COMING TO CHAKRATA

It was the month of Aug 2014 when the result of PCS (State Civil Services) 2010 was announced and I was selected for the post of Deputy Education Officer. After a long wait the training was started in the month of Jan 15 and finally after two months of training we all were posted to different blocks in the state of Uttarakhand. I was posted to Chakrata. I heard this name before and in fact read it several times which being in Dehradun as there is a famous road known as Chakrata Road. It was on 01 April 2015 we started our journey for chakrata. We hired a taxi from Roorkee. I was confident that the driver must have been to  this lesser known place but to my surprise it was his first visit too. We reached Kalsi and then the after the military gates of Kalsi which they named Kalsi Gate, the road to hill was started. Soon after crossing the gates the front tyre of the taxi burst. Thankfully driver had the spare tyre and he took hos own sweet time to change it. It was a new road for me. After some time we reached at mid place known as Sahiya. Chakrata was nowhere to be seen. But after crossing some distance the highest place was visible with a continuous line of houses built atop the hill. The sight was pleasant. Finally at around 2.00 PM we reached Chakrata the famous hill station established by the British people way back in 1869. On entering in the main road (there was no mall road to be seen as all the other hill station has this special road) instead it was a narrow lane which took s at the end of the road itself and there we parked our vehicle. I reported to our office. Office was again a dilapidated building and ancient looking. Most of the building here has the same date of birth which qualifies them atleast 100 yrs old. There was nothing much to do after taking over the first ever Deputy Education Officer of this particular block. As the market also was not much tempting to stay back overnight I asked our driver if he could take us back to Roorkee. Time was already 5 PM. As it was his first visit to the place he had some other ideas and told us that he is tired and will not be able to driver such a long distance (165 Kms). We then decided to stay back and decided to explore the place. Searched for a suitable place to stay in a budget hotel. Initially kids did not like the place but as there was no other choice so after little bit of debate they became ready. As the evening advanced the weather changed dramatically and then we witnessed the first of its kind of weather which later became the identification of Chakrata weather. Rains with thunderstorm with strong winds.  Mercury  also dropped but luckily we had carried some woolens with us so we managed to beat the Chakrata cold. But our driver was not that lucky as he did not bother to carry any woolens but as he parked his car just close to the only wine shop of the city so I presumed that now he wont require any woolens. In morning after finding a room for myself for my prolonged stay at the place. We returned back to Roorkee but this time taking a new route via Mussoorrie. The route was long and hilly. Kids had a tough time as it was for the first time they travelled on hills.