This hill station is witnessing its peak summer tourist season these days. There are a large number of tourists both in the Doon valley as well and Mussoorie. This “Queen of Hills” has been popular down the years among the royalty and very important people and in its history of around 200 years, it has had the privilege of hosting many celebrities.
Dev Anand, his wife Mona, Bina Rai, Premnath, Prem Chopra and a number of other famous people from the film industry visited the resort often as they had homes here. Other film personalities too came here to spend a few days in summer. Tourists used to wait for hours on the Mall Road to catch a glimpse of their favourite actors.
As the peak tourist season begins every year, one can be sure to hear the tales of the “good old times’ of Mussoorie from old residents of the hill station who look back nostalgically to the days when esteemed persons like Motilal Nehru walked down The Mall and Camel’s Back Road.
The relationship between the Nehru family and Mussoorie began with Motilal Nehru’s visits to the hill station, mainly for recuperating from illness. His wife, Swaroop Rani and their daughter Vijay lakshmi Pandit had a great attachment to this hill station and visited it all through their lives. Vijay lakshmi Pandit stayed in landour for some time and was a frequent visitor to the famous “A. Prakash & Co” in Sisters Bazar. Several generations of the Nehru family have patronized this amazing store which stands unassumingly in a tranquil corner of the popular hill station.
India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited Mussoorie often and the hill town had a special place in his heart. In 1959, Nehru arrived in Mussoorie to meet the Dalai lama after he came here from Tibet. Mussoorie became Dalai lama’s first home in India. Memories of his days here are still narrated by the older citizens of the hill town.
But this was not Nehru’s first visit to Mussoorie. Nehruji recalls, in his autobiography, his visit to Mussoorie in October, 1930 where his father was recouping. “On October 13th, Kamala and I went off to Mussoorie to spend three days with father. I remember those quiet and delightful three days well; it was good to be back in the family. Indira, my daughter, was there; and my three little nieces, my sister’s daughters. And these three days were the last I was to have with my father before his fatal illness came to snatch him away from him,” he writes in his autobiography.
In the summer of 1920, Nehruji brought his ailing mother and wife to the famous Hotel Savoy of Mussoorie, along with little Indira. He had not entered active politics till then but an incident in Mussoorie catalysed his entry into the sphere.
Staying at the Savoy was an Afghan delegation which was in India for political talks with the British Government. Pandit Nehru did not know about the Afghans till after he arrived there. The Government, afraid that he might contact them and influence them, asked him to sign an undertaking that he would not get in touch with the delegation. Nehru refused to do that. Though he was not interested in meeting the Afghans, he believed that nobody had the right to prevent him from meeting them. He was ordered by the authorities to leave Mussoorie within 24 hours.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his wife spent many a summer in Mussoorie. Mrs. Wanchoo, Indira’s maternal aunt, lived for years in a house located on Gandhi Chowk (library).
Says Gopal Bhardwaj, chronicler and old resident of Mussoorie, “Personal and political matters brought Indiraji again and again to these hills and she had many good friends here like Sitaji, the princess of Kapurthala”.
He says that Indira Gandhi was extremely fond of staying at “Ekant” , the guest house of the Haryana government. "It was here she lived for some days in 1981”.
She also lived many a time at the Wanchoo’s place”. He says Radha Bhavan and Savoy Hotel were also Indiraji’s favourite places to stay at while in Mussoorie.
Residents of Mussoorie and Doon valley can never thank her enough as it was due to her love for the hill station that she took it up personally to ensure that its barrenness was removed and the limestone quarrying was stopped. Her initiative led the SC to give a judgement against the mining and the region was rejuvenated thereafter. The Nehru family’s love for the hills brought them here often. They found it quite similar to Kashmir.
"Kamla Castle "and "Craig Top" were two of the other resorts which they stayed at often.