Kasauli – A Relic of the Raj

How long ago was it that we were in Kasauli for a reprieve from a long summer, maybe six or seven years ago, was it September of 2011 or maybe 2012? Three of us, Dad, brother and I were on an introspective journey to celebrate our time with mother who had left us almost half a decade ago. We missed her, sure! But encouraged, Dad to now feel liberated by accepting the belief that life has to move on and change is constant.

                                                  From the Family Album

                   To heal and be joyous together was the crux of our coming to Kasauli, this was an Old-world familiar type of place we were well acquainted with over the years.

I have not gone back to Kasauli since then, that in spite of the countless invites from our dear friends, Gunmala and BM Kapoor. An uncalled for mental block perhaps, as our perceptions comfort us to create an enclave of thoughts and memories that we tend to guard fiercely. Every

place has a soul, as does Kasauli. Is that why I have been tentative to return as I will have to modify my mind picture and hope that the growth has not tinkered with the soul of this beautiful hamlet?

 Is it providential that just when I thought of refurbishing my old  Kasauli Blog , last week ,I had a missed call from BM , He and Gunmala were on their way to Kasauli.  Ironically he did not intend to call me …..Was it intuitive?  And now a what’s app picture message from  them … Sunrise and morning cup of tea in their beautiful home in blissful harmony with nature.

A view from their hill home ... Courtesy BM Kapoors 

So, maybe soon one day Kasauli will beckon for me to get there and rummage through old  notations  and jigsaw pieces of life and lives of people who lived once upon a time . And what could be a better way to see the  changed and the unchanged. It is always a delight to walk back in time and recover the imprint of places and people in our life. It is called Nostalgia and indelible memories.

2011                                                       Kasauli Church                                   1880

That reminds me of Rupert Brooke’s poem The ‘Old Vicarage, Grantchester’. He wrote it in 1912 in Berlin and seemed to be so sentimentally nostalgic and homesick. Sadly he died  at age 28  of blood poisoning in WW1  on the Continent and never came back home.

In a strange way it is an analogy that I draw in remembering places that I feel nostalgic about. The poem ends with the couplet "Stands the church clock at ten to three? And is  there honey still for tea?" 

Say, is there Beauty yet to find?
And Certainty ? and Quiet kind?
Deep meadows yet, for to forget
The lies, and truths, and pain?… oh! yet
Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?”

The Kasauli Church Clock had also stood frozen in time for over a century at around three; no one had the grand-father clock to strike the hour. Though the ‘Old Vicarage Clock’  at Grantchester, still historically stands at 10 to  3  ,the nearly 150 year old clock of the  Kasauli  church in the is ticking once again due to the  of a efforts  of  good Samaritan Ashwini  Kumar and diligent  cooperation by the Electrical  and Mechanical  engineers  of the  local   army  Brigade.

Kasauli Reminisced ……

Snuggled   amidst the thick Chir, the Pinus Roxburghii forested woods; Kasauli is a charming hill station from the era of British India and has picture perfect surroundings and magnificent   old English Bungalows. 

Of Pines and Bungalows

The panoramic view of snow-covered mountains, lush greenery, gurgling mountain streams, and meadows are still there for us to visit and revisit the    unspoiled exquisiteness of the hill station. Sitting under the canopy of tall chir trees the sunrays play a delicate filigree on the forest floor and on you...  It is undoubtedly an amazing place for all those who are seeking for a respite from the rat race of city life and a connect with nature.

Sun light creating patterns on forest floor 

Kasauli is a sleepy little quaint hill town in Himachal. It seems to live in an enchanting time warp that belonged to the century left behind. This town gives an impression of an unchanged aura about it…possibly it is just as it was when the British left, almost seven decades ago. 

A throwback of   English Countryside

The town’s ambience which to say the least, is somewhat that of rural England,  maybe it’s the gabled houses with charming facades and chimneys and neat little gardens with beds of geraniums and hydrangea. The picture is completed by its narrow roads that wander up and down the hillside. 

It is quite unspoiled and unlike any other place that I have been to in the hills

High stone revetments of Kasauli Church

Many of you must have must have at least heard of Kasauli , but most of you would not know that it was also written as ‘Kussowlie’ ….And all those who saw ‘1942 Love Story’ must have been awed by stately yet charming  old world nineteenth century structure of the Christ Church held by high stone revetments. A narrow path stumbles towards the pastor cottage.

Stumbling path to Pastors Cottage

It has a cruciform floor plan and was made by the British families who lived in Kasauli. The stained glass windows over the altar depicting the Crucifixion are tall and imposing and were imported from England when the church was built. An impressive aisle leads to the beautiful altar sculpture, in which Jesus Christ is with Joseph and Mary.

.The church occupied a fairly large area in the centre of the town, near around the Bus stand at end of the market and the tall Pinus trees soar upwards competing with the Tower. From the rear of the church one gets a panoramic view of Sanawar and Dagshai Hills.

