For lovers of solitude, a short climb, early in the morning to the summit of Jakhoo at a height of 2,438.4 metres and two kilometers (1 1/4) east of the town, towering over Shimla, ewards the climber with the glorious spectacle of the sun rising over the eternal snows and a panoramic view of Shimla spreadeagled below. Here, too, is an old temple dedicated to the god Hanuman, now also the home of countless playful monkeys waiting hopefully to be fed by all the visitors.

Overlooking the Institute of Advanced Studies and housed in a beautiful on high ground, the Shimla State Museum was opened in 1974 and has growing collection of 2,000 object d'art. It contains a rich collection of paintings left with the family of Wazir Kartar Singh of Nurpur, Kangra. Of the 144 paintings, two-thirds will be kept with the National Museum, New Delhi and the remainder in the State Museum.

Situated at a distance of 5 km from GAIETY THEATRE is the lovely suburb of Summer Hill, at an altitude of 1,982 M and on the Shimla - Kalka railway line. In these quiet surroundings with secluded shady walks, lived Mahatma Gandhi during his visits to Shimla. The Mahatma lived in the elegant Georgian house of Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, daughter of the last ruler of the Punjab, Maharaja Dalip Singh, and free India's first woman minister. She held the Health Portfolio.

Shimla Mall

The city's main shopping centre and promenade packed with clubs, theaters, restaurants and bars, it houses shops filled with the latest in fashion, from Bond Street, benares, or Mumbai. As the town grew, so cam enlarge stores like Whiteway and Laidelaw, the Army and Navy Stores, Ranken Brothers and others. This was the seat of imperial power and mi'lady demanded nothing but the best so laden ships came from over the seven seas to cater to Imperial tastes. It was impossible to import the London theatre so the reproduction of the Old Garrick. The Gaiety theatre, was built staging Shakespeare, Marlowe, Agatha Christie, Noel Coward even T.S Eliot; the players, amateurs could give even the most versatile seasoned stage star of the era, a run for his money. Young army officers and their wives, they took to greasepaint and the boards like a duck takes to water. The Green Room, inevtiably, turned into a social club. Soon elegant hotels like Davico's, Wengers, Cecil and Clarke's came up providing drinks, dinner and dance. The tea dance invariably led to the dinner dance at the Davico's Ball room or at the Cecil Hotel, a short distance away. After a rousing game of golf, or billiards on the Mall itself, it was the thing socially de regeur (proper) to sip a glass of cool bear in the filtering sunlight at one of the hotels overlooking the avenue. This was Shimla's past and this is Shimla's present. Life still follow the same pattern. Everybody seems to on a holiday in Shimla. There is not much to do in and around town. After independence some of the ultra British stores moved away, but the quality remains the same, indeed, even with a larger variety of goods to delight the eye and taste. After shopping on the mall, the road usually leady down the crooked alleys of the Middle and Lower bazar below the Mall where hill-men display thier quaint creafts and other shops offer merchandise to suit every pocket, every taste. Some find it fun to haggle with the Tibetans, others look for unusual bargains and curios from the old Viceregal Estate or the homes of departed British Officials, Indian Estates and rare manuscripts, books, hand paintings, clocks and many more at Maria Bros., or Book Emporium both at the Mall.

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