TRAVEL
A haven for city weary
Sudha Mahalingam

Lansdowne is a jewel in the Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand that has so far managed to remain undetected by the roving eyes of the inveterate SUV-borne Delhi tourist.

It is a benign and a relatively obscure hill town with a seductive name and can barely provide beds for car loads of tourists who may land up without notice. Lansdowne can accommodate no more than a couple of hundred people at a given time. And these are wise people who have planned their trips and booked their rooms well ahead.

How did it manage to be so near, yet so far? About 260 km from Delhi and accessed by both Mussoorie Express and perfectly good roads that can reach you there in just six hours, it is a mystery that the brat pack has not started descending in droves on this pristine and unspoilt town, nay just an overgrown village.

Lansdowne is clothed in dense oak and blue pine forests festooned with ferns and shrouded in mist

But that may not be for long. Already resorts have started sprouting on the outskirts. Mercifully, the town itself is compact, with a single market hub with a few shops and a couple of eateries. If you're not staying in a resort, you will have to come to either of these eateries for your meals although the narrow, winding alleys that sport two mithai shops, one of them famous for its 'chocolate'.

The road to Lansdowne takes you through a bypass near Meerut from where you reach Kotdwar through Najibabad. Till you reach Kotdwar, there is nary a sign of the hills. And then the lambent shades of green burst on you with a vengeance. Lush and profuse, the verdant slopes hold out the promise of an emerald paradise ahead. There is hardly any traffic on the roads and you are lulled into believing that this road has been constructed exclusively for your benefit. Lansdowne itself, is clothed in dense oak and blue pine forests festooned with ferns and shrouded in mist, and lives up to the promise.

It is out and out a cantonment town and has that distinct military feel to it. The rest of the town has just grown around the cantonment, perhaps to cater to its needs. Prior to becoming a cantonment town, it used to be called Kalu Danda, but the Brits sexed it up, and named it after Lord Lansdowne in around 1887, the Viceroy of India. It started as a training centre for recruits to Garhwal rifles, and still remains a training centre, which explains why there are separate hostels for boys and girls in this small town. There is a museum of Garhwal Rifles, a War Memorial and a parade ground for those intent on 'sight-seeing'

But the best sights to be had are the lovely views uninterrupted by human or vehicular traffic. The dense oak, pine and cedar forests reluctantly let in shafts of sunlight that dapples the valley. The hills reverberate with the screech of crickets and that set up quite a racket. Like most hill towns, this one, too, has its fair share of temples, churches and schools, but mercifully, very few visitors.

Situated atop a hill surrounded by stately trees festooned with ferns, a 100 year-old heritage cottage, Prem Sadan, is the only homestay in this town. It has a vantage view and hospitable hosts who serve delectable home-cooked meals and charge only for the expenses they incur rather than run the establishment for profit.

Going by the inscriptions in St Mary’s church, the town must have been a hip and happening place in the British times. There are accounts of fancy wedding parties complete with minute details including the dress and hats worn by the guests. Fortunately, all that is just a sepia memory now and you can enjoy the views from Tip-n-top uninterrupted by nuptial processions wending their way down the hill to the church. At night, you can look up at a star-studded firmament and listen to the distant call of a mouse deer warning its species about the presence of the predator.

If you happen to be in Lansdowne on one of the national holidays, you can experience the patriotic fervour of the local people. Gandhi jayanti witnesses the civilian population turning up in all its finery to honour the Mahatma with flag-hoisting, speeches and skits that showcase local talent.

The sole cinema hall plays latest Bollywood movies to packed audiences. For want of anything else to do, the locals just turn up at the market place to exchange gossip and gawk at a few visitors. There is a picturesque lake where a few pedal boats are moored, mercifully, almost as a concession to the city-bred, rather than out of eagerness to convert the spot into a picnic area.

Eventually even the most die-hard tourist and picnicker realises that the best way to enjoy Lansdowne is to go for long walks under the canopy or trek down the slopes to a distant waterfall to the accompaniment of cricket music.

Fact file 
How to get there: Take Mussoorie Express from New Delhi and get off at Kotdwar and take a taxi or drive from New Delhi via Meerut-Bijor-Najibabad-Kotdwar-Lansdowne.

What to see/do: Lovely views of Pauri Garhwal hills. Can trek to nearby villages.
Tip: Book ahead if you want a place to stay.

Globetrotting   Banking on cheese Workers at a storage area (below) for Parmesan cheese wheels at a warehouse owned by Credito Emiliano bank in Montecavolo, near Reggio Emila, Italy. Hundreds of thousands of wheels of the famed cheese are stocked and looked after in the warehouse as both their flavour and monetary value grows. Photo: Reuters/Stefano Rellandini  ALL that is golden in bank Credito Emiliano's temperature-controlled vault is not precious metal, but something equally prized in Italy: aging Parmesan cheese. Row upon row of 85-pound wheels of straw-colored Parmesan cheese, stacked some 33 feet high at a secure warehouse, age for as many as two years under the care of bank employees trained in the centuries-old art of Parmesan making. The program allows Parmesan producers to pump cash into their business by using their product as collateral while it is otherwise sitting on a shelf for the long aging process. "In times of crisis, the system is helping the cheesemakers," said Iginio Morini, spokesman for the Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Consortium, which represents more than 400 Parmesan producers who are the only ones who may name their cheese "Parmigiano-Reggiano." A cheesemaker turns over a percentage of his production, say 25 per cent, to a bank warehouse and is given a certificate which can be presented to the bank to secure the loan, Morini said. In many cases, the cheesemaker then sells title to the cheese to a distributor while the cheese is still aging. Typically, a Parmesan maker who produces 7,000 wheels a year might put up 2,000 as collateral for a loan. According to Morini's calculations, each wheel is worth as much as 300 euros ($425), valuing the cheese collateral at 600,000 euros. The bank would then issue a loan of 60 percent to 70 percent of the value, so around 420,000 euros. The Parmesan loan business contributes just 1 per cent to the bank’s annual revenue — but is critical to its image in the region, where agriculture is a key economic driver, said William Bizzarri, director of the Credito Emiliano subsidiary that deals in Parmesan deposits. Inside the vaults, the temperature is maintained at between 64 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit with humidity above 90 percent. The forms are rotated and cleaned automatically by machines. Parmesan wheels lend themselves well to use as collateral because they are eminently traceable. Each form is stamped with the month and location where it was produced, and after 12 months of aging, it earns the Parmesan imprint, although some varieties are aged for up to 24 and even 30 months. Those markings helped identify 570 Parmesan wheels stolen six months ago, Bizzarri said. — AP

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