The summer tourist season is round the corner and traders in the hill town are looking forward to ‘a good season’, giving a new get-up to their hotels, restaurants and shop. Tourists, of course, do come in large numbers but sometimes, the season is not very smooth with gaps that see just a few visitors. In 190 long years of its existence, this hill town has seen many ups and downs, but remains one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, attracting people from all parts of the world too.
Once known as the queen of resorts and the resort of Kings, a hill station where time once stood still and people experienced a rare tranquility, it has turned into a place which gives one the feeling that the rush and tumble of city life has made its way into the once quiet town.
Even till 25 years ago, Mussoorie retained its fashionable trends of live bands, beauty contests and X’mas carnivals. An extremely cheerful atmosphere prevailed in summer and tourists stayed for longer periods and struck life-long friendships with other visitors to the hill station.
Over the last one decade or so, things have changed dramatically and the “weekend tourist” has taken over.
Though the crowds during the summer have increased, the air of liveliness and festivity can no longer be felt. “The fine gentry no longer visit us. Perhaps they want to avoid the traffic jams and the noise on the Mall,” says Naresh Vachani, an old resident of Mussoorie who runs the famous “Chick Chocolate” in the heart of the hill station. “But Mussoorie is now greener than it has been in a long time, thanks to the efforts of the Eco Taskforce.”
It was in 1823 that Frederick Young, the Irish army officer, founded landour and Mussoorie. lt. Young came to these hills for the sole purpose of bagging some game, peculiar to the hills. He was so enamoured of the surroundings that he decided to build a hunting lodge (shooting box) for his convenience. The shooting box had been set up in 1823 by Young and FJ Shore, who was the Joint Magistrate of Doon, on the Camel’s Back Road. This can be called the first construction in Mussoorie. lt Young then suggested to his superiors in the army and civil establishment to build a convalescent home for the tired and sick army personnel in the salubrious environment of these hills. In 1827, the Company’s Government established a convalescent depot for British soldiers at landour.
After that, Young built his residence in landour and named it “Mullingar” after the city of this name in his native Ireland.
The 1970s and 80s were the heydays of the hill station with movies, fashion shows, beauty contests and live bands extremely popular. Morning shows at the various cinema halls were a great hit with every one and so were the late night shows. Picture Palace, the very first cinema to have come up in Mussoorie, lies now in a state of ruin. “The Electric Picture Palace”, to give it its original name, opened in 1912, soon after electricity came to the hill station. One of the country’s earliest cinemas, it survived for 90 years. It has now been renovated and made into a multiple. Besides Picture Palace, there were many other cinema halls in the town namely Vasu, Rialto, Basant, Roxy, Capitol and Jubilee. All these have closed down now.
Many of the old sprawling hill homes have vanished .Bungalow-styled Kenneth lodge has changed to pragmatic Mahajan Villa; Catherine Villa to monolithic Jas Apartments; turreted Fairlawn Palace to pin-cushioned Kamal Towers; tin-roofed Heaven’s Club to a characterless Shipra; brick-clad Madelsa House to a concrete Tibetan Nunnery; Kalsia Estate into Pearl Hotel, Rock Cliffe to Avalon Resorts (now Mahindra Resort); tree-draped Arundale Cottage to deserted Priyank Apartments; oak-covered Sapling Estate to a building-block like MS Resorts; and honey-suckle laden Rosemary Cottage to plastic-palmed Oasis Hotel.
Many impressive landmarks of Mussoorie town can no longer be seen. Among them is the landour Clock Tower (on the way from Mussoorie towards landour cantonment)which was demolished some years agoith the intention of being rebuilt but no signs of it coming up again are visible. Kwality Restaurant is another landmark missed a great deal as it was a great favourite with locals and visitors alike.
Mussoorie came into prominence because of its easy accessibility and it is finally paying the price, in some ways, for being too close to the plains.But despite all this, people who live in Mussoorie and those who visit it frequently accept the changes and carry on loving this nearly two hundred year hill station. They have an eternal soft corner for it in their hearts.