In the hills, they will tell you that when the cobra lilies turn fiery red; the tree ferns begin to turn brown; the setting sun changes its multi-hued pallet of colours with each passing day and the garden escapees bloom – you can take it for granted that the Great Indian Monsoon is on the retreat after its three month reign in these mountains.
Come end-August and a carpet of wild flowers have sprung into existence. Mauve, red, pink and white orchids bloom on every nook and corner of the hill-station of Mussoorie. But what takes your breath away are the vibrant garden-escapees, the glory of the place. I do not think there can be a finer wild flower than the wild ginger lily, the dahlia and the cobra lily. The sheer variety of its colours abloom in dense masses, grow in the wild from end of July to October, splashes of colour on the jade green hillside.
The slopes above and below the road is awash in a nodding sea of flowers dancing in the gentle breeze, watching you through the water-laden mist which comes down to touch the plants, as the colours jump out at you: crimson, scarlet, mauve, white, yellow, pink, orange, purple and sometimes a deep, almost black maroon. The wild-flowers play, ‘now-you-see-me, now-you-don’t,’ just as mist envelopes them briefly in between sunshine and rain.
Such a gathering of wildflowers warms the cockles of the heart and pleases to the eyes just at a time of the year when everything else is shrouded in a gloomy mist of grey, slowly making its way in Autumn.
Come to the hills now and let the short-lived magic spell of monsoon’s rainbow children in bloom, balm your heart and soul before they too vanish with the retreating rains making way for winter’s icy march.
While we all know that Atal ji preferred the climes of Manali in Himanchal but he did make it to the hill-station of Mussoorie on several occasions. Some old timers remember those visits. For instance, 95-year-old Shri Ratan Lal ji one of Mussoorie’s octogenarians, remembers Atal ji’s visit in minute details: “I remember him from our RSS days when we did our OTC training in Nagpur. We became pracharaks together. Atalji visited us thrice and came to Nandvilla our family run hotel-cum-home. He preferred home-cooked food that my daughter-in-law Jaijaiwanti put together. My older son Manmohan Karanwal would drive him around the hill-town.
The last time that Atalji came to Mussoorie was in the month of July in 1994. “He held a meeting in Garhwal Terrace and wrote on their visitors book promising to return,” tells us senior journalist Bijendra Pundir. “He used to stay in Aikant Guest House or Modi Bhawan. He preferred walking around Mussoorie, sitting at local shops while visiting old friends.”
Of course, the credit of creating a separate hill-state, then known as Uttaranchal, goes to Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Not only was Uttarakhand created but the new born state was given a Special Industrial Package.
