The Mists of Mussoorie

About 35 kms from Dehradun, Mussoorie is a town nestled in the hills at 6500 feet. In July, the monsoon season was not yet over, and we were truly priveleged to spend a week in Mussoorie, breathing in the mist

The Academy premises once belonged to one of the daughters of the Nawab of Oudh, who eloped with a Christian chap, it is said.

The entire town is built on several mountain slopes, with some tremendous views. Heavy tourist influx is mostly confined to the main town and Landour, to some extent. Other outlying areas are almost completely free of them.

 The forested areas are very dense and lovely, dark and deep :) and yes, there are carnivores and things. These forests are the gateway to the main Himalayan range and on a clear day, one can see several famous peaks and pilgrim spots from the hills of Mussoorie

Apart from Clouds End, we did a short trek to the observatory and house of Sir George Everest, a welshman who was the first Surveyor General of India involved in the great trigonometrical survey. The Everest peak was named after him.

The house has several underground cisterns, open to the winds. Immediately behind the house which was built in the third decade of the 19th century,there is a big chasm over which the mist flowed unhindered

A view from Laltibba, the highest point at 7500 feet.

Heritage conservation appeared to be losing ground to commercialisation.  However, we saw several buildings which are being preserved painstakingly, by individuals such as Vikas Agarwal, who has kept the Clouds End estate exactly as it was a century ago, the building dating from the mid 19th century -

The Agarwals maintain an adventure tourism camp in their huge estate. Another example is the church, St Paul's, consecrated in 1840 -

Finally, the State, in this gem of a building, all in wood and cast iron -

So long, queen of the misty mountains!

Everything in Nature invites us constantly to be what we are

(Gretel Ehrlich)