A Walk through Misty-cal Shimla

It is still early in the morning and Shimla is slowly waking up to the misty morning chill and steaming tea vessels. The bus stop seems quite unprepared for 7AM in the morning, with newspaper vendors still unwrapping the Punjab Kesaris, and the bus windows being cleaned of dried vomit from yesterday’s torrid journeys. I walk towards a stall and ask for a cup of tea, sweetness much more than the heat of the first sip hits me. But I guess I require a sugar rush, for the long and tiring walk ahead.

Walking through Shimla is as much an exercise as it’s an experience. I climb towards the mall, the city center so beautifully built by the British that you tend to forget the puffed up breath and tiredness. There is beauty all over, the old Victorian structures and wooden buildings, the cutest of school kids in their bright uniforms and toned blazers, beautiful people with an amazing Himachali sheen on their skin, and above all the mist filled scenery one can enjoy all year-round.

Its around 8 AM now and the shops have started cleaning up for another day, I chuck the shops, shoo away the monkeys and walk towards the ridge after crossing scandal point. I buy a newspaper and sit on the old colonial style benches. Slowly the town seems to be waking up from its sleep. There is an extra-tone of brightness the sun has added to it, discussions are picking up all around, school kids are flocking the ridge area, and travel agents have started chasing the few tourists around.

I walk down towards the Indian Coffee House, a century old institution serving Filter Coffee and breakfast to the mall’s flockers. I enter the coffee house, take a window view and order a coffee. As I look out of the window I feel a sense of completeness, it has been a morning well spent, observing people, being on the sidelines of active discussions, and just soaking in the fresh air. Well a lot of calories have been burnt, time to eat something now!