Kangra - In Three Parts

Part III - Andhreta and Baijnath
Next morning we go to Andhretta. It is a small village made popular by a group of artists who made it their “Indian Utopia”. Nora Richards the playwright, Sobha Singh the painter, Gurcharan Singh the master potter along with many other theatre actors and cine stars built cottages in this picturesque village. It is lush green with small trickles and cottages built in their own vegetable patches. The valley is agog with bird song. Scarlet sunbirds, magpie robins and wagtails lend their song to the beauty of this Eden on Earth. We visit the art galleries and walk through the bamboo glades. A group of young local girls are taking lessons in pottery making at Master Potter Gurcharan Singh’s factory. A small stream runs around the complex trickling over the boulders while nimble hands shape cups and saucers over spinning wheels. Little children plod to school weighed down by heavy satchels. A very pretty girl with flowers in her hair paints sitting in the studio of Sobha Singh. Our bike sounds break the idyll of Andhereta. We leave this world behind and drive on nonexistent roads along crystal clear streams teeming with sacred fish. Through the leopard country we wind our way to the Shiva Temple at Baijnath. This is an eleventh century temple built in the typical pahari style. It is one of the few temples with fortification and arrow slits. It also has a standing Nandi Bull in whose ears people whisper their prayers. The temple is exquisitely carved and the colours at sunset are incredible. We start back for Palampur and stop for tea at Alhilal. More than 30 yrs ago we had come here for an NCC camp. The visit is nostalgic. We walk through the camping grounds and the stream where we went for daily baths remembering episodes from so many years ago. 13 year olds living in army tents and eating mess fare off enamelled plates dressed in oversized starched khaki shirts and shorts that chafed our groins...overpoweringly reminiscent of good old days!
The ride back is always unwillingly accomplished. The fatigue hits you harder as there is nothing new to explore but the pictures and memories of another journey enrich you. They ‘flash upon the inward eye’ making for the bliss of leisure in the everyday urban humdrum.

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