let's start from Shimla then... the summer capital of the British Raj, now the capital of Himachal Pradesh in the North-West Himalayas.
Those witty Britons had chosen a very charming place indeed where to spend their summer. Perfect to cool down body temprature, much less effective in with colonising moods, the Vice-Roy chose this city built at some 2130 meters on the level of the sea to rule British India during the long Indian summers from 1864 onwards. The telegraph and the railway did the rest, I guess.
This is the middle of nowhere, 5 hours (115km) by train on a narrow rail track leaving the plain in Chandighar, the capital of Punjab, and reaching Shimla shifting from one peak to the other.
In British times it was named the "Queen of Hills".
I did feel a bit in some Swiss summer resort, people wearing very smartly, no dust, empty streets, cottage-like architecture and churches all over.
very civilesed indeed, gosh, maybe to much for my new Delhiite civic ethos
but how relaxing and charming is this? big breakfast and little walk up-hill with sage encounters on the way up
Of course we wouldn't be in India without a fantastic, thriving, caotic and crowded market
But we wouldn't either be in British India former capital without discovering the Vice-Roy had an enchanting Scottish-baroque castle built on the peak of the mountain. It is absolutely amaizing to see how you can have British style flower gardens and oaks and all that is needed to forget to be in India. Also, in this very same surreal Scottish castle the Partition between Pakistan and Inda was signed in 1947.
But some Indians had very good relationships with English people, look for instance Jawaharlal Nerhu having a great laugth with Lady Mountbatten and her husband, the last Viceroy of British India
back to reality both in time and space, here is the next Home Minister of India, as he told me. Well, maybe not the very next one but this guy, a politician from Shimla, knew of international politics a real awful lot. Unfortunately, we shared only two dozen of english words, but the chat was great anyways.
Next episode in Rajasthan...more soon and on
