On Day 3 of our Himachal trip, we left Kasauli and drove up (with an abortive detour at Arki, as described in Part 1) to Shimla. At Shimla, we were booked to stay at The Oberoi Cecil, a hotel with a history to it. The spot where the Cecil now stands was once a home (Tendril Cottage) where Rudyard Kipling stayed while visiting Shimla in 1885. Three years later that home was torn down and another building came up in its stead. In 1902, this building was expanded, refurbished, and turned into a hotel: The Cecil, which—in 1944—was acquired by the hotelier MS Oberoi.
The LO—previously, the ‘Little One’—is my now-nine-year-old daughter. I say ‘previously’ because the LO has now decided (and both her father and I agree) that she’s too old to be called ‘little’. “How about Loved One instead?” she said, and I agreed. The LO is now the Loved One. She always has been, actually.
For those who’ve read previous travelogues on this blog, you’d know that the LO is quite a one for travelling. Much like her parents, really: all three of us like nothing better than to go new places, explore new cultures, experiment with new foods.
This time, our summer vacation was not really a completely new experience. My husband and I have been to Shimla before, and the LO has been to Himachal too. But she hasn’t been to Shimla, and that, we figured, needed to be corrected. Also, it had been fifteen years since the two of us had been there last. High time for another trip.
From Noida, it’s an easy two-day journey up to Shimla. This travelogue is about our trip up to Shimla and back; Shimla itself will be covered in Part 2 of this travelogue.
On our first day, we drove from Noida to Chandigarh in easy stretches, arriving in Chandigarh sometime in the late afternoon. We stayed at the Novotel, and the LO was very excited to discover that the hotel lobby houses a Porsche showroom! She couldn’t stop ogling the cars.
The Porsche showroom at the Novotel in Chandigarh.
Which, since I’ve not been able to find out exactly what this means, I choose to interpret from the subtitles of its title song: ‘Ram Plays a Game’.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’d probably know of my near-constant mission to find subtitled Indian films. Regional films, non-Hindi ones. Sadly, not very many old films (barring Bengali) seem to be subtitled, so when I do find one that has subs, I am pleased as punch.
Especially when it turns out that it stars one of my favourite actors (Sanjeev Kumar) and that pretty much all the videos on YouTube, even the ones featuring only certain songs or scenes tag the film as a romantic comedy. I am all for rom-coms, and rom-coms that feature Sanjeev Kumar? This I needed to see.
Dustedoff 