Not such a bad shot

what's in a name? ask me, all along i've held sirmaur to mean a peacock's plume, something beautiful...and if the name conjured a district with many charms, hp tourism's official website himachaltourism.nic.in painted sirmaur's plumage in no less a colourful light. see the wonders of nature like the big lakes, wild life parks, sanctuaries and the fossil parks...it promised. mark the plurals in the claim. they make all plans of an african safari seem an expensive folly. why would you go to kenya when all that nature has sown in that country can be reaped in your own backyard? i had already made five or six trips along the shimla road between august and october last year when someone suggested i make a getaway to nahan, sirmaurs' headquarters. the weather had sufficiently improved by then to make up for any deficiency in this untried destination so, at 8:35 am on a saturday, with the meter reading 10,987, i ventured on my sirmaur experiment. to someone who has never travelled this way, the ghaggar and the mud mounds near hotel north park would suggest a swift passage into the hills but the impression is soon blown away. the road to kala amb (70 km) is generally meandering but seldom undulating. when it is not stuck at crowded village-towns like raipurani and narayangarh, it races amidst fields and over numerous small bridges, which span mere channels of sand in the dry weather. the climb from kala amb to nahan often feels steep because the maximum height of 932 m is achieved within 20 km. the hills along the road are a shade less green than at parwanoo but their stark and steep sides, so much like giant anthills, are spectacular nonetheless. some 15 km up this road i reached a fork where a leftup would take me to nahan and a right-down to giri nagar, where a power house has been set up after diverting the giri through a 6 kmlong tunnel.'' it was just 10:43 and both nahan and giri nagar were within the scope of the day...so why not! of the two, giri nagar appealed more to me for i had already seen and been charmed by the giri at gaura. getting to giri nagar means a swift descent and a hop over the markanda, which is not so wide or dry as at shahbad. on the way, one passes through dhaula kuan, about 20 km from nahan. the hp tourism site mentions it for its kastasan devi temple, built to commemorate the victory of a raja over a rohilla chief. however, my sights were trained only on giri nagar. the place provides a pleasant break from the dust and heat of the road. its green cover and quiet make it idyllic. but i had picked the wrong day for my trip. sarkaris work monday through friday so no official was around to let me into the power house. and unlike chaba (near tattapani) where the foreman had been only too glad to have himself clicked along with the turbines, the chowkidar here made sure i did not miss the ''photography prohibited'' sign. i did not argue the point and at 12:15 pm was back where the road forks near nahan. the meter read 11,132—145 km done and nothing to show for them! in heading for giri nagar, i had swung my plan in favour of a watercourse and met a wet blanket. but nahan's claim on my curiosity also lay in a lake, rani tal. the name recommended it to my imagination with visions of another naini tal. yet, when i finally came upon it, i missed it: there was only a park with a couple seated at the far end. but when several passers by pointed in the same direction, i looked more carefully and lo, there was the lake alright, but so far covered with algae that it was hard to tell from the park around! a wet blanket and a damp squib, this trip was proving a disaster. but i could still try suketi fossil park, about 21 km away. it was barely a quarter-past-one and i should not have been in a hurry. yet, when a helpful soul suggested i take the shorter road to suketi, i jumped at the idea. it is, indeed, a much shorter road: only a few hundred metres long! beyond it lies a kutcha trail on which the sand laps the wheels from tyre-wall to mid-spoke depth. to join it, you must turn right from the bridge across the markanda. while the stream here is a trickle, its channel is also hemmed in by the hills. as one goes along, the road disappears and the landscape opens into a wide valley. but between keeping your balance in the sand and the dust from your face, you can spare scarce any appreciation for nature. still, at a point where nahan town shone above the mud hills, through a frame of scattered vegetation, i stopped and for the first time in the day, raised my camera. the sand, the hills, the water were all white hot in the blazing sun, so, a tad doubtfully, i under-exposed one stop and left it at that. one shot— that's all. suketi proved another disappointment. all it has to offer are a few models fenced off with barbed wire and a store room which passes for a museum of fossils. school students may be amused by this display and indeed, the visitors book suggested they were its only visitors. the sun was still several hours from the horizon but my day's enthusiasm was almost spent by then. the hp tourism site marks trilokpur, six kilometres from kala amb, for its mediaeval temple. i thought i would check it out before giving up. since six kilometres from kala amb is 10 from suketi, i went just that far by the clock and pulled up at a brick structure under construction! you call that mediaeval? i don't, and to prove as much, at 4:30 pm. with the meter reading 11242, i reached home, 255 wasted kilometres behind me. a fortnight later, i was back on the familiar shimla road, this time headed for kuthar and arki. both places yielded a story each, and excellent pictures to boot. but the first shot on that film carried the impress of another day and place. and if you ask me, it wasn't such a bad shot after all! abhilashgaur@indiatimes.com