PALAMPUR
It may be time to congratulate a great geographical collision. Had it not been for the Australasia landmass invading the level dignity of the main land of Asia, there would have been no Himalayas. A retrospective tragedy of Himalayan proportions. Many ranges have come up since. Everest, it is said is rising ! Mumbai is supposed to be sinking ! As long as everything does not become level, I am happy ! So we now have the Karakoram Range in Pakistan and in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The Dhauladhars and Pir Panjal. As well as the Great Himalayan range. And of course the Shivaliks for those who go to the Himalayas to escape the tropical heat of the plains and for little else.
The Great Himalayan range is the more advertised brand. The Pir Panjal is the marketing challenger and the Dhauladhars are the prestigious niche known only to connoisseurs. Which brings us to the rare subject of the Kangra Valley in the lap of the Dhauladhars. And therefore to the jewel in its crown. A place named as innocuously as its reputation - PALAMPUR. Specific, simple and meaningful. Palam means water and literally it is a place full of water. With its numerous brooks and the roaring Neughal Khad, a 1000 feet chasm with the torrential Bundla stream going through it.
That it is a place to indulge in soliloquy, or one that makes you whistle spontaneously, or one of those rare places you would choose, if given a choice as to where you would like to live and die, is a description I have never come across in any travel writing. Not because it calls for a different kind of travel writer, but because it requires a befitting destination - Palampur.
Not merely unique because of its British tea plantation legacy or for that matter its unique natural beauty and salubrious climate, but for many other unique reasons each more unique than the other.
Nestling in a dark green shelter of that awesome snow crowned spectacle which geography calls the Dauladhar mountain ranges, at a height of 4,000 feet, is a verdant valley in the rather wide lap of its mighty neighbour the Dhauladhar. Known as the Kangra valley, a place of many historical upheavals. While Kangra town itself is better known as a historical entity, it is Palampur which attracts tourists who wish to see life beyond Shimla or Nainital.
Palampur finds itself contained within the Kangra Valley by the towering
