The first snowfall of the season for the kids was fun.
As the snow arrives in Shimla, the children are delighted. The time for sledging/sleighing is round the corner. They locate their sledge which had been put away after the last season. They clean and oil the fine strip of steel below, making it smoother and waiting for the next heavy snowfall. In the West, the same game for children is called Tobogganing. Young Canadians are excited about it as well. The senior boys go for ice skating rink or better to ski slopes, the junior kids are looking for a smaller slope or hill in the neighborhood to Toboggan. My grandchildren are no different, they wake up much sooner than normal and will go Toboggan before going to school.
It is the fun to hurtle yourself down the slope, that creates an exhilarating feeling and that is what drives this sport. In Shimla when 4 inches of snow had accumulated and the temperature had dropped to minus five degrees, allowing the snow to harden a bit, the fun starts. Powdery snow is far less fun. Without the weather prediction mechanism at the time I am referring to, it is not easy to say that the right day has arrived. It is only when during the night the snowfall occurred and by morning the clouds have cleared and bright sun is out early in the morning that the kids know it is a sledging day. Also the sound of kids just on the street where early risers started sledging, you know you're late for the fun. Breakfast has no time, it can wait. All you do is, dress up with as many of the woolen clothes & shoes and grab your sledge and run to the nearest slope. Shimla has these slopes in plenty.
Our rudimentary sledge was a wooden gear made from the cheapest wood slats that usually comes as packing material for expensive merchandise. A carpenter fashions it into a sledge or sleigh. To facilitate mobility, thin bands of metal (Runners) were nailed into both wood supports. The steering mechanism is a solid rope that is fastened to the front of the sledge. Every year after the season, the steel strip is cleaned and oiled, otherwise it will rust. The Toboggans in the West, these days are a bit more sophisticated and surprisingly have no steel strips to slide better. It slides on its own base. It is slightly curved on the front with a rope attached for steering like in the Indian sledge. The more sophisticated ones have a better place to sit down. The advanced sleighs have a steel frame and a flat wood slat fixed for sitting. These are used for transporting supplies when otherwise snow makes motion difficult. Dogs are used to pull.
Oh! I forgot the shoes. If these were the snowshoes, then it is all the better. Regular shoes slip easily, hence is unsuitable for snow. Woolen socks are preferred. Non slip shoes sold in Shimla are quite alright. If you don't have anti-slip shoes, returning to the start of the slope is much more difficult, especially with a heavy wooden sledge.
Two slopes I preferred to sledging at Shimla were, the slope of Ram Bazaar and the high slope next to the Regal Building. The slope of Ram Bazaar was the longest about a kilometer long beginning at about Lower Bazaar and had the right slope to slip/slide the whole way. The Regal is very steep, and it took some experience to negotiate. There were other slopes also but these two were the most popular. The downside to the Ram Bazaar slope was that store owners on the side would not let the kids have fun for long. Their businesses were hit with kids on the snow, therefore, would start shovelling the snow away early. Regal building snow was not shovelled until later in the day. Hence all sledging near my house had to finish before 9.00am or may be a bit later. If it was a holiday then we could go to Regal slope. We always got tired lugging the sledge back to the top, hence sometimes we would restart midway.
I remember, Bindu, our schoolmate with the best sledge he had. Ride on his sledge was smoother. He was sometimes seen transporting a passenger. He was providing an urgently needed social help.
Sometimes, and it wasn't often, the sledge gets out of control and we end up in the side drain or against the wall. Other times, you could be hurt, hurt real bad. I have scars of 3 stitches to prove it. I struck the stone wall to the side and my face struck the stone wall. I started bleeding out of my chin. No big sweat, the doctor patched me up and I went home. For the rest of season my sled was taken away. Coming summer, I saw my father burning the wood of the sled as fuel in the kitchen. I cried for many days. My fun days for the winter were over. These accidents are uncommon. They occur, but rarely as bad as I've had. I was 13 years old and my sledging days were over.
Fifty years later, my grandchildren go Tobogganing on a short hill in Canada. I love to see them have fun in the Snow. In my own mind, I marble how good I was and how skillfully I managed to run the rudimentary sleigh on a steep hill in those days. I could negotiate difficult obstacles on the way except once I ended up in a medical office.
I do not believe that sledging in Shimla ever stopped after I was gone from the city in 1958/59. More sophisticated snow sports like ice skating or skiing got the upper hand. Shimla's only outdoor rink cannot cater to the needs of the majority of children. Even skates are pricey, so not for everybody. Most kids will come out with whatever they have readily available and slide on the freshly fallen snow......
Cheers......
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