Delicate pink touch on snow top – early morning at Dalhousie—a jewel in the Himachal hills
Yesterday
evening again we went out for a short after-dinner walk along the Viewpoint
Avenue. In a way the avenue, arguably the best walking stretch in Dalhousie, lay across
our doorstep. It was so convenient! I came to know later that the hillock
around which our road turned round was called Portreyn Hill. Consequently we
could have called our Viewpoint Avenue as the Portreyn Avenue also. But for me,
convenience in a name was of utmost importance, and so it would be Viewpoint
Avenue for us.
It
was about 8.30 in the evening. The street lights customarily dim. Dots of
lights spread all over the hillsides below, above and front. Only in the night,
if you look from the top, you can get an idea of the true extent and spread of
civilization. Oh, the lights even had spread to the sky! The stars twinkling
through the thick foliage of the old trees made us happy. We could still make out
hints of dark grey smudges of remnants of clouds. But the sky was clearing up,
no doubt.
Before
we started the trip I had asked my friend, how to go about covering the city of
Dalhousie as a tourist—can he tell me where I can get a Dalhousie City map? He was very
amused but answered with his characteristic seriousness, “No tension. Dalhousie
main city roads form the shape of a large 8. Your hotel is on the smaller
circle of the 8. Subhas Chowk is at the junction of the two circles of the 8
and Gandhi Chowk is at the outer tip of the larger circle of 8. You can walk on
and on, round and round, and cover most of the important points of interest
without ever getting lost.” We later found the idea of 8 to be the best and smallest
city map of Dalhousie.
It
just so happened that our hotel was located near the midway point of valley
facing arm of the smaller circle of the 8. This part of the road we named our
Viewpoint Road. Many places on this road had old metal railings where you could
rest your elbows and look down to the valley below. On your far right, you could
make out parts of the Pir Panjal range far away. The jagged barren peaks would
move from right to left unceasingly for some time. Directly straight opposite
stood a large hill rising so high that it had got crowned by a nice patch of
pure white snow last winter. From this hilltop the range continuously lost
height towards left and merged with the plains—how, we had seen on our way up
here.
But that was
yesterday. Today we woke up suitably early. Quickly we put on our clothes and came
up to occupy a vantage point of observation. This was on the rooftop of another
hotel at road level with railings towards the valley. We stood facing the
valley with no obstruction in front. The sun had risen only a few minutes. A
delicate touch of pink painted the snow top of the large hill straight across
the valley.
 |
| First light on the snow cap of the large hill |
The whole
of the valley and our side of the hill, all were dark without sunshine yet. The
sun had risen behind the hillock at our level on our right. I couldn’t resist
the temptation to have a closer look to the dimpled pink snow patch. It was
cute with soft inviting curves.
 |
| Inviting pink snow bed |
It seemed to be permanent snow but I had doubts.
Compared to other temporary snows it might last longer, but it should also
disappear by a month at most I guessed.
I panned my take from
left to right with the same middle distance zoom. As we turned our head right,
we would approach the sunrise area, and the pink tinge would disappear in
increasing white glare.
 |
| Lights not yet touched nearly any other peak |
The pink-top hill was barely in view far left as we had moved our field of view to the
right quite a bit. Nearby below us lower parts of Dalhousie were still in the
shadow zone. Not only the larger peak but a few smaller peaks also got a touch
of first sun.
 |
| A few more pink touches at the top |
This time
we had turned our view right slightly, not much. The pink-top was still visible
at the far left corner, but only a small part. On the Valley below, a
distinctive orange colored two storied smart looking house had entered the
frame far right.
 |
| Waiting for light |
The
orange-colored house had now moved on the left of the field of view. There was
little to identify amongst the jagged edges of the cliffs on the horizon. But
one thing was sure—practically no peak had any light on them. The ridge at the
back had started showing ice on their peaks.
 |
| Signs of permanent snow peaks |
The line
of the trees below curved upwards indicating that we approached the higher
level hill that actually blocked the sunrays. On the horizon now the real snow
peaks were on view. None had any light on them except a rounded domelike one.
