When my heart soars, and my soul feels at home – still

 

As monkey has noticed so many times, and as my fellow knows so very well, mountains energise me. Every time I am sniffing distance from a mountain, let alone actually on one, I am happier, chirpier, fresher, and more full of energy than I ever am at the lower altitudes! Whether this is a hangover from my fantastic childhood memories in the Himalayan foothills, or just a factor of the climatic difference – higher altitudes are, but always, cooler than the plains, after all, and I don’t do well in heat, at all – something about mountain air is an automatic dose of vim for me.

Add in a solid dose of nostalgia and the excitement of sharing my/our childhood haunts with the offspring, and one can imagine just how thrilling the idea of going to Dehradun would be, especially given the long 21-year gap between visits. Over the last 38 years or so, on sporadic travel back to the roots, so to speak, I have noted all the changes my little birth town has undergone, from the immense shock of finding traffic lights on Rajpur Road to how the deer park became part of the city instead of a midway halt in the Sal forests towards Tandoori Nights. And I was looking forward to seeing more of them. A gap this long promised a sea change in the urban topography, and friends kept telling us we would be unable to recognize the town when we got there.

So, complete with tons of woolens and gifts for all and sundry, we arrived. Everyone had been warning us it would be supercold, and since fellow is no longer a polar bear, and since the offspring is essentially a tropical child, we had loaded up on thermal underclothes and whatnot, along with multiple interchangeable layering thingies we could all share. Change number one, even though the Jolly Grant airport is miles and miles outside the “city”, it was nowhere as cold as I remembered, or was told it would be.

 The airport, was another. Way back in the prehistoric mists of time, when I was a wee bairn frolicking in the hills and dales of the terai, there used to be something called a Vayudut that served as the sole airline servicing Dehradun, and their 14-seater, beaten-up, held together with spit and good wishes, Fokker Friendships used to land at what was essentially a converted military airstrip next to a terminal building that was little better than a tabela – a local shed for holding cows and buffaloes. This shiny, bright, super modern, glass and concrete edifice, all done up in artistic columns and tourism posters advertising an Uttarakhand that is new to me, was a pleasantish surprise.

The roads from Jolly Grant to Dehradun were wide, and clean, not to mention wholly unfamiliar. There are hundreds of hotels of all sizes, restaurants (mostly pure veg, in keeping with the Dev Bhoomi monicker) and – surprisingly – tons of bars, lounges, and restro-pubs. This is all new, and unfamiliar, a brand new ring road, 4 and 6 lane highways, uniform boards on shops… most of them sporting the same colour scheme and font, it is all a very long way to the narrow state roads and forests of my childhood.

But all it takes is one turn, and D and I both realize immediately that we are on Raipur road! It’s almost like we can FEEL it! It’s like the underlying bone structure, which, no matter how much make up you slap on, will get you recognized by facial recognition! Yes, it has changed, its about three times the breadth it used to be, for starters, and the storefronts are spiffier, fancier, the basic shops have changed to more updated things like mobile phone repairs and car décor, but the basic vibe is JUST the same, somehow.

 And that remained the underlying experience, for Dehradun, for the rest of the trip. As D said, aaaj bhi shehar Raipur Road se shuru aur Ghantaghar me khatam hai. After 37 years, I am still able to instantly recognize Survey Chowk, Parade Ground, and Rajpur Road, and the Ghantaghar and Paltan Bazaar basically look just the same, though the roads are wider. It isn’t as if changes are absent.in fact they are many and varied, including the presence of three (by my count) giant malls, in what used to be, essentially, a tiny town in my time.  

There are huge apartment complexes, mammoth colleges and educational institutes, and the city is now spread way beyond the Deer Park, but the colony, Guru Nanak Academy, the lanes of Karanpur, and the DAV PG college, look just the same as they always did.

Countdown is still the same, albeit slightly bigger, and – to my very pleasant surprise – serving the exact same food, exactly as tasty. The Gajak is still as flaky, and Ellora is still selling those melt in the mouth Nankhatais and the best I’ve ever tasted, softest, pastries. The momos and thukpa taste the same (better than I have ever had in pune or Kolkata), and the Bhutia market, though enclosed and well painted now, sells the same fleece sweaters and puffy jackets at unbelievably cheap prices.

Tapovan, though, is unrecognizable. Time was, and oh! What a time! When everything after DEAL colony was a narrow road flanked by dense forest and we trekked through the forests all the way uphill for an hour or so to get to the mandir. Now it is non stop urban landscape all the way to the foot of the hill, not a tree in sight, and some forests, interspersed with bungalows, for a couple of kilometers. The temple is bigger, more ostentatious. Chashma is gone. What used to be a natural Sulphur Spring, set back from the road, surrounded by greenery attracting people from far and wide with its crystal clear water (hence the name chashma – clear as an eye) with healing properties – even the year we got married – is now a tap by the road, with trash and discarded rags lying around, making the water unappetizing.

Part of the plan, of course, was to take quick trips to Haridwar, Rishikesh, and Mussoorie, because who knows when we would be able to go back, ever, and it made sense to show monkey these places too – even if it was just for the bragging rights of “been there” but given that this post is so long already, I’ll leave the recounting of that experience for another day!