River Ravi as seen from the Bharmour-Dalhousie road

Either those in the civic body had run out of ideas or the name stuck because one felt extremely cold here: no one in Dalhousie is likely to tell you how ‘Thandi Sadak’ came to be called so. We were visiting Dalhousie during the peak season and couldn’t get accommodation anywhere but at Geetanjali run by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, which happened to be situated on the socalled ‘cold street’.

For one who has travelled all the way from the hot and sweltering plains of Delhi, Dalhousie’s cool breeze with a fairly good amount of sunshine is nothing less than heaven.

Built around five hills, namely Kathalagh, Potreyn, Terah (now called Moti Tibba by the locals), Bakrota and Bhangora, Dalhousie was acquired by the British, who then ruled India, from the Raja of Chamba in 1853. Thirteen years later additional land was acquired from the Raja and Dalhousie was made a part of the Kangra district of Punjab state.

It was transferred to Gurdaspur district, again in Punjab, in the August of 1861. Later, it became a part of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh in 1966.