Down the Memory Lane

When we were invited by a colleague to attend his son's marriage at Dehradun, my wife and I were pretty excited.  We had visited the Dehradun-Mussorie-Haridwar-Rishikesh circuit nearly 40 years ago - soon after our marriage. So we immediately thought of utilising the occasion to tour the same circuit once again and live over our memories.

We had several fond memories of our first visit though the pattern was strange.  A few pictures remained sharply itched while most details were blurred and some totally missing.  The places which we could recall clearly enough included the Laxman Jhoola at Rishikesh, the lawns of Forest Research Institute (FRI), the cascading falls of Sahsradhara and the famous Kempty falls.  But, strangely enough, neither of us could recall for sure the mode of transport that we had taken for visiting these places and many other details.

This time we engaged a taxi, an Indica, for three days.  The idea was to spend one day for local sightseeing, another for visiting Haridwar and Rishikesh, and the third for visiting Mussorie and Kempty falls.  Our three  day period started on a Saturday after the marriage ceremony on Friday.  The taxi driver strongly advised us NOT to visit Mussorie on a Saturday and least of all on a Sunday.  The reason given was plausible and later on proved to be quite correct.  It was the huge rush of visitors from Delhi, Punjab and Haryana during weekends.  So it was decided to do Haridwar and Rishikesh on the first day (Saturday), Dehradun on the second day, and Kempty falls and Mussorie on Monday.

Dehradun was pretty hot; almost as hot as Lucknow when we left it.  Some friends at the marriage ceremony who had arrived early and already visited Mussorie told us that even Mussorie was hot!  And when we visited Haridwar and Rishikesh, we found the weather to be just as bad.

On our way to Haridwar, we stopped over at Lachchiwala Picnic spot.  We don't recall having visited this place during our earlier visit.  May be it just wasn't there.  (I just did a quick google: Yes, it wasn't there.)  It is a cascading canal near a forest area and a good place to splash around in the water and relax.

It was a Saturday when we visited Rishikesh and Haridwar.  Both the places were terribly crowded.  Laxman jhoola was packed with tourists moving in either direction as also two-wheelers and occasional luggage carts.  The water in the Ganges below was muddy and there were several groups of rafters enjoying themselves.  Both sides of the jhoola are overcrowded with shops selling all kinds of tinsel, pooja saamagri, and sundry items.  Ashtdhatu rings promising to be a cure-all were available on almost all shops.  One of the temples in the temple complex on the shore of Ganges promised to inform you of the date of your death if it happened to be within 5 months to one year, so that you could tie up all the loose ends before your departure.  Other temples in the complex had other things to offer and were interspersed with shops selling rings and tinsel.

After crossing back the Laxman jhoola, we noticed a small coffee shop a little high up and overlooking the jhoola and Ganges.  It was run by young and mod boys.  The cold coffee was good though they had run out of ice cubes.  A few foreigners were there amongst customers.  The chap at the counter provided us with the directions to the Chotiwalla restuarant which my wife recalled from our earlier visit 40 years ago and strongly desired to visit again.

Though the taxiwalla was a little reluctant to stop over at Ram jhoola, he perhaps got persuaded by our offer to join us for lunch at Chotiwalla.  Chotiwalla is on the other side of the Ram jhoola and conspicuous by a heavily made up rotund man with a huge choti at the top of his head sitting in an elevated chair.  The place was crowded but the food was good.  After the lunch we had a few photographs with the chotiwala baba.  He readily agreed and at the end demanded a dakshina.

We skipped the temples at Haridwar including the Manasaa devi temple.  There is a cable car service for reaching this temple.  We went straight to the Har ki Paudi where the parking was overflowing with vehicles. We spent some time at the Paudi.  There were several people roaming around with receipt books, claiming to represent appropriately named trusts and collecting money from whoever will pay.  The water was muddy and looked clouded in the plastic bottles in which people were collecting the holy water. 

Inquiries revealed that Ganga Aarti was to take place two hours later.  Looking to the rising crowds and over full parking, we decided not to wait for the aarati and left immediately so as to reach our base - Dehradun - in time.  Our friends in Dehradun felt bad about our decision and said that the two places reveaied their true beauty only late in the evening.  That was quite understandable as the darkness served dual purposes - one to hide the filth around and secondly to highlight the mesmerizing lights from aarati and deepaks.

The next day, a Sunday, we visited local tourist spots in Dehradun.  We chose FRI as our first destination as we could recall beautiful lawns with beautiful trees there from our first visit.  It has a huge campus and sprawling lawns and is housed in a beautiful red brick building built in the year 1929.  The long corridors have an old world charm about them.  The wooden furnishings and displays are simply magnificent and so are some relics from the British period.  The institute has six museums devoted to wood, trees, forest produce, tree pathology et al.  The guide told an interesting and a bit scary fact that the total green cover in our country has dropped to below 20% while in Africa and USA it is over 30% and 40% respectively.  We also learnt from him that ND Tiwari has a bungalow in the FRI's premises.

