Taking The Toy Train

Choo-Choo

Viceregal Lodge

Shimla

Hanuman - the Monkey God

Monkey Business

Shimla

English Looking Building

One of the things that I have seen in lots of Bollywood movies is a sequence aboard the Toy Train from Shimla. This narrow gauge railroad brought visitors to Shimla, winding its way through the mountains and through 103 tunnels and 864 bridges. The views are spectacular. It is called a toy train because it is on a very narrow track.

You can see a short movie clip I made looking out the door of the train here. They don't close the doors of the train, and people lean out to take pictures.

The capital of British India was first Calcutta then it was moved to New Delhi. The summers of course are blistering hot. Starting in 1863 the entire government moved to Shimla during the hot summer months. In 1906 the Toy Train (actually named the Kalka-Shimla Railway Line) was completed. This facilitated the annual migration of the government to and from Shimla. Shimla remained the summer capital until Indian Independence from Britain at the stroke of Midnight on August 15, 1947. It then became the capital of the state of Punjab and latter when the state of Himachal Pradesh was created from the Punjab Shimla became its Capital. There are many buildings in Shimla that are built to look like they belong in England. I guess it was to remind the British what they left behind (and in their arrogance what they thought they would bring to India).

After our delightful train ride we then drove back to Shimla and visited the Viceregal Lodge. If you are the British Viceroy ruling all of the Indian Sub-Continent from Shimla you do need a splendid mansion to live in. So they built the Viceregal Lodge. It remained in use by the Viceroys right up until Indian Independence. We went on a tour (it is now an advanced research facility).

We then proceeded to the highest point overlooking Shimla to Jakhoo Temple dedicated to Hindu deity, Hanuman (the monkey god). It  is dominated by a giant statue of Hanuman that looks out over the city of Shimla. Shimla is blessed by the monkey god Hanuman but cursed by real live monkeys everywhere in the city. Here at the hotel, in the middle of the city, we are told not to leave our windows open for fear monkeys will enter our room. Nowhere are monkeys more prevalent than at Jakhoo Temple. They are everywhere. They also are involved in a racket. Everyone told us do not wear your glasses when you visit the temple. The monkeys will jump on your shoulder and steal them. You then have to buy food from a vendor (who probably trained some of the monkeys) who will then bribe the monkeys to return your glasses. Not willing to risk the loss of my glasses I took them off and climbed up the hill to the temple without glasses for the first time in years. Luckily my uncorrected vision is not that terrible and I was able to sufficiently see what was happening. No one there was wearing glasses, just a lot of monkey business. I have always enjoyed monkeys (at a distance) and watched them scamper about.

Here is short clip of the monkeys playing at Jakhoo.

We returned, to Shimla from the mountain top and once again took a long walk along Mall Road. We then had a  very light lunch at Clark’s Hotel, Oberoi’s first hotel.