When the rains beckoned

One of the things I admire about the ‘goras’ who ruled us for almost two centuries was their love for the hills. Maybe it was their gori memsahibs along with their choris and babas who pushed them to discover and develop the hill stations so that they could escape from the heat and dust of the Indian summer. Whatever maybe the reason, the goras did leave behind beautiful hill stations like Shimla, Mussorie, Landsdowne, Nainital…… and yes our own aamchi Lonavala and Khandala.

Discovered by Elphinstone in 1871 these twin towns, nestled in the Shayadari hill range, are uniquely different from other hill stations of the North as well as Ooty in the sense you don’t go there to chill out during the summers but get drenched when the monsoon lashes the Western Ghats. I don’t think there is a second hill station in India where one goes to get wet, soiled and dirty doing a rain dance.

You have to visit the place once during the off season to realize just how the hills have responded to the rains. The transformation from a brown, barren, boring rocky land to lush green hill side with hundreds of waterfalls and rivulets is indeed a sight to behold.

This time around the trip was not so much about us but about taking our dog out in the open. Every time it would rain our dog would rush out to the nearest window and watch the spectacle with a lot of fascination. For a Labrador to live in a congested Mumbai flat must indeed be a claustrophobic experience. We therefore decided to give it a go and take him along. That explains the use of the masculine gender in the title of this blog (and you thought it had something to do with the Delhi High Court’s decision on IPC 377!!!!).

Our trip no doubt was uniquely different and extremely challenging considering the fact that my Labrador just hates the word discipline. He ran, he fell, he rolled, he tumbled, he panted, he puffed, he licked friends, foes and total strangers. He surprised many lovers behind the bushes. He smelled every nook and corner. He completely surprised us with his infinite reserve of strength and stamina. So vigorous was his tail wagging that we actually thought it would come off. He scared the bloody wits out of us for most of the time.

Ours was the only crazy family out in the hills with a dog. There were many dog lovers who waved at us, laughed at us and complimented us for this brave deed. This was indeed re-assuring!!

Reproduced below are some of the pictures documenting our crazy trip.