India - Mahabaleshwar

Mahabaleshwar is an uncelebrated little hill town in western India, well off the foreign tourist trail. It doesn’t have great altitude or great glamour, but it is one of my favorite weekend getaways in the world. Blessed with a charming old-world aura that never fails to capture one’s imagination, it is a personal favorite of mine for a well-deserved weekend break. After maybe 50-odd visits there, I am still totally in love with the place.

Photo credits - Ankur P

My trips to Mahabaleshwar revolve around a 125-year-old red stone building called The Club. If you are curious about life during the British Raj era, come and stay here. There are guests suites in the main club building, as well as in three separate blocks of cottages. The property even comes with a residential ghost, who allegedly inhabits a room in the D Block.

As soon as you check in, you are assigned a table at the dining room and an aged, liveried bearer. The bearers are all old retainees with starched uniforms and stand-offish British manners. And they really add to the old-world charm of the place!

Impeccable four-course meals are served in this dining room and you get to sample forgotten recipes from the British era, like Chicken Captain Curry and Scotch Eggs. A hand-rung bell announces the lunch and dinner hour, and if you are late, you eat in your room in disgrace.

Photo credits - Restless mind

The Club sits in the midst of a beautifully laid out garden overflowing with hammocks and flowers. It has a splendid golf course, and a cavernous ballroom where I’m sure I’m not the only guest who’s ever held her hands up to an imaginary partner and danced a quick waltz when nobody was looking.

At the heart of Mahabaleshwar is a unique marketplace that deals only in the three local specialties: handmade shoes, fruit preserves and peanut brittle. Interspersed among these stalls are restaurants serving mostly vegetarian food and gaming dens where you win double or lose all by betting on the throw of ping-pong balls. The gambling’s cheap and addictive, and you can spend your entire evening trying your luck at different ping-pong tables.

Photo credits - Ankur P

Visiting dairy farms is another evening pastime in Mahabaleshwar. The town is dotted with dairy restaurants that make some of the best strawberry-and-cream shakes and fresh corn `patties’ in the world. And when you are done with eating, shopping and gambling, there is one of the oldest Hindu temples in India to visit and a clutch of scenic mountain spots, locally known as `points’. In a nutshell, that would be your average, two-day Mahabaleshwar experience.

The town shuts down completely during the monsoon months, but if you ask me, that’s the most exciting time to visit. Every single house, hut and building in Mahabaleshwar is covered with protective straw mats, and there’s not a living soul to be seen anywhere. It’s a proper ghost town then, shrouded in silence, mist and cloud.

There will probably be a small residential guesthouse somewhere that will still be open. And a tea-stall where you can get something to eat. Walking around the deserted town during the monsoon is a spine-chilling, 28 Days Later sort of an experience. You’re constantly looking over your shoulder, expecting blood-thirsty crazies to jump out of the shadows at any moment.

I’m no braveheart, and I only make day-visits to Mahabaleshwar during the monsoon. If you’d like to stay overnight, make sure that you have some leads on which guesthouse might be open before you get there. If the atmosphere gets too unnerving, just hop onto a bus from Panchgani (5 kms, downhill) and return to civilization. The metro city of Pune is just 2 hours away.

About the Author. Nabanita Dutt. Nabanita, a 30-year-old journalist, is Consultant Editor with `Hindustan Times’, the largest-selling newspaper in India. Her job takes her to countries around the world. Nabanista has a special interest in Far East Asian countries and likes to write about India, Thailand and Nepal. She lives in Calcutta, India.