PALACES AND KINGS----FROM INDIA

Long ago there was a prince of Patiala in north India and he had many wives. He built some lovely summer palaces for his frolicking and which even today dot the Himalayan landscape. Chail is one such place, Shimla has some palaces too, we even saw one in Sadhupul. Where did you go last summer? If not Chail in Himachal Pradesh then you have missed something. With its pristine beauty and chilled mountain air it offers lovely walks through the forests of deodhar trees, birds abound and flowers add colour everywhere.


The small palace in Sadhupul is called Indira home as it was donated to Indira Gandhi , once the prime minister of India and she used it for holding children’s adventure camps. Amidst lush green mountains it’s a piece of flat land where about 1000 students can be provided with tents, a river called Ashwini flows by. The little palace becomes the store and administrative block during these camping days.
A small tea shack in Sadhupul is running since the past 80 yrs and the couple Mr. and Mrs. Verma play host to all the tourists passing by on the road. They will organize food, camping trips and even sit and chat with you over cups of coffee and talk about the history of this place. He even tried selling us some land to grow fruit trees as we found the place very beautiful and the river down below has some good opportunities for angling. We wished we had gotten our fishing tackles on this trip. Mrs. Verma said that she doesn’t want her kids to run this shop but go out in the city and get educated and do some job there. The TV and papers have given her this idea that her pastoral life is not to be envied and big cities offer more by way of a life!!!!

The other palace at Chail is at a ht of 7200 metres above sea level, there is a fabulous military school there, and the playground is marvelous. The late prince use to play regular cricket matches there. The main palace is a hotel for tourists; there are playgrounds and tennis courts too, also a lovers lane which the honeymooners find delightful. Here the city folks come and spend some quiet moments to bond with nature and breathe the unpolluted air. It’s a great hideaway for the people living in north india who want to escape the scorching heat. Mrs Verma , let me tell you that yours is a cleaner and better life in many ways as you get to help so many people and make them think about investing in a slice of your clean green land.

I saw a huge maple tree in the Chail palace grounds, it looked beautiful as green leaves were covering the naked branches and some old yellow leaves were still hanging. I once heard a poet describing a maple tree in autumn with flaming yellow leaves…..

Maple don’t show your fierce colours
My anger is more fiery than yours
So much so that I burn with anger
As you burn yellow in autumn air .