Mussoorie, Come mid-May and the police stationed in Mussoorie prepares itself to fight a battle of a different kind, traffic menace! The local police here doubles up as traffic constables ensuring smooth traffic inflow. But, with every passing year the hill-station comes to a grinding halt in the brief summer months that we witness.

Station House Officer, Mussoorie Bhawna Kainthola and her team of 53 constables including women constables are working round the clock, in uniform for over 12 hours a day in peak summer, walking the length and breadth of the hill-station to unclog roads and by-lanes to keep the bumper to bumper traffic on the move. Bhawna briefs us, “we have kept the traffic inching its way in and out of the town moving. Since the 5^th of June, when we saw close to 8000-9000 vehicles to now 5000-6000 vehicles a day, it has been a thankless, uphill task.”

For weeks now, the priority for the local police has been to streamline parking and to depute sufficient man power at bottlenecks, exit and entry points to and fro famous tourist spots like Kempty Falls, Company Garden at one end to Landour and Dhanolti in the opposite direction. Bhawna Kainthola also informs us how her team has been personally requesting drivers to turn off their air conditioners so that the fumes and heat emitting from vehicles can be reduced. “Its not only that the number of cars has doubled in the recent past, the size of the vehicles has increased as well with Fortuners, Innovas, and large SUVs find it difficult to negotiate bottlenecks making our job more difficult,” she tells us.

This unending tsunami of people and cars making their way to Mussoorie is impossible to control, yet the local police, with limited man-power is doing a commendable job under the abled leadership of their SHO who leads from the front.

(Mussoorie/Dehradun): Avoid the rush, stay at home! An irate tourist shouts for everyone to hear as he negotiates his way out of gridlock Mussoorie. He is not the only one who feels that way.

Smell of fuel, exhaust and cordite welcomes the tourist to the Queen of hills Mussoorie again this summer. Soaring temperatures, vacations, dirt and dust of the plains, proximity by rail, air and road is all that it takes to have the hill-town overflowing at it seams from end of May to early July, just when the monsoon sets in.

From crack of dawn, residents of this sleepy town wake up to mile long jams, horns, hooters and the all-pervading smell of cordite. To make matters worse wrongly parked vehicles, abandoned by tourists and locals on the roadside add to the chaos.

From miles, one can see a slowly moving glacier of vehicles of all shapes and sizes inching their way up or down the hill-station, which is way past its carrying capacity.

A few brave hearts who made it to Mussoorie tell us tales of how taxis at Jollygrant Airport or Dehradun railway station refuse to head to Mussoorie stating, “long queues and jams in the hill-station are best avoided this season.”

As if that were not enough, driving to getaways like Kempty Fall, Dhanolti, Kanatal is strictly for the bold, the brave or the loony.

DG Traffic Dehradun Kewal Khurana gives us some hope of respite when he updates us, “2 unit CPU, 30 constables, 4 sub-inspectors, 4 home guards, 1 platoon PAC will be permanently stationed in Mussoorie until the season gets over.”

As for the town’s newly elected Chairman Anuj Gupta, he has an uphill task with some very stringent actions in mind, “there is no way that traffic snarls can be solved unless and until strong infrastructure is developed. We are planning to find an alternate place for the Picture Palace taxi-stand so that the bottleneck at the approach to the town is clutter free and also completely ban road side parking.”

Until these promises are met, the tourist’s sane advice, ‘avoid the rush, stay at home,’ should be abided by.

Rudraprayag: 2015. Two years after the Kedarnath deluge ‘Kedarnath Kitchen’ was set up in Sonprayag to bring employment to the youth of the region and also serve authentic Garhwali food to people who came visiting Kedarnath shrine from home and abroad.

Fast-forward to present day. A more refined version of Kedarnath Kitchen called Pahadi Kitchen with a sitting capacity for 40 people, has flung open its doors at Sonprayag, serving piping-hot traditional Garhwali cuisine for lunch and dinner.

From daybreak, this otherwise sleepy town comes to life with it eateries of all shapes and sizes buzzing with people. It is here where all vehicles come to a stop and from here you either walk, or take the shuttle to Gaurikund enroute to Kedarnath.

Refurbished and reopened on the 24th of May, Pahadi Kitchen prides itself for serving authentic cuisine, Manoj Semwal, the owner of the restaurant tells us, “For years we have been serving in the Kedar Valley. We started the Pahadi Kitchen with the whole purpose of generating employment for the youth here and also to serve authentic Garhwali food to people who come to Devbhoomi.”

With Chardham Yatra on full swing and over 12 lakh pilgrims, visitors and tourists on road, Pahadi Kitchen has the cash register ringing. At this point of time, there are close to twelve to fifteen people including four women working round the clock in the kitchen, here.

The menu boasts of mouth-watering traditional Garhwali dishes such as bhatwani, chausa, bhanjeer chutney, mandua rotis (Millet Bread), Chaulaee roti (Amaranth Bread), brown and red rice, and to end it all, jhingora kheer (millet dessert) to treat your sweet tooth.

“With the blessings of Lord Kedarnath our business is flourishing. Our clients are giving us an excellent feedback on the menu, which is heartening not only for us but also for our employees, who are eager to serve.”

If you happen to visit Kedarnath by road then do make sure you stop at Pahadi Kitchen and return with a flavour of the hills.