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| Orange fades away on the Himalayas |
You don’t hop
on a bus to Kausani if you are looking forward to a conventional colonial hill
station. You take the trip, and do it the hard way, to explore the rustic charm
of a small town in the pahads and for the panoramic view (300-kilometres-wide)
of the Himalayas.
Like many
Delhiites, who asked where it was, we (Sruthin and I) had the slightest idea how to reach
Kausani, over 400 kilometres away from the national capital. Volvos don’t drop
you there in the morning. Google said it was ahead of Almora -- the town closest
to Kausani that I had heard of. And, I was aware that Haldwani, 273 kilometres
from Delhi, was a major transit point in Uttarakhand from my previous trip to
the pahads.
The Journey
We boarded an aging Uttarakhand Parivahan bus to Haldwani from Anand Vihar
– an interstate bus terminus in east Delhi – an hour past midnight.
Delhi-Haldwani buses are frequent and all seats were occupied even at that hour
of the night. Given the quality of the bus, the ride was not as bumpy as I had
anticipated.
Half past
eight at Haldwani and the winter sun seemed in no mood to share some heat. The
word from the bus depot was that all Parivahan buses to Almora had departed. But behind the depot, mini-buses lines up and the conductors solicited passengers crying out "Nainital, Almore, Bageswar... Kausani". These
buses fill up in no time and there is always another one waiting.
About halfway
through to Almora, the winding motorway starts to descend with the beautiful
Kosi meandering along the road, carving a valley for itself. Kosi literally
means river. The slope runs down to Garampani, a town in Nainital district from
where the road routes through a valley. Kosi’s rocky riverbed follows you,
cutting its way through hills, until it bids farewell at the beginning of the
ascend to Almora – a cantonment town.
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| View of the Trishul Peaks from Kausani |
Kausani was
about 50 kilometres north of Almora. The sun had shifted sides to the west but
the automobile moved past arid terrains and barren looking terraced farms
rather unhurriedly, stopping to let in anyone who waved.
“Everyone is
off to the mela at Bageshwar. Generally it’s not so crowded,” a co-passenger
said. The mela is a 15-day annual event at Bageshwar temple in January.
“We’re off to
Kasauli,” I heard Sruthin over the phone on the seat behind. He hadn’t figured
out the destination almost 14 hours and 400 kilometres into this journey!
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| Nature trails and pine forests |
Switzerland of India
‘Unblemished
by modernity’ seemed a fitting first impression for this sparsely populated
town at an elevation of 1,890 metres in Bageshwar district. The air there was
fresh and the breeze carried the scent of pine trees.
The usual sights in every hill station — an old church, a summer palace or a
governor’s bungalow — are not there in Kausani. Anasakti Ashram where Gandhi spent about two weeks in 1929, is the only monument in town. The
rest of the spectacle is all ‘courtesy nature’.
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| Terraced cultivation at Kausani |
The Mahatma is said to have described Kausani as the “Switzerland of India”. Wondering why, you could check into one of those
hotels offering a room with the view of the Himalayas.
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| Waking up to this view is bliss |
Gandhi was spot on! It is easy to lose yourself looking at the first rays falling on the snow-capped peaks while sipping hot tea from porcelain. You could sit back and gaze at the Himalayas until the sun decides to call it a day and then count the number of empty tea cups. As the orange hue fades away on the Himalayas at twilight, the Trisul peaks resemble the iconic Paramount Pictures logo.
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| Trishul Peaks |
A chirpy cab
driver in his fifties, Arjun, was our guide around Kausani. “Folks come here
for nature and the serenity. There’s nothing more to Kausani,” he said. In his
car, Arjun had a playlist of lovely old Hindi songs – a perfect blend with
Kausani’s ambience.
He was keen
on getting behind my camera at every scenic spot. The pictures evinced that he
had an eye for the art. “Tourists always ask me to click their photos and over
the years I’ve also leaned a bit of photography,” Arjun said.
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| Kosi's riverbed runs through the valley |
Arjun took us
on a 2-kilometre trek through the woods, a little away from the town beyond the
bright yellow mustard fields. The rocky trail led to a valley from where we explored
our way, over hills, across Kosi’s riverbed and past women herding cattle in
the mild sunshine to reach Rudrahari temple on the banks of the river. It is
believed that a mystic meditated in the forest for years and later established
this cave temple, which also now serves as his dwelling. Sit there, cherish the
serenity, and figure out why the man prefers this seclusion.
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| Cattle herders bask in the mild sunshine |
Sixteen
kilometres north of the town, located on the banks of Gomti River in Garur
valley, are the leaning stone temples of Baijnath. Legend says the temples were
built overnight by the Katyuri kings, who ruled the area between 7 and 11th
centuries AD.
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| Rudrahari temple |
Kausani also
has a handloom factory in which weavers knit shawls, woollen apparel and
blankets. Besides handloom products, the factory sells other local artefacts
and tea from Kausani tea estate.
Many of
Kausani’s men serve in the army – a phenomenon common in the northern hill
towns of the country. The rest of the population depends on agriculture and
allied activities, tourism and other small businesses for their livelihood.
They were a happy lot, uncorrupted by competition and gluttony. In retrospect,
the warmth of the Kumaonis embellish the town that otherwise has little to
boast.
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| Villagers use mules to carry pinewood from the hills to the valley in Kausani |
Kausani was
synonymous with peace or maybe I’m exaggerating because Delhi had erased my
ability to perceive it. Well, they don’t honk needlessly, to say the least.
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| Kausani is a star gazer's paradise |
(The piece was published in Hindustan Times website on March 11, 2016)