Robbers' cave, now better known as Guchhu Pani, is another place we don't recall having visited earlier.  It is a stream flowing through an open cave bordered on both sides by two rocky hills that comes out into the plain near the entrance to the place.  The place was very crowded.  Worse, the stream and the entire place was littered with plastic bottles, plates and packages.  A place defaced as viciously as it is beautiful.  We were later to find the same reckless littering all over the hills along the road to Mussorie and Kempty falls.  I explored the cave alone first and then thought it fit to invite my wife who suffers from knee pain and finds navigating uneven surfaces difficult.  However as she was entering the cave someone shouted that there is a snake in the water and the crowd looked threateningly poised to rush out.  She immediately abandoned the thought of exploring the cave and walked back out in a determined way.

Sahasradhara had not only the crowds and littering but also a terrible traffic jam on the narrow road leading uphill to the point.  Ultimately we abandoned the car and walked to the point.  The water is supposed to be rich in sulphur and have medicinal properties.  However the whole place was in stark contrast with memories from our earlier visit.  Our recall was of a place far away from maddening crowds with clear and not muddy waters with just a couple of eateries serving puri-bhaji.  At lunch time we went into the restaurant run by Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GMVNL) which had a shabby look.  A look at the restaurant and the adjoining guest house run by GMVNL convinced us that our decision not to book their hotel at Mussorie was perhaps correct.  The lady at the counter said that the only available dishes were Maggi and Chowmein.  A stall outside was selling bread pakoda and that was what we had for lunch before we walked back to where the car was parked.  The driver informed us that he was fined Rs.50/= for wrong parking but was allowed to peacefully continue to occupy the same place afterwards.


Yet another place we visited in Dehradun was the Tapakeshwar Mahadev temple.  The temple is located in a cave and water used to drip from the ceiling of the cave.  Legend has it that earlier on milk used to drip but it gradually turned into water.  These days there is not even water dripping from the ceiling as the source may have gone dry.  May be the dripping will resume after rains.  The name Tapakeshwar is derived from the Hindi word Tapakana which means dripping.


The third day we proceeded for Kempty falls a little early in the morning - 9 AM.  Much of the mountains all along the way were littered with bottles and trash discarded by the tourists.  We went past Mussorie as our first destination was Kempty falls.  Further ahead we passed the Company gardens and the taxi driver assured us that we will stop over at the garden on our return from Kempty.  We reached Kempty and the owner of one of the many eateries lining the road offered us the use of the space in the front for parking.  Naturally, in return, he expected us to patronize his shop.  We had some tea and proceeded to the cable car station.  We avoided the rough and winding stairs on account of my wife's knee pain.  Kempty falls too presented a picture that did not agree with our recall.  A shallow pool has been created to catch the gushing waters from the fall and it has an opening opposite the receiving end to pass the water further down below.  Down below there are a couple more pools.  Around the circular pool there are several shops renting out swimming dress and inflated tubes.  The building around the pool is two storied and the two sides are connected by a bridge.  Those not inclined to splash around in the pool can just stand on the bridge and enjoy the view.


There is a pond about 150 steps down a rough hewn staircase.  It has paddle boats, shikara and water balloons.  There is a swimming pool too.  This place has an entry fee of Rs.50/= per head but is worth a visit after having come all the way to Kempty.


On our way back our cable car was shared by a young couple and their son.  The lady bitterly complained about being charged the full amount even though they wanted only a one-way ticket back up.  They had taken to the stairs on their way down to the falls in the hope of saving half the full ticket amount.  After our return we had a light lunch of roti-sabzi and the by the time we were ready to head back, there was a severe traffic jam.  Kempty is just a stopover and the road goes on to Yamunotri.  So there are not only cars and SUVs but also big buses on the road.  With cars parked on both sides of the narrow road, the traffic somehow moving both ways looked like magic.  The driver was an expert one and managed to reverse out of the parking, make a sharp turn back and navigate through the jam.


The Company garden turned out to be a good place.  What strikes you at once is that it is almost free of trash and littering.  It seems that the notices proclaiming that the place is under video surveillance did manage to discipline the visitors.  The garden also has a nice modern food court with an atrium housing bright flowers and lush green plants.  We were glad to find Vadilal Icecreams having a counter.


On reaching the Mall Road, we declined the driver's offer to buy a pass and drive us through the Mall Road. We walked half way to the other end of the road and found the cable car station for Gun Point.  We were told that the wait time was close to 2 hours.  We gave up the plan to visit Gun Point and hired a manual rickshaw back to the famed Library building near the barricaded entrance to the Mall Road.  The Mall road by itself doesn't have much to offer by way of sight seeing.  However there are benches lining the side of the road overlooking the valley and you can laze away any free time if you are able to find a vacant bench.

On our way back to Dehradun, we stopped over at Kuthal to visit a friend.  The friend visits the house with his family during summers each year.  It is a huge plot of land with an old style bungalow in the middle and a real quiet and peaceful place to spend the summers at.  The peace is only disturbed by the vagrant monkeys attracted by fruit laden mango trees.  We also visited a Sai temple along the way.  It was aarati time and we had a good darshan.

Back at Dehradun, we still had the whole of next day as our train was in the evening.  Next day we visited a local multiplex and watched Gangs of Wasseypur.  I will talk about the film later.

The trip served to remove our hesitations and refreshed our touring skills.  We keenly look forward to plan our next tour with our refreshed skills and confidence.

Your will find photos of this trip and a few videos at my Facebook page.