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Copyright of the text and the images with Arun Gaur

Rock of Shilaru / Himachal Pradesh / Tripolia-Exploring India-Arun Gaur’s Indian Landscape Images

On the mountainous national highway we celebrated the color and texture of this unknown rock.

At the end of June we picked up our scooter and drove on the National Highway. We have driven on this road many times. The road from Panchkula to Pinjore is still being widened considerably. So there is a lot of dust. The road passes along the river Ghaggar. Not much water. Only a streamlet here and there. From Pinjore to Kalka, it may take 15 minutes or so depending upon the traffic. The Kalka-stretch has been widened despite many vigorous protests from the town-bazaar people. Still it suffers from some congestion. Particularly during the summer months, everybody seems to be running for the hills. Especially on the weekdays. The climb of the road begins from Kalka. Then there is Parwanoo and other hill stations including Solan. After 5 hours of leisurely drive we reach Shimla. Many do this drive in 3 hours. We do not. Now in summer everyone runs for the hills. They are so near from the plains here. Everyone seems to have a car now (except us, still on a two-wheeler) and everybody seems to have ample money at least for one or two day jaunt. All of them—the middle class people and higher than the middle class people seem to be rolling in wealth. Good for them. So the traffic jam is heavy. So nasty. But we cannot object to the traveling of the travelers. Why should we? Everyone has a right to travel as one wishes. Albeit, the scenario shifts after Shimla. The fashionable, city-dwellers cannot go much farther. Their destination has arrived. City malls are not visible after Shimla. One or two more towns and villages and the traffic has become thin. Good for us. On previous occasions I thought Chandigarh Shimla highway to be one of the best. Why shouldn’t be it? After all, it connects the two state capitals and all the dignitaries, ministers and all important and pompous personages traverse the route night and day. During the day-time they blare their horns, but I am comfortable. During the night, if I have to drive at all, I am full of troubles. Their blazing lights blind me and I take triple the normal time. It is not so with them. The cars and other bikes simply zoom away. So incompetent I have become. Yes, I was mentioning that I found this stretch of a road to be very good previously. This time it is not so. This time I don’t find it so good. On the other hand the stretch that we encountered between Shimla and Narkanda was unexpectedly good. Near Fagu, fortunately we could find a scooter-mechanic who repaired our tyre-puncture, though he used our own tools to open up the tyre. We go on and on. After Matiana we spotted this rock. The colors and textures so captivated us that we stayed for two days at Matiana to photograph it. We do not know whether the time and energy that we spent here was worth the effort. We tried to do justice to the color and texture. How much of the splendor we could recover-- we don’t know even about that. Surely, we could not do much justice. Even then, whatever we got, at least to us, is a source of pleasure.

Rock of Shilaru 1:

Rock of Shilaru 2

Rock of Shilaru 3

Rock of Shilaru 5

Rock of Shilaru 6

Rock of Shilaru 7

Rock of Shilaru 8