The Icicles of Shimla.....

The Icicles of Shimla.....

At last , in these chilly winters.. some semblance of sanity seems to retuned to the QUEEN of Hills, the one and only Shimla and her younger sibling Kasauli ....
  After a severe bout of snow, hazy cloudy days n icy winds, the Sun appears to be peeping here and there.

This is my third winter in the last two years here  in Kasauli and by Joe ... I must admit ... these three days of Jan 2011 have been the coldest days here in the last two decades or so .. as the locals tell me, temperature touching -3 and higher on the negative side.

It is always fun to be in hills in winters ...wearing one’s choicest of sweaters .. jerkins .. pullovers .. wind-cheaters .. mufflers ..  scarfs .. cravats et al ! All set to make a style statement of their own !

Even the Caps .. be it Himachali .. Gurkhali  or the simple monkey caps ..all of them  parade  in all their elegance, sitting pretty.. on pretty heads.. male n female alike !

The pleasure of sitting huddled near the fire-place .. kero-bukharis or well tucked inside the razaai on  the electric blanket .. is only experienced to be believed!

So long as one is prepared for this kind of severe cold, it is all fun, fine n romantic. My heart however really goes out for the less fortunate ones who brave these conditions with only one or two layers of thin clothing on their body !!!

The immediate fall out of "sanity" here means, despite the cool temp, the bright Sun, clear skies and a clear visibility far n wide. This morning I simply rushed out to the Sun Rise Point on the Lower Mall Road here to get my fair share of this sanity. The first view of the season .... snow covered mountains in the far distance was simply serene, sublime and stupendous, to say the least. The more I saw them, the more I wanted see them !

What also puzzled me was the fact that all morning walkers standing there were so fixated with the far distance snowy white mountains that no one even bothered to have a passing glance at the less exalted nearby  'dark n green' mountains. I wondered .. Is Mother Nature also step-motherly in nature ! It then dawned on me .....  NAY, NEGATIVE .. NEVER THE LEAST ! After all,  in the summers and the rainy season, it is these near mountains who grab all our attention ! It is they who get all the love, affection and admiration of the  silky white n gray clouds .. who come and caress them, kiss them flirt with them and spend the night in the warmth of the cleavage of the mountain folds !

A dear friend of mine had come to Shimla with his family  to enjoy the snow and how lucky were they to get get a feel of the one of the heavier snowfalls in the recent past ! And lucky me, on the way back they landed here at Kasauli to spend day on my request.

As usual we elders got busy savouring a glass of brandy and started  discussing some serious important issues .... what else but the Maya's moortis ... haathi .. ya .. haath.. Annagiri ya dadagiri  ...  Yeddy ya Reddy .... Pakis perennial probs ..   etc  etc.

Suddenly his 11 year old kid weaning himself away from his gaming gadget, asked me very seriously ..... "Uncle, do you know what are icicles ?" Slightly taken aback, yet hiding my chuckle behind a serious pair of eyes, I said " why !  ...  a 'bicycle'  without the brakes is an icicle ........" , the kid had a hearty laugh at me and .. I had a hearty laugh with him.

  Little later I asked my friend,  “Wah tere bete da jawab nahin.. how did the kid  manage all this” ? He was hard put to answer ...  after grappling with his thoughts a bit , he said in a flash, " It is because of you !!!"
 

How ever to set the matter straight ...  with dead pan seriousness a la Mr KS Rao, our Physics teacher in School, he explained to me the complete physics and chemistry of an icicle formation  including his detailed encounter with them during his short stay at Shimla. He then quitely returned to his paused game ..  as if nothing had happened !
I was dumb founded  to say the least, and his father, even more so.


Another mystery for me to be cracked. I asked him,"How ?"

"Remember when I called you to get some details about my plan to Shimla, my phone was 'speakers on' as I was jotting down ...... little later you said so many other things ...our kids ... all  metro maniacs,  Malls and multiplex savvy ...  vehemently refuse to spend even  two days with their grand parents in the towns and villages ....  need to educate them and prepare them  mentally  to visit the hills and mountains,  appreciate all their nuances myths and mysteries etc etc”.

Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked the kid " Hey, how did you know all this ?" Slightly irritated for disturbing him in his racing game, paused his game, looked up and said " why uncle ... don't you know this much ....  google and Wikipedia of course ! "

He quickly returned to his game evading another silly question from me !!!
Wah re duniya .. These age old mountains and the modern kids never cease to amaze me.



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