrop in which I could spot shades of grey, blue, yellow, white and green. Hyma wanted to taste the sweet corns getting fried on hot coals. I saw milling crowds roaming the streets, in smart fashion and high spirits. I tried to comprehend the spirit of Mussorie, rather perceive it or inhale it. What it had acquired from the years of British in-habitation and the life of the mountain people, the demands of the traveler, the ethos, the ways of the elite and the common and above all the looming presence of the immanent Himalayas on this landscape.
I was reminded of Ruskin Bond and what he speaks of about Mussorie in his short stories. In the end I felt it was vain. You can only know a place, or feel it but not entirely comprehend it. Was it not wrong on my part to want to possess it or appropriate it?
That night we went to a mall in Dehradun; the strangeness or the remoteness of a place, always adds to the novelty of an experience. We wandered around the Pacific mall in Dehradun. Back in the hostel, a cold dinner of soup, tomato rice, puris and custard was awaiting us.
Next morning we set out to Hrishikesh, the abode of the Gods. I felt it should have been a little more clean, devoid of squalor and dirt. The serene and mighty Ganges is the main attraction and we walked across the Lakshman Jhula. The descending breeze brings a whiff of mountain freshness and an icy clasp. We looked to shop for certain things but the only thing the place is known for is Rudrakshas and we had no interest in that. We had Parotha and tea in a local hotel for breakfast.
When it was time to move, we bid good bye to our driver and escort Bunty at the airport and boarded the flight to Delhi to connect to the Delhi-Vijayawada flight, ending our Dehradun trip.