Shimla photos

We have had many visits (holidays) to Shimla. Aniket grew up there and is still very "attached" to that place. Here are a few photos from our visits...


The building, centre left foreground, is Kartar Cottage. Aniket spent much of his remembered childhood there. Thanks to a very basic camera, the colours have come out a little strange and the foreground seems very dark and cold... but somehow it seems to merge well with the sepia tinted memories I have of this house (Aniket). The background is a sunny Lakkar Bazar and Auckland School. [24 December 2005]

Aniket's parents with Sara at Scandal Point (officially Lala Lajpat Rai Chowk!). You can see him standing behind them with his finger raised perenially to the sky... The famous church on the ridge can be seen to the left of this statue as well as a part of the municipal building [1850s vintage].

Sara posing on Mall Road, just below Christ Church. [June 2005]

Manjari and Sara with the snow mountains in the background, standing above the ridge. [25 December 2005].

Manjari and Sara [25 December 2005]

View of Mall Road on a sunny afternoon. The building of the Shimla municipality [1850s vintage] can be seen on the right while the shops of Mall Road are clustered on the left. A few women in the foreground are in typical pahari dress.

Lal Tin ki Chhat.

Tara Hall.

Sara's first photos

Manjari and Aniket at the Kaithu Hawa Ghar, Shimla, December 2005 (Sara's first photography)

These are the first photos Sara took... from a simple Kodak aim-n-click camera while we were in Shimla in December 2005. (From left: Manjari, Aniket, Raju Bhaiya)

Sara, February 2003.
Waking up after a nice long afternoon nap, Sara is still to realise that she is being framed.

Dadapup and Thakurma.

Aniket's grandparents. This photo was taken (most probably) in 1975 in Hyderabad.

Delhi Rail Museum, December 2005.

Sara and her cousin Saesha (Atifa's daughter) at the Rail Musuem in Delhi on a sunny December afternoon.

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Delhi Rail Museum, December 2005.

Sara, Saesha and Manjari.

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Delhi Rail Museum, December 2005.

Sara and Saesha sitting inside the body of a small train engine.

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Delhi Rail Museum, December 2005.

It almost seems that they are dancing but its just a coincidence of the shutter.

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Partial view of the Himalayan panorama from Kalpa.
District Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh (May 2003)

This is just about half the view of the Great Himalayan range one gets from Kalpa. (and yes the entire journey from Shimla can be made in a Maruti van (38 bhp!) though a better vehicle is recommended...


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Baspa river, Sangla Valley.
District Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh (June 2004)

This photograph was taken from over the wooden bridge at Rakcham. The Baspa is a tributary of the Sutlej and meets its sister at Karcham. Here it is crossing the second habitation on its banks. The snow-capped mountains on the right are the boundary with Garhwal, Uttarkhand and further up merge with the mastiffs of the Great Himalayan range. A hydro-power station with its dam have been built a little down-stream, which has dried up the lower part of the Baspa river. Sangla itself is one of the most beautiful valleys in the Himalayas, about 10 hours drive from Shimla.

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Panorama from Kalpa.

District Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh (June 2004)

You can see the Sutlej river (centre, foreground) flowing in a South-Westerly direction. Parts of Recong-Peo town are also visible (right, foreground). Recong-Peo is the district headquarters of Kinnaur and lies below Kalpa village. But the most spectacular part of this frame -- the peaks of the Great Himalayas which here are not the highest of the range despite touching 20,000 feet and beyond.

The Sutlej is the only river which actually manages to cut through the mighty Himalaya mountains. The Indus and the Tsangpo/Brahmaputra have their origin in the same region of Tibet as the Sutlej, but both traverse the entire Northern aspect of the Himalayan range before finding their way to the low lands; its only the Sutlej which manages to find a path which cuts through these mountains. It therefore provides easy access to the regions beyond the Great Himalayan range.

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Manjari climbing towards the orchards above Kalpa,
Dist Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh (June 2004).
The ranges of the Great Himalayas are visible in the background. Kalpa is 'on the other side' -- it is on the other side of the snow mountains one can see from Shimla or Mussorie. The region is breathtaking in its beauty and .

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Some more photos of Sara and us during our visit to Shimla, Christmas, 2005.

Let me start by adding a few photos to enliven the introduction....


The one below is from Sara's 4th birthday. (officially on 1st August, 2005 but we celebrated it a week earlier)

Aniket works in Delhi with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and Manjari teaches Political Science at the University of Hyderabad.

Our daughter, Sara Aparajita... turned four in August last year and goes to Tiny Tots Play School.

The photo above is from our visit to Shimla during Christmas 2005.