Almora revisited

Almora revisited

Almora is a city in kumaon hills of Uttarakhand. Located on a ridge, it was inhabited long before the British came and built hill stations. Nestled within higher peaks of the Himalaya, Almora enjoys a year-round mild temperate climate.

In my childhood days we  visited Almora often in the summers during our school  holidays. It was fascinating to be in the cool blue hills. It was a different world from the dull landscape of the planes of Uttar Pradesh.

Our grandfather lived somewhere mid point on the mall road in Almora in a double storey house with a court yard. I  think it is called Chausar. Unlike the flat RCC roof  houses in modern Almora, in those days houses there had slate roofs which kept the houses cool in summers and warm in winters.

Grand father's house was also slate roofed house and it was just below the road level. We would often climb up a few  wide stone steps to the road and with a two anna coin buy big pahari kakri (kheera, cucumber) from the man who sat under the small  roadside tree there .He used to  cut the  big kheeras (kakri) into long equal pieces, smear the slices  with plenty of tasty spicy salt (bhanga ka namak) and hand over to us .

In those days there was no pucca shops on the mall road. On the upper slope the either side of the mall road which was mainly for the buses to ply. All buses of kumaon roadways used to pass through this mall road.

The main bus stop was somewhere near the flight of steps leading up to lala Bazaar. In the 1950s there were no cars or two wheelers seen anywhere in Almora. The only exception was an old T model ford of Dr. Khazan chand. It was known as khazan chand ki chhaka (battered car).

Time rolled on.  For many decades I did not visit Almora again. And then I  had the occasion to visit Almora  in 2000 as a barati in Sonu's marriage

By now there were great changes.

The mall road also looked very differenet from what it was decades back. It had become congested with shops on either side and too many vehicles parked along the road.. The entry point into the city  had  changed now. In the fifties  all the buses used to enter the town from the northern end of the mall road, stopping first at the old chungi checkpoint with its chocolate coloured wooden doors and windows. Now the entry into Almora was from the southern end near brightend corner.

The mall road had also been transformed. It was no longer a simple long road with a great open view  towards the west. It was now, over a major length, a market. Some big buildings like the Shikhar hotel

dotted the valley side of the road. In addition to all these changes, Almora now had  too many cars, scooters and motor cycles parked along the mall road and elsewhere.

More changes must have come up since my last visit. I wonder what they are !

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GOOD OLD RAILWAYS

Romancing the Railways

He peeped out of the train compartment window as the train slowed down and  jolted to a halt that winter morning. Yes it was an unscheduled stoppage at a small railway station with a solitary uncovered platform.

It was all quiet except for the sound coming from the engine as it idled and released steam. Smoke was rising from a chimney in a nearby hutment on that winter morning. He looked out for a tea vendor but there was none. He needed a hot cup of morning tea.

It was an old model first class compartment with an attached attendant's cabin. Mahadev his resourceful travel attendant presently entered with a steaming pot of tea.

" Oh good! where did you get tea ?  he cheetfully asked Mahadev.

" I got boiling water from engines boiler " Mahadev said, stirring the  pot with a spoon  to mix the brewing darjeeling tea leaves , "But there is no milk or sugar"

He was carrying a packet of milk-and-sugar sweets. He crushed a couple of sweets in his cup and poured the steaming hot tea. The cup that cheers was ready !

That was someone in the family travelling across India in the early fifties. He would write letters while travelling,  sharing  his experiences with us. As a kid I eagerly looked forward to reading   those long interesting  letters.

In those days trains had steam engines.Most of the drivers were happy-go-lucky anglo indians wearing purple overalls and a smile.

They would give you boiler's  scalding hot water on request.  Some trains occasionally had to make unscheduled stop at small stations to allow mail trains to pass as there was usually single track connectivity between stations.

Except for the big junction stations, there were no food stalls at the railway platforms. Tea vendors, usually teenage lanky boys, ran across the length of the platforms  calling out  "CHAI CHAI" and stopped to pour hot ginger tea in earthen desposable cups called kullhar to the weary travellers as a train came to a stop.

There would be shouts of "O chai, come here " from numerous train windows. The chai wala boys would dispense tea as quickly as possible and rush from one window to another train window until  the train started moving again.

There were spacious  railway colonies at  railway headquaters towns and these colonies had a high standard of cleanliness and a better  lay out with wide clean road and ample street lighting at night.. When one entered a railway colony he would instantly feel a difference.

AH Wheeler bookstalls were ubiquitous.  There was one in most bigger railway stations selling paperback books , grown up's and children's magazines and newspapers. In the small city where we lived, there was a big A.H.Wheeler stall at the railway station which offered a variety of  good novels and magazines

and we would regularly visit it for our supply of books and magazines.

As time rolled on, platform got overcrowded with passengers and vendors.  Those days of laid back railway times are past, those  vintage railway days. It is all  very noisy now.

There is no longer any  romance in the railways. There is, literally and figuratively, no steam left.

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