Sport in Annandale

While there is sport at Annandale
Or Whisky at Jutogh
R. Kipling

I remember being sat in Prof Vidya Sharda’s rather comfortable office in Shimla two years ago, sipping tea, while Dr Pankaj Gupta painted a picture of joyful research in Kinnaur. ‘It is not like Shimla’ he related with misty eyes, ‘it is more cut off and so customs there are better preserved’ he earnestly continued.

As of last week that has begun to change as helicopters now fly from Shimla to Kinnaur with the intent of making it a more connected place. Somewhere between the hydroelectric dam projects and the tourism push no doubt life in Kinnaur continues apace, but I will have to try and get to talk with Dr Gupta again to see how he thinks this is changing things up there. For now, I am more interested in assessing the reverse: how do these flights transform Shimla? And not just these flights of course but the other helicopter routes (Shimla–Dharamshala, Shimla–Kullu, Shimla–Chandigarh etc) not to mention the reopening of Jagson’s Delhi–Shimla–Kullu flights.

It seems that Shimla is becoming, or at least trying to become, the transport hub of the Himalayas. Of course it has for a long time been the jumping off point for people wanting a more ‘natural’, ‘authentic’, or peaceful experience of Dev Bhoomi. However, there have always been a significant number of tourists who would not even think of leaving the Mall. This new explosion of transport options seems to represent a significant increase in the amount of transit traffic in Shimla and I wonder how being connected to all these places in such a rapid way will transform the Queen of Hills and people’s perceptions of it? One thing is for sure, the golfers at Annandale (where the helicopters will land) are going to get less putting time nowadays.

Shimla in the movies and Theog Ra Gappu

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‘Once Bollywood discovered Shimla and its splendour
thy could not but return to it
again and again’

Bande 2009

The quote above is by writer and teacher Usha Bande and is taken from her recent review of films shot in and around Shimla (‘Real Shimla in Reel Shimla’). Shimla has certainly provided an important backdrop for the unfolding of many bollywood movies and international documentaries. However, yesterday I received the pleasant news that some friends of mine from Shimla state have recently set up their own film company and launched their first film Theog Ra Gappu.



I have not yet had a chance to see the film, although I do have a copy on the way to me and am looking forward to seeing it. I cannot comment therefore on the content but I am sure that it will provide a refreshing antidote to the mainstream films about Shimla, which reflect a tourist experience of the place. I also have a hunch that at least parts of the film may be set away from Shimla Mall in the wonderful landscapes surrounding Theog.



I have very fond memories of the Theog area, which I would often drive to at weekends for a game of football. The air always seemed fresher than down in Shimla, the pace of life quieter, more relaxed. Sitting in the shade of tree, on a sunny afternoon, in a Theogian forest glade, I would feel a kind of peace. The kind of peace that is rarely felt in the city, except perhaps inside Christ Church, on an early Sunday morning, when only the crows are awake.

Heritage and Identity

Everyone knows that Shimla mall has a special landscape; it evokes, provokes and draws people from all over the county. In Shimla there is a wonderful sign which reads ‘Our built heritage is out identity’. But what identity does Shimla’s built heritage give? And how does it fit with wider national identity? I remember asking this one afternoon to a wonderful, wise, old resident of Shimla as we strolled along the Mall, after taking some cardamom tea in Honey Hut. He was very uncomfortable with the question and became unusually irritable: in nearly a year of acquaintance the only time I had seen this side of him before was when I talked of holding a football training session on a strip of grass near his house. I am still a bit puzzled today as to why he was so reticent to discuss this, but I also feel that there is something about the question that is unsettling. I will mull on this over some supper and perhaps post more on it soon.

Three in One

I think that what I have been trying to suggest is that Shimla city moves its average visitor through a journey of sacred spaces. Starting with the lift Temple associated with the modern era, noise, chaos, humanity, the absence of beauty, being enclosed, darkness, limited visibility etc. To Christ Church and the ridge, associated with the Colonial era, quiet, manmade order, humanity pointing to nature, manmade beauty inspired by nature, both overlooking and being overlooked, light, extreme visibility etc. To Jakhoo Temple associated with the mythic era, the quiet whisper of nature, natural order, natural beauty augmented by man, overlooking, the sun (and heavens), blended visibility. All these sights are moved through chronologically by the casual visitor, with all being moved through twice apart from Jakhoo (once on the way up and once on the way down). Jakhoo then is the peak of the revelation of the Divine that Shimla offers – it is both literarly and figuratively the zenith of its landscape. Spatially these all involve am movement up, there is not much horizontal movement on this journey the movement is largely vertical and each space is encountered in the context of the previous, with the insight imparted by the previous. There is also a movement to do with association of time here from the present to the colonial to the mythical and each space not only progressively deepens our reach through time but also is a living space that carries through the others without rupture. That is to say that Christ Church not only draws from the colonial past but is very much alive and contributes to post colonial Shimla. Jakhoo not only reminds us of the mythical past, but draws us through the colonial period to the modern age, where it also is alive today as an important point of pilgrimage. Here then connected by space and time are three sites of religious worship that are encountered by the visitor and which encapsulate the multi–layered nature of modern Shimla.
Of course I am talking here about the average day/or weekend tripper, how these spaces are encountered by more frequent visitors and local residents is a different story altogether and I think the subject of another day.

Up The Lift to Christ Church (1.2)

The Shimla lift takes you from the cart road to the mall and seemingly transports you to an otherworld (interestingly skipping the lower bazaar, which is another story again), where the more organic vernacular architecture gives way to the imposing Colonial structures. The largely car free mall road, although bustling with life, is quieter and more restful than bellow, at times it is possible to glimpse over the buildings and see the tree lined hills soaring above and the delightful valleys bellow. Dogs impose peace on the space by lazing restfully in the middle of the paths that the humans bustle along and the wide streets are swept clean of litter, by both human workers and the ever watchful non–humans. A sense of history now comes to the fore, whereas the cart road seems like any small new town in modern India here people notice things about the buildings and tell stories of the events that they heard occurred here in the past. From more or less anywhere on the Mall you can see rising above you Christ Church Cathedral, most people make their way to the ridge, buy some popcorn or ice cream, look at the hills, and then take a picture outside Christ Church. It is almost emblematic of the entire mall space and it is what Shimla is to many tourists. Christ Church itself is designed in an orderly fashion and upon stepping inside even the noise of the mall drops away, hundreds of visitors (of all faiths) have recorded in the visitor’s book that the thing that strikes them most about Christ Church is a sense of peace. Furthermore the church is designed to draw attention to certain aspects of nature: its towering Gothic structure draws the eyes up towards the heavens (in a mimicry of the surrounding mountains) and in contrast to the temple below, inside it is filled with light that spills in and refracts through the cleverly designed windows in ever changing ways. Thus, the church is a man made structure that draws attention to both the past and nature and the presence of divinity within these. It reminds us of order, of peace and calm, it stands for something that connects the past and the present in a seemingly timeless way and encourages you to abandon bustle and give in to peace. The Church is no museum piece but is still very much alive enriched by a diverse group of worshipers who blend the traditions of the past with postcolonial innovations in worship – now and then are tied together.

Christ Church Cathedral
on the Ridge,
Shimla Mall,
Jan.
2009