Every year, all of my Dezan Shira & Associates have a long weekend off to develop team building and camaraderie, and as a reward for their hard work. With 40 offices and close to 1,000 staff throughout Asia, that’s a lot of long weekends! As the Chairman and Founding Partner, I can choose which trip I wish to attend, and as our New Delhi office has just appointed, due to retirement, a new Managing Partner, it made sense for me to participate in their trip to Dalhousie, in the Indian Himalaya.
Dalhousie was a British-raj era hill-station serving Lahore in pe-independence and partition times, and still retains the faded ghosts of Imperial presence. It was named after the Earl Dalhouise, who was the Governor-General of India from 1847-56. Dalhousie is at an elevation of 1,697 metres – about the same as my farmhouse in NuwaraEliya but cooler because of the surrounding mountains whose peaks reach over 6,500 meters – cold air descending and keeping it cold.
On this occasion the team took the overnight sleeper from Delhi to Pathankot, departing Delhi at about midnight, with the station packed with people coming and going from all over India.
We arrived at Pathankot at 8am, after a reasonable night’s sleep on the train. The accommodation was fine, a two bed bunk with one of my senior managers on the top bunk. Its good advise to pack some snacks if needed and some water. Everything was fine however the journey itself a little bumpy – heading slowly uphill with the inevitable bangs and crashes as the train passes over early morning points, junctions, and bridges.
Pathankot is deep into the Punjab and close to the border with Pakistan, with the surrounding area very beautiful yet dotted with army camps and military bases in case of any conflict. The railway was built here by the British in 1884 and used to also serve as an entry point into Kashmir. The older heritage of the railway can be seen in a beautiful mosaic on the walls of the station.
An additional 4 hour journey by bus awaited us, with the Himalayan ranges too steep now for rail travel. Stopping off for breakfast, tea and coffee en route, we eventually arrived at Dalhousie, having climbed about 1.5km up in terms of elevation. It was noticeably cooler. After a short rest, the Dezan Shira team – about 50 staff – all made their way to the outer courtyard of the splendid Grand View hotel we were billeted at, where a huge outdoor fire had been lit and the kitchen were serving a wide variety of delicious Himalayan cuisine, including excellent breads and quite fiery curries.
The resident DJ – who specialised in Bollywood dance music was well to the fore as my Indian staff hot the dance floor cutting the rug for the latest Bangra dance routines. It’s a great way to build team spirit – learning to dance together! Especially as the temperature dropped to close to zero in the evenings…
Dalhousie in its day was similar to most British Hill Stations, with several churches of different denominations, and of course a club, which was sadly closed.
A discovery to help with the cold days was the local ‘Tandoori Chai’ which is made using a terracotta pot, and long brewed tea with condensed milk, just to thing to warm you up and give you energy when the Himalayan cold begins to nip. Also fairly unique were the local Momo’s, which is a Tibetan dumpling, partially inspired by China’s Jiaotzi but here with a mix of the Punjab, with different sauces to go with them. Also very good.
Meanwhile, Dalhousie’s Scottish heritage can still be seen in the local school uniforms, which are decidedly traditional tartan.
Being halfway up the Himalaya here, much of the agriculture is on terraced farming, while as it was February, the snow had disappeared yet it was still too cold for spring to make its appearance known. However, with the orchards dotted all around, with apples, pears, cherries and even oranges being grown here, when the spring does appear, Dalhousie will look beautiful. We however had to be content with the greyer days of late winter.
However, to show its true spring glory – I found this image from the internet which gives perhaps a much better overview.
Dalhousie then is a quaint old Hill Station, and worth a visit for 2-3 days, as there are several other sites to see including Alpine Lakes and activities such as horse-trekking and so on. I’d advise against a weekend trip as it does get busy with Indian tourists – and probably the summer months too as its altitude still serves as a remedy for the treacherous heat that Delhi is capable of. However there is plenty of British colonial history and India nature to discover in this very interesting part of India. My staff meanwhile, returned home happy, satisfied and motivated. Job done, in a most enjoyable fashion!