By Vimal Kapoor
“It was May, and the world smelt of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” – Maud Hart Lovelace.
Sun’s out, fun’s in. It’s May and after lots of hide and seek by the recent inclement weather, the temperature is finally creeping up stealthily. As I walk towards the Clock Tower at noon the heat is palpable. The lively Paltan Bazaar is filled with locals as well as visitors from nearby places. At the very entrance, the ice cream parlours have customers milling around the shopkeeper, savouring ice creams in cones and cups, sticky fingers reaching for ice-cream cones.
Crowds flocking at ice-cream parlours, pretty girls wearing huge sunglasses and short dresses, terrace parties, the fresh-cut grass smell hanging in the air and the chance to dive into the deep end of a pool— all signify that summer has finally arrived in Doon Valley! It’s time to hunt for watermelons, master handstands and conquer litchi trees.
Summer is not only about sweat, agitation, grime, traffic snarls, and rising mercury, there are loads of fun and delightful activities that one can indulge in, long evenings spent under starlit skies, picnics in sun dappled lawns of FRI and impromptu road trips become the hallmark of the season. The long lazy days seem to stretch before us like a blank canvas, inviting us to fill them with adventures. It is time to step out of our comfort zones, some of the joys of summer that I particularly look forward to being ‘swimming’, ‘early morning hikes’, ‘rafting’ and exotic fruits like luscious ‘mangoes’, and the extremely popular ‘litchi’ of Doon Valley! Dehradun has lots of swimming pools that are well maintained and open to the public at reasonable rates. Go through the classified pages and you will realise that the choices are multiple.
During summers the joy is also found in simple moments: the taste of a perfectly ripe watermelon on a scorching afternoon or the quiet satisfaction of watching a sunset paint the sky in hues of orange and pink. The two colourful fruits that adorn the trees of Doon Valley in liberal doses are Mangoes and litchi. It is a fact that Doon’s litchi is exported all over the world. During peak summers if one drives through Dalanwala area at a slow pace one can see God’s bounty in the form of a ripe, juicy cluster of dark red litchis, it is present in rows of trees in almost every bungalow, perhaps planted when the English regime was here!
Doonites who are enamored by adventure sports are fortunate that world-class, white-water rafting is available at nearby Rishikesh. By the number of rafts that swarm the ‘Shivpuri’ area, one can make out that it has developed into a flourishing business as well!
So, take out your colourful summer gear, smear liberal doses of sunscreen, use your head as well as headgear, stay hydrated, don’t lose your cool and chill out, and please do not forget to keep big bowls of water on your lawn so that weary and thirsty birds get relief.
Let us embrace the spirit of summer, for it is the season that reminds us to live life to the fullest, with hearts open and spirits free.
(Vimal Kapoor, a Dehradun resident, is passionate about literature, creature writing, cricket and exploration through travel)
