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| The Landour Clock Tower. Gone. |
You
wouldn't believe it till I took you to the Council Rock myself. And you
wouldn't believe me if I told you where it is. Come, follow me from where the
Clock Tower once stood. It breaks my heart to think how they pulled the
old landmark down; a landmark so dear to all who love Mussoorie. Specially us
oldies who watch the hill station's nostalgia slowly fading away.
If this was 1955, you
wouldn't be able to keep up with me. I was thirteen years old
then. I could run up from Bala Hissar to Basil Hawkins' place in twenty
minutes! Basil's place, Dahlia Bank, is a little past Lal Tibbba. Jabbar Khet
is a kilometer ahead and that's where I am taking you.
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| Lal Tibba, Dahlia Bank, Haunted House and Jabber Khet |
But
now it’s 2014 and I'm many years older. So, lucky for you, we'll
take it easy.
Yes,
the old Mussoorie is fading away. Everything is changing or has already
changed. The Clock Tower has gone; sorry I am repeating myself, but it breaks my
heart -- how thoughtless of them. The old shop where I bought my first box of
Guitar watercolor paints -- gone! The army disposal shop below the Mullinga Slope
-- gone! Oh yes, I bought an army surplus haversack here, the very same kind
Tenzing Norgay took to the top of Mt Everest ! I saw it at the Himalayan
Mountaineering Institute, HMI, Darjeeling. Ruskin Bond's place has changed too!
Woodstock and Dahlia Bank have changed! Everything has changed except the
Council Rock and the wolves. Yes, everything except the wolves.
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| The Haunted House. |
Wait
a minute please; we'll just pop in at the Haunted House where Wynberg-Allen
used to be very long ago. I can't resist a peep through a cracked and broken
window pane...
You
can get off the Tehri Road now. That's right, we have reached Jabbar Khet. Look up. See the Tibetan prayer flags
fluttering in the breeze? Keep going. A little further. Just a little
more...Tired? We are nearly there.
Vault
the fallen tree-trunk. Ouch! Stinging nettles eh? Sorry... Here we are!
See
it? The Council Rock!
Unbelievable!
The massive rock jutting out over an open space where the wolf pack would
gather to hear Akela speak?
Please
rest awhile. It’s been quite a trek for
you! I'm ok. I've got a bit of my hill legs back. Excited! I told you so. But
wait till the sun sets...and the moon rises! There's a full moon on tonight!
The
wind whispers through the oaks and pines; a lullaby at nearly 9,000 feet.
Sleep, sleep, the rustling pine needles say...
A
huge moon rises over the rim of the rock and silhouettes the craggy form of a
great grey wolf who takes a particular stance and commences to howl. A Grand
Howl. Below, the pack has collected in an orderly circle. The older wolves mean
business as they repeat again and again, " Do your best, keep your
promises, obey the law!"
A
wave of enthusiasm engulfs the gathering. A rhythmic dyb, dyb, dyb like chorus
comes from the great leaders answered by a clear dob, dob, dob from the
juveniles.
Formalities
over, they mingle excitedly recalling old yarns, humming old hunting songs and
remembering the one and only man who ran with the pack.
And
yes one other. The wolves make an opening for me and I approach the center just
below the rock on which the old grey wolf stands presiding over the gathering.
The
ceremony lasts a few nostalgic moments and ends with a grand howl! I receive my
fifty seventh token of the Glittering Eye.
Long, long ago man and animal had agreed to live in peace and bliss and together share the earth. Then man was the first one to break the Law of the Wild. The animals of India were the first to write the new Law of the Jungle on the wind. The new law spread throughout the globe. Till today all animals keep the law. But the jungle is vanishing along with the animals. The Law of the Jungle will therefore go too and only man-made laws will remain to sustain the earth. But man's laws are not permanent like the jungle laws. Everything will then collapse and come to an end. We ask you O one with the Glittering Eye to save the earth by saving the forests and animals whose very nature it is to keep the law.
Jim
suddenly appeared in our midst. He was accompanied by the Chowgarh brothers on
either side of him. Others from the Haunted House had joined us too. I could
only recognise a few:...
Then
came a little child, a man cub, carrying a small grey wolf cub...
There was hope...
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| Aerial Perspective, beyond Landour and Jabberkhet. |
