My love for people of Himachal

We were so tired and pissed on the way to Shimla in Himachal Pradesh that just wanted a bed to jump in and sleep for a couple of hours. It all started with a road trip from Delhi to Punjab to Himachal to Haryana and back to Delhi.

I had never heard anything about Himachal, about their people and/or their hospitality apart from the scenic beauty of this state. It was after my visit to Shimla, Manali and Rohtang Pass that I was forced by my inner soul to write about the people of Himachal Pradesh, not to promote their Tourism but their Hospitality.

I have so many reasons to support their hospitality and I will list a few in brief.

Instance 1:

I and my three friends were off to Shimla after visiting the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. The spiritual trip was over and so we decided to halt at Haveli Dhaba in Jalandhar and eat and drink (like a fish). I voluntarily decided not to drink as I wanted to drive on the beautiful roads and Ghats to Shimla. I remember one person telling us to take the Kalka route to Shimla because that is the easier out of the many routes to Shimla. And so it happened, we missed that route and followed some other route courtesy Google Maps in India. It was around 2 AM and we reached a check post. There were hardly 2-3 people there and I doubt they were government employees. So we asked one of the guy about the route to Shimla (Bhaiyya Shimla jaane ka yahi rasta hai kya ?), he replied, “Kalka wala rastaa lena tha” (You should have taken the Kalka Route). He then went on speaking approximately for 10 minutes about how to reach Shimla, believe me he was telling us all the cuts and turns and tunnels with kilometer predictions. At this point two of my friends (Sagar and Sandeesh) were fast asleep on the rear seats and I was only accompanied by other friend of mine (Pareesh) next to the driver’s seat who was trying very hard to stay awake. I and Pareesh were so bored of this guy talking for ten minutes and we were least interested in his directions our replies were only “theek hai, theek hai” (OK, Fine). After ten minutes he says, “aapko ye sab raaste yaad nahi rehenge, pen aur paper dijiye, likhkar de deta hu”, (Give me a pen and a paper, I will write it down for you guys). So he took a pen and paper and wrote all the destinations before Shimla with the turns and KM’s between each destination. Below is the image of that paper that we clicked after reaching Shimla. We then took that paper chit and left from there. He was very irritating considering the mood we were in because of over travelling and lack of sleep, but later did we realized that his directions on a small piece of paper was the only help of reaching Shimla because Google Maps was only working (thanks to Vodafone) on my cell phone and its battery had died. The other cell phones were of no use because of Docomo and Airtel. How I wish I meet this guy again and thank him from the bottom of my heart because of him we reached Shimla easily and in time on one of the deadliest roads in the middle of the night.

Instance 2:

In spite of the chit that we had from the guy we met at the first check post we still were feeling confused and lost because of the mysterious roads and the lack of trust in a stranger. So we still kept on asking people, we hardly met two of them on our way and asked one of them for a way to Shimla. He said, ”main bhi chalta hu, mujhe raste me chod dena, yaha se sirf 22 KM hai”. We said yes as it was just 22 km’s and how would he bother us. He stopped on the way where he had to stop and offered us to come to his house and have a cup of tea adding that Shimla is just 8 Km’s from here now. Who offers strangers a cup of tea at 4 in the morning?

Instance 3:

We all thought that we would be asked to stop by cops many times at different check posts and what all posts these people create as we were travelling through 3 different states in India. Luckily we weren’t stopped and asked for documents and bribe either in Haryana or in Punjab, but still we had all the necessary documents with us. In Himachal Pradesh we were stopped thrice by the Himachal cops all in the night time and you have to believe me we weren’t asked to show any documents or license even a single time. At every stop the cops asked us only 2-3 questions which followed by a nice smile and a “bye bye”. The questions were, “kaha se aaye ho” (Where have you come from), “kaha ja rahe ho” (Where are you going), “kitne log hai car me” (How many people are there in the car) and then all they said after we answering their questions was “Theek hai, jao” (Ok, Fine Go). Can you imagine if this was some other states police, how many questions you had to answer and which policemen on earth gives you a smile and lets you go without asking for money in the middle of the night. Wow – I am like the cops of Himachal Pradesh.

Not a Single - Instance 4:

You all know when we are doing a rod trip we tend to ask the locals about the ways to reach a particular place. You may have witnessed people either give you a short answer and move on or state that they do not know, some even misguide you. But here’s the real essence of Himachal Pradesh and their people, they will guide you, talk to you properly as if they have all the time in the world and have nothing to do (bit like the Goans).

Please visit Himachal once and not for the beauty but for the Hospitality. I witnessed many such instances but jotted down a few.