Excursions During
Summer Vacations
Part-I
As most of our relatives resided
in Punjab so we had to visit this state once or twice an year. It was decided
by our family to go on excursions during summer vacations. First of all we
decided to visit the State of Uttarakhand which was earlier Uttar Pradesh. The
route that was charted out was to start from my home town Moga in Punjab and then
via Ambala and Yamunagat to make a night stay at Haridwara. And next day to
proceed to Rishikesh and to reach Dehradun by evening and to spend the next day
in seeing Dehradun and then proceed to the Mussorie, which is known as the Queen
of the Hills. Our tenants who were living in our house at Moga S. Surjeet
Singh, who was a Government teacher also decided to join us on this trip along
with his family. In fact it was he who organized everything including vehicle
to be used for the trip from Moga. As we were ten members including my parents,
my wife and two kids and four members of Surjeet Singh’s family so we hired
Tata Sumo Vehicle, a SUV of Tata Motors from Moga, so that we could travel
comfortably and conveniently. So we started from Moga early in the morning.
Here I would like to mention that our driver was a very fat person whose name
was Nishu. But he proved to be quite efficient and skillful driver seeing his
obesity. We reached at Haridwara in the evening after a brief stop at a road
side hotel cum farm where the water was flowing from the tubewell after Ambala
that is after crossing Punjab and entering Uttar Pradesh. First of all my father
decided to visit his nephew who was working at BHEL in the township nearby
Haridwara. So we went to his residence situated in the colony of the plant. Two
people who were overjoyed to meet each other was my father’s nephew Harnam
Singh and our driver Nishu as both of them were equally fat and obese. Harnam
Singh after serving hot tea and snacks at his home insisted that we should stay
in his house for the night but my father did not want to trouble his family so
he wanted that we should stay in some inn at Hardwara and enjoy the evening
view of majestic river Ganga. Ultimately Harnam Singh budged and giving respect
to my father’s age he agreed to my father’s plan but he accompanied us to
Hardwara though he had made complete arrangements for our stay in the colony.
At Hardwara we contacted Pawan Dham, an inn whose founders belonged to Moga and
we easily got accommodation. In the evening we visited Har Ki Pauri to get the
majestic view of River Ganga and
alluring view of its arti from the bridge. In the morning both my
parents took a holy dip in River Ganga, particularly my mother was overjoyed as
one of her hand was held by her elder grandson Ishupal who was studying in
Class VIII and the other hand was held by her younger grandson Shivpal who was
studying in Class VI. All of us also took bath in this holy river. My wife was
quite fond of moving in the water of the river. After the morning bath at River
Ganga we went to see Mansa Mata whose temple was situated on mountain and the
only way to reach there was on rope way trolley. It was a novel experience for
my family as the only time we were in the air was on a short flight at Kota
airport at Dusshera mela along with my parents and sister. My wife insisted to
sit alone with me on the trolley while my father wanted to accompany her and
the children. My wife succeeded in pushing me to the vacant trolley that came
our way to the surprise of my parents and our tenants. The rope way journey
gave breath taking view of green valley and tall mountains covering the temple.
After visiting the temple we hurriedly moved to Hrishikesh and seeing the
famous Lakshman Jhoola, which is a rope bridge across River Ganga we moved
quickly to reach Dehradun so as to find a suitable shelter at Dehradun before
getting dark. At Dehradun first of all we went to see the place Premnagar in
Dehradun where my father had resided for a couple of years while working at
Indian Military Academy as Physics demonstrator. Both my parents were overjoyed
to see the place where many fond memories of their youth still resided. They
were overjoyed to see the family still residing whom they knew. The head of the
family was a gentleman nick named Gaddi as he was born in a train while his
mother was travelling from Pakistan to India after the partition in 1947. This
gentleman was a young boy of 14 years when my parents left Dehradun. They were
pleased to see old places and old people after a gap of nearly quarter of a
century. We went to a Gurudwara but we were unable to find accommodation there
though that was historical Gurudwara that was founded by Guru Ram Rai, elder
son of Guru Hargobind ji, but he was thrown out by his father as he compromised
with the holy Guru Granth Sahib while interpreting a verse before the then
Mughal Emperor. I was surprised to see the shortage of water in that town that
was cradle of number of rivers and streams. However we succeeded in finding
accommodation at Agarwal Dharamshala near the railway station. Before calling
the day we visited Indian Military Academy- the place where my father has
worked for nearly a decade. While moving through its campus my father came
across two officers who had been working and staying there and who had been my
father’s students at Sainik School Chittorgarh Rajasthan. One person took us to
his home and served us cold drink while the other promised us to assist in
seeing the military museum of Indian Military Academy. Next day at appointed
time all of us reached IMA and the officer was already waiting for us in Green
Gipsy. Our car followed it till it stopped near the Last step of Chetwode Hall
of IMA, that converted a Cadet to officer as soon as he crossed the last step
successfully on the day of Passing out parade. Officer accompanying us Lt. Col.
Lakshman Singh took us to the museum that had large life size portraits of
former commandants of IMA and other prominent military leaders of free India
like Field Marshal Manekshaw, Lt. Gen Harbaksh Singh, Lt. Gen Gorbinder Singh
and the like. This museum also housed the pistol of Pakistan army commander Lt.
Gen Niazi when he surrendered before Indian commander Lt. Gen J.S. Aurora
during Indo-Pak conflict of 1971 that gave birth to a new nation Bangladesh. After
seeing IMA thoroughly the other destination was its neighbouring institute Forest
Research Institute or FRI as it is popularly known. But that institute is too
huge as it is premier institute connected to Forest Sciences and Botany. We
cold just get a running view of some of its museum as we were in a hurry to
reach a spot of natural beauty that was a few Kilometres outside Dehradun known
as Sahastradhara which was a water fall and pool of Sulphur water which had
curative properties for skin related maladies. Here too we took a long bath and we even had
snaps of bathing in this pool of water. Tired we returned to our shelter to rest
for the night. In the morning we proceeded to Mussorie which was about 22 kms
from Dehradun but it had a mountaineous and winding terrain. As we reached
Mussorie we came to know that only local taxis were allowed to take tourists to
the spots, so we felt a bit cheated and duped. It was the monopoly of local
taxi operators that was robbing the tourists from getting the pleasure of
seeing the pleasant places. As we moved upward the road was getting narrower
and meaner and steeper. So we decided to leave our vehicle and decided to walk.
Our information about Mussorie was incomplete. Whatever knowledge we had of
Mussorie was provided by our parents and in their days in the sixties of
twentieth century there was only one tourist spot and that was Lal Tibba ( Red
Plateau). As we were walking on the mountaineous road we observed that one road
mark indicated the residence of famous Indo-Anglican author Ruskin Bond’s
residence. After walking for an hour we reached Lal Tibba which was a high
point from where a retired army serviceman showed snow capped mountains of
Himalayas and Tibet (Indo-China Boarder) through the binoculars. On our way
back we visited the local gurudwara too and came to know that they had quilts
also for the people who wanted to stay in the Gurudwara. When we moved
downwards back towards Dehradun it was already dark and lights of Mussorie
appeared like shining starts in the sky. Next day we proceeded back to our
respective places. As my summer vacation was going to end so we got off from
the taxi at Ambala and moved towards Delhi, while our tenants moved towards
Moga, while we hired taxi to reach Delhi and from Delhi moved to Jaipur and
after staying at Jaipur at my sister’s residence proceeded to our residence at
Chittorgarh.
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