Tags:
Journalism of Courage
One of the great joys of living in Chandigarh is its backdrop of the magnificent Shivalik hills of Kasauli. The resplendent blue mountains beckon you. Kasauli, the quaint hilltop town of the Raj days, is a favourite weekend getaway, but not high enough to receive snowfall in winters.
Nearly ten years ago during January, it had been raining throughout the week. Bolts of lightning followed by the drum-beats of thunder announced some divine happening. Then it happened!
The morning newspaper screamed: 8216;Heavy snowfall in Kasauli8217;. This was indeed a special winter. After all, it didn8217;t snow at Kasauli every year! Plans were made hurriedly, lest the snow melt away.
On the narrow road to Kasauli, the pines exuded a strange, moist aroma. As we took a sharp turn; low and behold, the entire northern slope of the hills wore a white mantle of snow! In a Cinderella-transformation, the place had turned into a silver snowscape!
The pine tufts seemed to be wearing small gloves of white cotton on their needles. The red letter box looked like an inverted ice-cream cone. Diminutive walls of snow had come up on railings and parapets. Deciduous trees had shed their leaves and looked like naked sculptures. Patterns of snow had formed on the sloping rooftops of old cottages. But nothing was more haunting than the foot prints on fresh snow leading to nowhere.
And then the weather gods decided to put up a special show for our benefit. At first we thought it was merely a gentle drizzle, but this was different. Feather-like specks of snow drifted down and settled on our coats. I tried to collect a few flakes in my hands. But no sooner did they touch the palms than they melted away. It was hard to believe that it was really snowing!
I wondered what it would be like to sit inside a cottage, in a rocking chair besides a crackling fire, engrossed in a book. Or, perhaps, just to sit by the window, and watch the panorama outside! No wonder, most hill stations abound with book shops and philosophers.
It8217;s incredible that snow 8212; one
of the frailest creations of nature 8212; has such power to bestow peace and beauty. Its creator must be a poet writing his Muse in the Kasauli winter!