The Sun Dial  at Christ Church Kossowlie

The distinct   architecture of the Christ Church includes a Clock Tower and a Sundial and which stands near the front entrance. In those days good old tried and tested ‘sundials’   were handy to set and re- calibrates the clocks. The Church Clocks were the timekeepers of the community, hence accuracy was desired and the sundials being exceptionally accurate around noon all through the year adequately fulfil the need. All pendulum clocks are notorious to gain and lose time in different seasons. Thus they became faster or slower with the length of the pendulum changing due to expansion of the metal.

What makes The Christ Church unique is the fact that it is the oldest church of Himachal Pradesh. It has a quaint emblematic Gothic style architectural style and scenic setting. It is dedicated to its patron St. Francis and St. Barnabas. 

The stained glasss windows of the Patron Saints

The present structure of the church and architecture was designed with the green gables.  Today it has something which no other hill station has, in the whole of North India. Kasauli has an antique tower clock, which ticks and rings, to take you back in time, and give you a taste of the old world charm. But for over a 100 year no one had seen the hour hands move or heard the pendulums of the old clock swing in of the Church Tower.

I was told that The Christ Church was built between 1844 and 1853 at a cost of about Rs 18,300 and the clock was installed in 1884 for exactly Rs 2,612 and 11 annas, from which the sum of Rs. 625 given by the Govt. of India, Deptt of Military Works and Rs. 625 by the Punjab Govt.  This was a sizeable expenditure and a great community effort.

The stained Glass over the pulpit

There is  a story attributed, to the then Viceroy of India, Sir John Lawrence – who was known for his candour and blunt talk – It so happened  that when he visited the church on which a great deal of money had been spent, and in his opinion wasted on the steeple, he was asked to pledge his support to it. As there were still no pews, and as blunt as ever he remarked, “You might as well ask me to subscribe to get a man a hat when he has no breeches”.

 Can you imagine the furore this analogy must have created?

Kasauli's Landmark

That church without ‘breeches’ has gone on to become Kasauli’s landmark. The neo-Gothic Christ Church evidently later got both the hat and trousers. It still stands tall as you enter the little town.–though with a limited congregation of 25 people.

The Church got its hat and breeches

Entering the church on the left of the pews I found a commemorative plaque…..

  SELBY LORIMER CASSEL LANE and RICHARD LAURENCE ARUNDEL REED.

To the Glory of God and in cherished memory of

Selby Lorimer Cassel Lane Born 10th October 1901. Died 7th June 1935.

        And Richard Laurence Arundel Reed. Born 8th May 1904. Died 24th June 1935.

Ist Bn. the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment who gave their lives fighting a forest fire, which on 7th June threatened to destroy Kasauli.
This memorial is erected

Memorial Plaque of the officers who died in fire

What happened on 7^th of June 1935?

What kind of forest fire was it that almost destroyed entire Kasauli? Even today the hills are covered with the trees of chir, pine, elm, Himalayan oak and robust horse-chestnuts and these pines are a blessing for summer’s forest fire, the fallen dry tinder -like needles and cones of these trees fuel the dangers of these sudden blazes.

These two young men aged 34 and 31 lost their lives…..Marion  lane ,wife of Capt. Lane must have been devastated with her husband’s death…she was far away from home….truly far across continents and  seas , but fortunately  the long tortuous journey they had to take in the 19^th century was  cut short by the opening of Suez Canal.

St Grorge Cross Awarded to Pvt Blackburn

There is very little that I could gather about the raging forest fire …but looking through the records, i came across  a mention of a ‘George Cross’ awarded to one Pvte Richard Blackburn, 1st battalion (later sergeant with the royal Warwickshire regiment.

What I gathered was that on 7th June 1935 the  forests around Kasauli were ablaze .A raging fire, was threatening to destroy the town, hence a platoon of troops  was sent to salvage and literally fire fight, they got trapped and were in grave jeopardy, the roaring flames forced them retreat. Somehow in the ensuing chaos the officer in charge became separated from the others and was stumbling about suffocated in a dazed condition with his clothing alight like a lit up torch.  Private Blackburn, who had gone out to look for him, helped him to a place of safety and extinguished his burning clothes with his bare hands.

If it was not for the courage the officer  Kasauli would not have survived, to see another soiree at the club….or families ride in  on horse drawn carriages for Sunday congregation called by the parson …..And the charity parish  high teas.  Nonetheless, it seems today being a weekday we had our simian cousins as invitees.

Our Simian Cousins

But it was not a forest fire that destroyed the 122-year-old historic Kasauli Club building was razed to the ground in a devastating fire which broke out around 10.45 pm one January winter night 2001, when nobody was around. The single-storey structure, made mainly of wood was burnt to the ground….. 

 The library, the billiards, cards, dining and reading rooms, along with the huge ballroom, all went up in smoke,  causing a loss of  old-world colonial furniture, priceless books & paintings, and, above all that authentic touch of  the bygone era .However the members got together and got it reconstructed in the year 2005 somewhat reminiscent of the old structure.