Tourism in Dehradun: The Mountain Gateway That’s Almost Too Polite to Be a City.
Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand, is one of those places people talk about with a kind of nostalgic sigh, like they’ve just stepped out of a Ruskin Bond story. Nestled in the Doon Valley with the Himalayas guarding one side and the Shivaliks giving the other a friendly shove, it is the kind of town that can feel both sleepy and crowded at once. You can’t quite make up your mind whether it is a city pretending to be a hill station or a hill station that accidentally morphed into a city when nobody was looking. There are many visitors to Dehradun for various reasons. There are those who visit because Mussoorie is “just up the hill” and Dehradun is the sensible stopover before the winding roads start making everyone car sick. Others show up because they have come across the iconic Forest Research Institute — it looks like the Hogwarts of forestry except for the magic and the British accents. Then some drop in because their school friend’s cousin’s aunt retired there and won’t stop bragging about her “mountain view.” And, I know, to be fair, Dehradun is lovely in all sorts of good manners. The air smells fresher, except when you’re stuck behind an auto-rickshaw, and its tree-lined roads and tea stalls are all pretty charming. The city hasn’t quite forgotten its colonial ways, and people still act oddly polite, even while honking at you if you dare to cross the road. The locals will happily guide you through the trail, yet in their hearts, too, they might wonder in secret why or how you didn’t go ahead and Google it. I think one of the most lovely and entertaining things about Dehradun is its rich array of beautiful and delectable food. You can start in your morning with hot momos or bun tikki, eat it at last, and a tall glass of lassi to wash it down and then you leave to wonder how you are supposed to climb anything resembling a hill after that. The bakeries are also another joy, with Ellora’s and Sunrise serving cakes and pastries that remind even calorie-conscious travellers they don’t even have gym memberships. And there’s the legendary Chetan Puri Wala, and his chole puri that could likely bring about world peace if served at international summits. Tourism is more than mere sightseeing here. It’s about feeling mildly smug as you pass a little while sitting in a café overlooking the mountains, pretending to read while secretly watching other people. You’ll see retired army officers talking politics over chai, you’ll see Doon School students who want to appear mysterious, you’ll see the occasional foreigner who obviously jumped on the wrong bus to Rishikesh only to have found a way to stay because the vibe was “chill.” Dehradun, of course, is changing. That once-sleepy destination now features shopping malls, traffic jams and an eagerness for construction that would make even Delhi blush. And yet, somehow, amidst all of that turmoil, there still resides a lazy charm that won’t go away. The mountains are still near; rain still smells divine; locals still talk informally. In the last analysis, the central city of Dehradun has nothing to do with spectacular monuments or great adventures; it represents nothing else at all. Everything here is as easy and free-spirited as life itself. It’s about the comforting sensation of not needing to impress someone, that environment. It simply is—and maybe that is the real magic behind it all. |
