Kalka - Shimla Road To 72 Virgins

Everybody loves the hills. On the small screen we showed our love to Raymond and in real life we are showing it to the mountains, well at least in this blog we are! Ask anybody from the sweltering plains, a trip on the Kalka - Shimla road to the summer capital is what refreshes one, so they be ready later to take all the heat in their day to day hot and humid lives. Be it every once a week, once a month or even once every year, the feel of the cool winds blowing in your face is what most crave for. Although it might pinch you a bit in the winter month of December but come May - June ,the hills offer a treat from the heat.

Expectations:

When we drive to the hills or get driven, we expect & experience an all together different world, a world covered with mystical clouds in the summers and magical fog in the winters. With ghosts and goblins playing hide & seek in the lush green deep forests and a gamut of hippies stomping on psychedelic beats on snow clad mountain peaks. Yep, the oh so famous Rave parties of Himachal Pradesh! Just like a modern fairy tale, on a road straight to heaven. But come 2019, its a route more like to hell!

Conditions:

The stretch on the Kalka to Shimla road will make the quietest of babies yell and scream like they're been kidnapped and taken to the gates of Mordor. Falling debris/ unexpected landslides, dusty roads, uprooted trees, boulders parked along the sides, craters/potholes and kilometers long traffic jams is as common a sight as a joint being rolled on the streets of Manali. An uninterested, uninspired and corrupt administration is all that you need for the annoyingly iconic stories that'l be passed on by one traveler to another.

Situation:

For the ones unknown with the current situation, apparently the infamous stretch is being re-done to be converted into a full blown 4 lane highway for a smoother more faster travel up the mountains. While everyone is been waiting in vain for the day when the long, arduous & pathetically slow work gets completed from 4 years now, the Chief Minister of the State regularly fly in his lavish chopper over the deplorably under-constructed road every now & then. Without giving a single hoot about the horrible situation presented by GR Infraprojex under NHAI (National Highway Association of India).

Deadlines crossed:

This master stroke on the Kalka - Shimla road was supposed to be completed by March 2018 but now because of constant speed bumps due to a shady and futile government, irresponsible & unorganized plans of action by the company in-charge coupled with unexpected natural phenomenons like heavy downpours, the deadline has been pushed further till September 2019. The cost of this unending blunder goes up to 2518 crore along with 33,000 trees hacked to the ground. Replacing all this flora and fauna by compulsory afforestation is another trauma I don't want to get into right now. Because then it just gets sad and frustrating, as neither the NHAI/GR Infra nor the forest department has any answers.

Frustrations:

The distance between Kalka to Solan being 41 Kms should be ideally completed within 1 hour, but now because of the constant traffic snarls caused due to the shoddy work being done by the construction angels of the new highways, it easily takes between a crazy filled 2 - 2:30 hours. During which, apart from playing truth & dare with the race, break and clutch pedals you simply tear your hair apart and later the seat covers and much later your car engine until you cross Solan and exasperatedly race to Shimla, where you're greeted with the grumpy families of potholes and craters & hence awaken the The Rise of the Dummy Driver .

Moreover, the diversion boards are placed in such an erratic fashion, that most drivers fail to realize, when the 4 lanes merges into 2 & thats when heart stopping collisions occur. You'd feel its a lane meant just for the vehicles going in your direction & you'll race to glory. Just then a vehicle appears from nowhere right in front & you swerve to escape the inevitable crash, but end-up plunging down the hills along with your hopes & dreams. 

Yep, its scary as hell so it's a kind request, Do Not over-Speed The Next Time You're On This Deadly Stretch. If you don't care about yourself, at least do think about the people with you, the ones waiting for you & the ones you're going to kill or maim! You have fast cars with powerful engines, well, save the madness for the straight roads in the cities or find a track. Until then, as long as you're on  the NH-22 as a tourist or a local, drive like you care.

Not a happy ending:

Today I will take this fantastic opportunity to thank our credible government from the deepest core without whom our long due wish of a highway leading to a dream of 72 virgins would had never seen the day. Yes, we aren't any brainwashed radicals,  but come on the Kalka - Shimla road and we aren't any less. Drive safe;)