This was the ridge farthest back.
 |
| Tinged real snow peak |
Not a
great change. The four storied green topped white house had shifted left along
with the dome-like pink-tinged snow peak. A portion of the railing on the
rooftop balcony the photographers stood on showed up—we had nearly reached the
end. Still there was no light on the snow peaks except on the white dome on the
far left. But these were the real snow peaks with permanent ice and were part
of the Pir Panjal range. And it occurred to me from last evening’s memories—we
would get a good sunset view today—the sun would set far left of the frame and
would color the snow ranges on the far right very comfortably.
 |
| Jagged line of peaks of Pir Panjal |
This had
been our last and rightmost shot of the panned series. Still the jagged peaks
of Pir Panjal at the horizon were without light. When light would come, it
would come in color white.
 |
| Hillock behind which the sun rose |
This had been the hillock further right at the upper
road level that blocked the sun all this time. The hillside at this level was more
densely inhabited. Tree covers had not been cleared but modern colorful
buildings at various levels had come up within the trees. Road surfaces were
not visible, but with high zoom those also came into view. On the whole,
Dalhousie habitation nestled on densely wooded hillsides almost wholly covered
by thick greeneries.
It
was April, the dusty period. The greens turned into grey this time. I could
imagine how beautiful it would look just after the rainy season, all freshly
washed sparkling green. But again, with a delay of two more months, we would
have clear cold days interspersed with snows.
By now the sunrays
had come down from the pink top and covered half of the valley below. The other
half was still in the shadow of our own hillock only, I suddenly realized.
 |
| Half the valley sun-drenched |
Now
the sun was up drenching half the valley in clear bright light. The shadow
retreated towards us but slowly. It was the shadow of our own hillock.
 |
| Dawn on the horizon |
Looking
wide and far in front the pink haze near the horizon heralded breaking of the
day. The ridge lost height on the left, gradually fading away. Somewhere on the
left large water bodies lay.
 |
| Plains beyond |
That was
the way river Ravi went down. That way we came. While coming up, we didn’t see the
large lakes. Only now we got a hint just on the edge far left.
 |
| Large water bodies ahead |
Sporadic large water bodies indicated large lakes, but
as the whole area lay on the path of Ravi we couldn’t be sure that those were
not fragments of the flow of Ravi itself.
All along, the red
roofed house attracted our attention. Though it was some distance away from us
towards left, its location was great and it stood alone. It was prominently
visible from all over the hillside.
 |
| Picturesque building |
It was shaded by thick woods on three sides. No other
habitation nearby—quite secluded with only trees as company. Farther away the
hill fell away to the Ravi valley below. What a place for meditation!
Later in the day we
identified the attractive building for what it was.
 |
| Straight view |
By then
the sunlit zone had advanced quite a bit towards us. From the level we stood,
the woods were thick going down. After a gradual slope the land flattened out
and stretched forward. The green cover disappeared gradually. We could identify
some important buildings in this area by their size and construction.
 |
| Densely wooded area |
But on
another part, the stretch near the drop to the gorge below was still found to
be wooded. From the looks of it, this was not an official area. The orange
house caught our attention from this moment on.
 |
| A rare cluster of houses |
Usually
houses didn’t crowd on each other in this area. Higher up on the upper levels,
clusters might be common, but not here. Nevertheless some clusters were
inevitable, even on this woody stretch.
 |
| The orange house |
The
orange house looked like a toy house, but it was very attractive. On the whole
expanse there was not any other construction half as eye-catching. Now in
bright sunlight we could see signs of further habitation on the second rise
further away.
 |
| A village at Dalhousie |
We turned
our attention to a less inhabited area. We could spot terraced cultivation for
the first time here. That must be a modern Dalhousie village around the
cultivated fields. A few clusters of houses still appeared on view frame.
 |
| Thick healthy woods |
I wanted to see the woods in full glory. These were
middle altitude trees and seemed to be much younger than most of the trees
lining up our Viewpoint Avenue. My initial assumption was perhaps wrong—the trees
were cut away alright. But replanting and caring for the trees started since at
least fifty years had passed.
I
looked at my watch. It was just about 7 am. “Let’s go inside,” Tukai echoed my
thoughts.
We
went down a few steps to our hotel room, sated. Enormous stretches of beautiful
scenes merged together in a uniform pleasurable sensation.
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