Shimla - The Queen Of Hills !

Bone-chilling cold crept up  my legs into my torso. My teeth started chattering when I suddenly realized that the temperature had gone far below zero degree Celsius. I switched on the ignition of my car and turned on the heater to full blast before my legs became numb.

                                    This is how I was welcomed to Shimla in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India, in the month of January. Luckily, my car started immediately against my strong belief that it would not in such cold weather, as, that was the first time I had driven my Volkswagon Polo to a hill station in winters. I woke my college mate up who had coiled like a viper on the conductor seat of our car under the common blanket we had been sharing for past four hours. Being taller and heavier between us, my legs had to bear the wrath of winters as most of the time they had not been covered. At that moment I cursed myself for making such a rash decision of traveling to Shimla in the evening. The reason for not doing that in the first place was the weather forecast, requesting tourists to turn back as Shimla had had six to ten feet of snow after twenty-five years of gap, which, had led to the closure of most of the highways leading towards the city. There had also been an announcement about the power cuts and cuts in the water supply.

                        Despite repeated warnings, we made our way up to Solan which was approximately midway between Shimla and Chandigarh. After reaching there we saw a convoy of cars descending down the hill as they had been turned back from Shimla due to lack of parking space or hotel rooms in some cases(mostly families). Yeah! we were so rash that those warnings and obvious signs meant nothing to us. We kept on going uphill. Being confident of our young age and the ration in our car we thought we could make it. The first sign (which should have been the last) of letting it go and resting midway for us was - roads full of snow. Other obvious signals were long traffic jams and also my car slipping due to the sleet of ice on the highway. Dismissing the fact that Shimla and surrounding cities in the radius of 20 kilometers were completely booked, we confidently kept on climbing. It was very risky and stupid on our part.

                                                                       Finally, what made us stop was the exhaustion from the activities of the previous day, as it was midnight already and we had been making an average speed of 20 km/hr only. D-Pal was the name of the lodge where I parked my car and was very politely suggested to sleep in it as the lodge had already been booked. This brings us back to the very starting of my story where I was cursing my rash decisions and my legs being numb.

                                                                When I got up it was 5 am. Got out and drank a whole can of Redbull in minus four-degree Celsius. Still unfazed from the dramatic events of the previous night we decided to carry on our journey forward. The major reason for doing so was the courage and determination which resides in you once you are done with medical school. No matter how stupid or tough your exam is you have to write it and pass. So, we decided to go at a very slow speed with our eyes and ears open. To our surprise, most of the way was clear of traffic except snowmaking highway a very narrow road to travel. There were instances like this -:

Yeah! snow, trees, and poles falling on the moving vehicles. This happened just ten kilometers away from Shimla, so obviously, we were adamant to make it and get stuck in the traffic jam again. 

                                                                           As soon as we entered the city we were informed by the traffic police to park our car in the middle of the road as the whole highway was jam-packed and there was just some space left to walk. You might be thinking all these risks for what! To answer that question let me present - Exhibit One -:

That's the view from my car's window where we finally parked. This literally made us feel that we were in heaven or in clouds as it was our first time to experience snow. Thanks to the modern technology we were also able to capture many HD shots (click it)  of the landscape surrounding Shimla and the valley as well. 

                                                      On the very first day, we walked around twenty thousand steps in the snow with our backpacks on our shoulders. Although it was very tiring but worth every step taken. One thing that I learnt from this trip was that melted ice is not at all easy to walk on as I slipped at least 150 times (counted) in two days. We visited many Tourists Attractions (Click It) in the city. 

                                                                           Despite being a main attraction of Himachal there was a scarcity of water and food supplies due to heavy snow and an unprepared municipal corporation. So that was the main problem during that period, which, also made me realize, how dependent I had become on technology to enjoy in such a beautiful place.  Thanks to Airbnb we were able to find a good place to stay the night. The view from our balcony was as amazing as other places shown by me.

 This visit really made me understand why Britisher would call Shimla - The Queen of hills.

                                                                          In a nutshell, if anyone of you is planning a trip in the months of December or January for  North India then Shimla should be at least in top five of your choices.  

PS - I urge all of the readers to  

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