Postcards From Palampur

Ambica Gulati traverses a well-trodden path and lives the magic she had heard about in the green tea gardens and serene monasteries of kangra.

The loud noise of water woke me up in the middle of the night. I turned my groggy eyes towards the window—thunder, lightning and rain. It all seemed unfamiliar, including the bed and the room.

Was I in a dream? No, the lightning said that I was in Palampur, safe in my cottage at The Lodge at Wah. I had come to explore the scenic Kangra region and my base was this homestay. By the time I recalled all this, my eyes were shut again.

The morning was clear. Far away, the snow-tipped magnificent Dhauladhar range shone in the clear sky. If we had wings, the flight to the mountains would take barely five minutes. Out of my charming cottage, past the flowers, humming bees, green shrubs and trees, I walked to the breakfast table where my host Nikhita Patel, who had trained the staff in hospitality, offered me some baked eggs and sandwiches. A hospitality professional, she ensured that all ran like clockwork and the food was farm to fork. The homestay manages to grow a lot of its own produce. A garden at the back has tomatoes, onions, geraniums, lemongrass and more. It is a part of the Wah Tea Estate, which is one of the older estates in this green town.

Among the bigger towns in Kangra Valley, Palampur gets its name from the local word, palum, which means water. The area was filled with streams and brooks, now there is the Neugal stream. The roots of the town go back to 1849 when Dr Jameson, superintendent of Botanical Gardens, introduced a tea bush from Almora here.