DALHOUSIE

DALHOUSIE
Dalhousie:Lahore's forgotten idyll
By Charu Soni

Dalhousie is probably the only hill station that did not gain the kind of affection Shimla or Darjeeling did from the rest of India. In fact, its abandoned remains, disowned by Lahore due to the Partition, have unflatteringly been labelled “Dull and Lousy”. Yet, a walk around its three Malls and wooded loops such as Potreyn Road, Bakrota and Moti Tibba hills, is anything but dull. It has, for instance, as many as five functioning churches, British-style country houses now converted into hotels, a cemetery spread over nine terraces, a beer brewery (now in ruins) and several colourful rock frescoes painted by the first flood of Tibetan ËmigrËs

In fact, Dalhousie is still one of those places where an intrepid traveller can, like Rabindranath Tagore in 1873 and Subhash Chandra Bose in 1937, make his or her own private discovery. Also, what is probably its most fetching aspect, is the conviction of some residents that on a clear night they can spot Lahore beyond the border.