Strolling on the Mall on a leisure trip with family on Sunday away and ahead of the usual New Year chaos as a result of the flocking tourists and traffic jams which the Queen of hills - Mussoorie is usually throttled with every year, I came across some attractions cited in this piece.
While there is a joyful humming across Mussoorie anytime you go, I could feel a festive mood among the localities definitely in preparation for the week-long fifth edition of Mussoorie Winterline Carnival 2017 organised by the Uttarakhand government and supported by several public/private organisations and state departments that commenced on December 25. Mussoorie certainly has a unique flavor, whether it’s the locales, its people or the culture each a catalyst that unwind and leave one longing for more. Impressed by the pristine beauty of the place Captain Frederick Young of the East India Company had made this place his home in 1820. The name Mussoorie is often attributed to 'mansoor', a shrub indigenous to the area. The town is often called 'Mansoori' by most Indians.
For those less familiar on what the winter line carnival is all about and why is it organized in Mussoorie, well! The unique phenomenon of nature visible only at Mussoorie in India is the “Winter Line”, the Carnival’s reason.
Winter Line viewed when the setting sun drops behind the imaginary horizon overlooking the Doon valley. The horizon is a mauve and grey coloured strip with yellow and orange line at the upper end of the strip. The myriad colours make for a pretty picture that leaves the spectators spell-bound. The winter line appears for four months from mid October to end of February. It is one of the most captivating sights of the mountainous regions that have a long valley extending beyond them to the south-west. Mussoorie is truly blessed by nature and shares this rare distinction with Switzerland.
To popularize winter line the carnival is organised offering a power packed week-long programme focusing on local artists, culture, folk dance, musical events, gathering of poets, food festival, marathons, nature walk, bird watching trails, games for children, adventure sports, wellness and eco activities, and street plays by local artists. The rustic event in many forms is fast catching up with the tourists. Holding it during Christmas and New Year celebration times gets it a good attendance of visitors.
The writer in front of the poster
What really caught my attention in Mussoorie was a small banner with a big message placed near the Mahatma Gandhi Chowk. The lone banner invited all to a pictorial exhibition on “175 years of City Board Mussoorie” now a Nagar Palika, the oldest municipal corporation in India. The City Board Mussoorie has been in existence since the eighteenth century, its first Chairman Mr. Fruth Major elected in 1850.
The City Board or Nagar Palika is the urban local body constituted as per the constitutional provisions in the Constitution of India that takes care of the civic amenities, maintenance of public places, registrations and horticulture of the area under jurisdiction.
I felt flabbergasted to see how such a big event going ahead in such an unnoticed way and low-key. This event is big enough and important to go in annuls of the history as one of national significance. I searched on the public domain to find more information of this landmark event but failed to gather any. Why such a lack-luster attitude by the government is a matter of serious pondering.
Show casing some of the rarest photographs of Mussoorie through a pictorial exhibition on 175 years of the Nagar Palika and Mussoorie will undoubtedly be an unmatched display of photography depicting the glimpses of the past and the History of Mussoorie over the ages. This should have been the focal point of the 2017 edition of the carnival properly advertised across the country with proper events lined up and not be a small part of the carnival.
It will be befitting on the 175th anniversary if the government offers separate space in the Town Hall or elsewhere in the hill town to create a permanent museum where the such rare photography collection and documentation of Mussoorie be preserved for public viewing all through the year.
175 years by Mussoorie Nagar Palika is truly a momentous occasion that need solemnization in a better and most dignified and grandeur way at the highest levels of the State to portray to the world the importance India gives to its local civic bodies over the ages. It also jells well with the ongoing Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of the government that aims towards sanitation, clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure of India's cities, smaller towns, and rural areas.
Viewing the pictorial gallery of some of the rarest photographs of Mussoorie during the 2017 Winterline Carnival will take the visitors to the golden era of the last two centuries of the hill town and unfold the glorious journey of the City Board Mussoorie (Nagar Palika).
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