The Real Mussoorie

EVERYONE who visits Mussoorie assures me it has gone to the dogs. It's dirty, drought-stricken, overpriced and crowded by day-trippers whose buses create traffic jams. But this is only true of the bazaar area and for the short space of six weeks in May and June. Dirt is a feature of every municipality except Kochi and Mysore, so why single out Mussoorie? The drought disappears with the first monsoon downpour that drives away the crowds. For most of the year our hill station more than holds its own. In winter people complain of loneliness. Not that Mussoorie has gone to seed. Visitors have less leisure to enjoy its quieter reaches. In the old days it took you two days to reach and you spent several weeks to acquire a pair of hill legs. Today you zap down from Delhi in five hours and spend a frustrating extra hour driving up to the Mall. That's all a weekend visitor can do. He doesn't know the town runs along a quiet, 10-mile ridge. From Kincraig, where the traffic jams start, there are several bridle paths to the Mall that the stalled motorist and his family could use. That way you avoid frustration, Maruti fumes and reach your hotel relaxed and attuned to the hill air.