An improbable place

Much of the time in Landaur I kept thinking that it was such an improbable place.  It seems even more Brigadoon-like now that I left the place a week ago and am back in the U.S.

Where else will you find a thriving community around 7000 feet in elevation, with a view to the higher peaks of 20,000+ feet, and a view to the Doon to the south.

Where else are houses, stores, and hotels built on steep hillsides - some of which are only accessible by footpath. And where else are there such improbable roads for motor vehicles (that little line running across the hillside in the 3d picture below is the road we took coming back from the Aglar valley to Mussoorie).

Where else are so many boarding schools? Among the older schools are, of course, Woodstock, but also Oak Grove, Wyneberg-Allen, St. George's, Waverly Convent, two Tibetan schools, Guru Nanak Academy, Mussoorie Modern, and many, many others.

Where else (except another Indian hill station) is a place infused with a memory of the Raj and of the now much dispersed Anglo-Indian population: settings and lives so gently described by the author Ruskin Bond.

Where else in India are churches still such prominent landmarks, but likely now outnumbered by mosques, temples, and gurdwaras.

Where else do dahlias and geraniums grow wild ... where you can look straight across into a tree and see a scarlet minivet or look up at the underside of an Himalayan griffon with its 10-foot wingspan ...

Where else do you find a place that captures so many hearts .... but I am getting nostalgic so shall stop!

Gratitude

I am home now: while I had a great trip I was really ready to get back into my home surroundings and routine.

I am thankful for the pilots of the Delta/KLM hop from Detroit to Cleveland that they landed safely after a very bumpy descent into the wind and rain of Hurricane Sandy - and that the flight wasn't cancelled.  That may have been one of the last flights into Cleveland until this afternoon or tomorrow because of the storm.

I am thankful for friends S&B for meeting me in Cleveland and driving me home through the wind, rain, and darkness!

I am thankful for the wonderful group of folks who came together at the Hanifl Center for the reunion, and to M for organizing the gathering.

I am thankful for the wonderful services provided by Uday Travel in India.

I am thankful to find my home intact, the cats well cared for by neighbors & the Cat Sitter Lady, and the furnace and the washing machine still working.

I still need to start up the car, adjust to the time zone, and get over the cold that I developed towards the end of the trip.

Leaving the hills

On Tuesday afternoon five of us took a taxi to Dehra Dun.  The trip seems so much faster now with the lower Tehri Road plus a short cut near Wyneberg-Allen School and Jharipani.  We stopped at at the FabIndia store for some serious shopping: the store does have beautiful garments and fabrics!  Then we had a dinner of biryani, mattar paneer, aloo gobi, naan, aloo paratha, and gulab jamuns at President Hotel.  Then on to the Dehra Dun train station where we were somewhat early.  We were able to get settled in our sleeping berths in the Mussoorie Express well before the train started its 11 hour trip to Delhi.  I slept some, but not as soundly as I had hoped with the comforting and familiar rocking of the rail car. The sleeping berth was a bit hard, but otherwise adequate with the sheets, blanket, and pillow provided. There are clean Indian-style toilets at the end of the car.

A month ago, travelling from Delhi to Dehra, I took the faster Shatabdi train, which travels during the day.  I had written down detailed notes about the trip, intending to blog about it, but never did.  I especially enjoyed watching out the window after the train went through Saharanpur, when we got closer to the Siwaliks and the rails started leaving the Gangetic plain and entering the higher terai, Siwalik, and Dun areas. Before that, much of the view was of villages and sugar cane fields; after that one enters some forested areas with large stream beds lined with smooth, round rocks. The route stops at Haridwar and Rishikesh, so a number of Indian and European tourists disembarked at one or the other of those two stations.

The weather in Delhi on Wednesday was wonderful - they had had rain the previous day, plus the temperature in the hills had dropped - so mid-day it was maybe as high as 80F.  Many of the stores and restaurants were closed or open only limited hours as it was Dusshera. We did go to Cottage Industries again for one last shopping trip, and found our way to the Tibetan shops in front of the Imperial Hotel (a bit hard to get to as that section of Janpath is all torn up and we had to walk way around the far side of the Hotel to gain access.

We had use of several rooms at the YWCA during the day, so were able to rest, wash, and repack before being taken to the airport in the evening. My flight took off on time - but I was asleep before take off! We landed in Amsterdam about 10 minutes early, was met by S&T, and able to take another 3 hours sleep at their house before taking off on a walk.

Top of the Hill again

We took an early morning walk up to the top of the hill - our last chance to see the snows - and the full range was visible in all its glory.

We then walked to Rokeby Manor for a tasty and leisurely breakfast. Rokeby was once a boarding house for single women missionaries of the Methodist Church.  Now it is a nice hotel with the old house renovated and restored.

On to the end of the chukkar past First Estate for the best view of the snows .. glorious!

Then down from St. Paul's to Mullingar in order to see Doma's Inn, painted in bright Tibetan style.  The inn is run by Tensing (Momo) & Tsering Nima in honor of  his mother, Doma, whom many of us knew as children. Doma is still living, and was up on the hillside for a while, but I missed seeing here.

Back to the school for lunch and then to the Hanifl Center where we are resting and packing up for our afternoon taxi back down to Dehra Dun and overnight train to Delhi.

Old friends

Yesterday I had the joy of spending a few precious hours with a childhood friend and his wife.  They drove about 7 hours to come see me. I stayed in their home when I was in Allahabad 20 years ago; in a house in which my family had lived in 50 years ago. The man in the photo and I grew up in circumstances in which our lives were somewhat intertwined, in ways I won't go into here .. but I owe a debt of gratitude to him and especially to his mother for her loving support of me and my siblings when we were young.

Random views

Our visit here is drawing to a close and I am feeling the tug of what has become home for me in the US. 

Here are some random photos of the school and the hillside.  The first bunch are closeups of steps that are imprinted in my memory.

And more ...

Tibetan settlement

Many Tibetans fled their homeland starting in 1959, and many came to the Mussoorie area.  There is a thriving Tibetan community, cultural center, and several schools on the western end of Mussoorie.  On Saturday morning we took taxis there (about an 8 mile trip) and were given a tour of the area.  We saw the main school which educates children through highschool, and also a small vocational school which trains in tailoring and painting (for both areas, training is in both traditional Tibetan art and clothing and in modern/western styles). We made a brief visit to the Buddhist temple there also.

This is the junior library at the school. One of the murals is of TinTin in Tibet.

Some of the children are orphans, or their parents work elsewhere in India, or their parents are still in Tibet but they have gotten their children to India for a better life and more opportunity: these children are housed in group homes with a Tibetan couple as house-parents.  There is much emphasis on retaining and transmitting Tibetan language and culture, so that this is not lost in the diaspora. The photo is of a group of these homes.