|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tourists coming to Shimla enjoy two aspects of the animal world – the monkey tricks and horse or pony rides. The monkeys of Shimla find favour with the tourists. It is particularly intriguing to find the ones at Jakhoo hill bold enough to demand roasted gram (chana); and if you are a little stingy with your bounty they may cling to you or put their tiny paws in your pocket. Interestingly, monkeys have found pride of place in the stories of the Raj days, their garden-damaging and eatable-pilfering tactics notwithstanding. Rudyard Kipling celebrated them in many of his stories fictionalising their exploits, but somehow the horses have been left out of literature. Probably because the tricks they played were not as enjoyable or their mood swings bordered on farce of the dangerous kind. It could never have been a pleasant experience to be hi-jacked by a mere pony, nor could it be amusing for the white man to be thrown off the saddle in full view of the natives. Horses did show their unpleasant temper oft and on, leaving the British high-ups with the awful feeling of humiliation. But, one could hardly fight it out with the animal world. There are a number of stories associated with the tricks played by horses in Shimla. It was Lord Kitchener, so the story runs, who fell off his pony right in the middle of the Dhali-Sanjauli tunnel. Lord Kitchener was going from the Wild Flower Hall to the Vice-regal Lodge for a meeting with the Viceroy. Halfway between the Dhali tunnel, the pony slipped. Lord Kitchener came hurtling down with the pony falling on him. Those were the days when the Dhali tunnel was not lighted as it is now, nor was there so any road traffic, so to say. Kitchener was alone in the tunnel. Seeing a shadow figure against the faint light, he shouted for help. The Gorkha porter, however, was scared for life and he took to his heels; another heard the Sahib’s faint calls and taking it to be a ghost, he too ran away. Help came after some time when the first porter conveyed the news. The poor Sahib had a leg fracture. One of the most hilarious incidents took place when Lord and Lady Curzon were whisked away by their horses in the famous "John Gilping style. One fine morning, the Viceroy and the Vicereine went out riding from the Vice-regal lodge, now Indian Institute of Advanced Study. As they neared the guardhouse, the guard saw them coming along the drive. He stood alert and as the two reached near enough he saluted with such enthusiasm and vigour that the ponies were startled and both, one after the other bolted past the main entrance, right through the broad open space and carried Their Excellencies past the small bazaar of Chaura Maidan ignoring their shouts and warnings and tightening of the reigns. Somehow, the Viceroy controlled his horse and came back alone. He stood at the guardhouse to speak to the guard. The guard imagining that his first salute was faulty clicked his heels giving an even more forceful salute. The pony got frightened once more and dashed off again towards the bazaar. Once, Lord Dalhousie too had a narrow escape when he and James Thomason, the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces went riding. The horse went out of control and both were thrown off a precipice. Back to the Viceregal lodge, Lord Dalhousie, poised and in a mood to take the fall in its stride thought, "How delighted the newspapers will be! ‘Oh, this comes of Governor-Generals and Lieutenant-Governors going into the Hills.’" And he wrote it down in his diary. Lady Dufferin and her female companions were riding out when they were caught in a landslide and had a miraculous escape. Lord Lytton fell off the horse but escaped unscathed. More than the fall what these British officials dreaded was the news of the White Sahibs’ fallibility circulating among the natives – that is, Indians. It was a practice in Imperial Shimla to fire a salute to the Viceroy everyday at noon, but after an incident when the frightened horses dashed off almost to the peril of the riders and the public, the practice had to be discontinued. It was Lord Ripon’s first salute. The Mall saw the most dignified procession of gold-laced celebrities gathered for the installation ceremony. After the celebrations, the salute was fired and the cavalcade suddenly turned into a mass of horses and riders running helter-skelter, with the men trying to master the beasts and the horses resisting it. A witness later described it as a scene form the circus – the "riders doing tricks." One pony was almost poised to jump down the precipice, another was attempting to climb a nearby tree, some horses started galloping crazily while some just whined and neighed with raised front hooves trying to get off their precious burden from their backs. After the incident, the Mall wore a pathetic but comical look as the ground was strewn with caps and hats of all sorts, with colorful plumes scattered all around. Really, one can never be sure of the horse sense! |
||
|
|
||
