Mattansidh - the temple of Bajrangbali

Mattansidh is a small village on the Hamirpur-Shimla state highway. Its about 5-6 kilometres from Hamirpur. The village has nothing unusual about it apart from a famous Hanuman temple on the left flank of the road towards Shimla.

The idol of Lord Hanuman was one of the largest when it was built years ago. Its quite imposing actually. Citizens of Hamirpur throng this temple on Tuesdays and Saturdays. It also has idols of Shanidev, Bhairon Baba and Baba Balak Nath alongside.

An Old woman sits in the temple and often fights with the Pujari for money and other related things. There is a tea shop across the road which makes some nice boondi on Tuesdays to be offered as Prashad to God. The priest usually takes the packet...throws a little towards the God and gives back the remaining to you to be partaken and distributed.

Bajrang bali is supposed to a God, which can save you from any accident. Hence another name for Hanuman is Sankatmochan. Apparently, Bajrang Bali swallowed the Sun when he was  a kid. All the gods had to persuade him to get the sun out as it was dark everywhere. There is a famous song on this incident...Bal samay Ravi Bhakshi liyo. It is often played at this temple and at thousands of temple across India.

I strongly believe that if you want to be successful in Hamirpur, you have to visit this temple on Tuesdays. Somehow, how all eminent people of Hamirpur visit this temple including my Chacha ji.

Jai Bajrang Bali...Tod Dushman ki Nali

Delhi-Hamirpur Volvo

I think courtesy a chief minister from this town, Hamirpur now boasts of a direct connectivity with Delhi via a Volvo...which sometimes is an Isuzu sometimes. ha ha

The coaches are not kept serviced most times and are not the best. Also, the air conditioning can make you chill usually. But nevertheless, its one of the most comfortable and quickest ways to get to Hamirpur from Delhi.

From Delhi the bus starts at 8.20 from Mandi House and 9.20 from ISBT Kashmere Gate. You would reach Hamirpur by 6.15-6.30am. From Hamirpur the bus starts at 7.30pm. The fare is around 970 rupees and its good to get bookings in advance expecially if you are travelling around weekends.

Online bookings can be made http://www.hrtc.gov.in/hrtctickets/

Samrat Cafe and the chowk near it

Samrat Cafe is a landmark for many in Hamirpur. On Sujanpur road its a small cafe with very few items on the menu card...Oh! it doesnt have a menu card actually...you just need to blurt your order.

This Cafe used to be a Hut in the middle of a garden at some time and interestingly this Hut had wheels under it...which gave us the sense that it could move. But over the years this Hut became a permament structure.


Its one of the open air cafes in the town and so you also get to smoke here. The seating are rickety iron benches and equally ricketty tables...but we used to love it during our college time.

It was the perfect place for us to gossip right from girls to politics and all those interesting times of college. Now the benches are replaced by a new bunch of youngsters.


Samrat Cafe has now become a beer bar and often frequented by people wanting to sip beer in the evening.


Just outside is a chowk...three roads meet at this place. It didnt have a name at some point but it has. Its now called Shaheed Captain Mridul Sharma Chowk. Incidentally Mridul was my college mate and we went on a tour to Rajasthan together. We used to call him Mamu.

Everytime I come home I look at his photo and remember him. Hamirpur is home to many officers and jawans of the Indian armed forces especially army. In fact I remember paying homage to a number of martyrs during the Kargil war. I was in college then...and every night the district headquarters used to recieve the bodies of soldiers from the war front.

Hamirpur Diaries

While driving to Hamirpur this friday...the idea of starting a blog for the town came to my mind.

And though my father often keeps sharing with me the way this town came up...I have created my own stories as well.

Actually on second thoughts...our first ad man of the town, Sachin Sharma, bought a new camera and in his enthusiasm clicked a picture of the town at night. I shared it with my brother, another fan of the town and he just said one word 'Superb'.

Tab se ideas ka silsila shuru hua and it materialised into the idea of this blog about this phenomenal town in the foothills of Himachal.

The Hamirpuri psyche is special...we are in the middle of nowhere. neither are we a proper hill station(with snow) nor a town of the plains. Neither are Hamirpurians typically Himachali (Kullu caps and all) nor are we vaguely Punjabi. There is an identity crisis. We aspire to be Shimla but we know we cant. We aspire to be Dharamsala but that is also not to be

It is this aspiration that makes us Hamirpur and I guess the town has started to make an identity of its own...distinct from any other hill town. We have created an identity despite this identity crisis.

Par kuch baat hai Hamirpur men ki I am writing this blog.

The purpose of this blog is simple....to express my love for the people and places in the town and areas around it.

Also, I feel that as a lot of Hamirpurians get in touch with people from around the world...the blog can be a common place where you can direct people to know more about Hamirpur. Also, as a number of Hamirpurians marry non-Hamirpurians...you can connect your partners to this blog to know more about their  sasuraal (in-laws station).

And...of course for people of Hamirpur to express love and connect.

My first entry is on Samrat Cafe...a great landmark in Hamirpur...a place where millions of ideas were discussed and met their end...some in the ashtray and some in life. The famous one 's being First night cricket, First Charity Show...and I dont know about many...the comments section is below for you to comment