Shimla: Of Jack’s Betrayal and ‘Phantom Rickshaw’
As I joined the crowd on Mall Road in the northern Indian city of Shimla, the Combermere Bridge came into view. Shimla’s oldest British landmark, it was here that the haunting of Theobald Jack Pansay by his spurned lover Mrs. Agnes Keith-Wessington took place in Rudyard Kipling’s supernatural tale of love and betrayal, The Phantom Rickshaw. I was in college when I read Phantom Rickshaw for the first time. I was both attracted and repelled by Jack’s betrayal. I had to come to Shimla see where all this went down.
I was in Himachal Pradesh for an assignment and decided to stop by Shimla on my way from Solan. I had a few hours in the city and wanted to make the most of it.
Shimla, the summer capital of British India from 1864 to 1947, feels largely unchanged, thanks to its grand colonial-era architecture. But the rain-washed pedestrian-only road lined with cafes and swanky shops today tells a different story. Here there is neither Jack nor Mrs. Agnes, except in the imagination of the traveler ignited by a misty afternoon.
“The best way to enjoy Shimla is on foot. Just walk around,” writer, historian and Shimla native, Raaja Bhasin, said. Bhasin said the city’s food and sights are very popular with tourists. “However, the younger lot are interested in learning about Shimla’s past and Himachal Pradesh’s glorious heritage. This desire to learn about the heritage of the place also drives a lot of overseas tourists,” he said.
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Another landmark, the United Services Club, is located bang opposite the elevator that brings people from Cart Road below to the Mall Road, bypassing a 3 km uphill drive. The club, a colonial recreational space, was disbanded in 1947. Its stone masonry building once housed a library. In the 1950s, the property was purchased by the family of Gaindamull Hemraj, a renowned Jain family of Shimla. For a while, the Jains hosted monks and nuns at the place.
Today, the building’s ground floor has the Heritage Trail Café, a charming old-era décor place that takes one back to the colonial past. It opened in March 2024.
Heritage Trail Café: An ode to Shimla’s colonial past
I spotted the café from the elevator. By that time it had started raining and I desperately wanted a cup of hot chocolate, so I bounded straight for the café. To my pleasant surprise I was greeted by a cozy ambiance, full of colonial-era photos that tell the history of Shimla. I learnt from the photos that Shimla was born out of the spoils of the Anglo-Gurkha war in the early 19th century.
Cafe owner Aanchal Jain is a daughter-in-law of the famed Jain family of Shimla, who own the property. She experimented with baking at home for 10 years before turning professional. “My husband Prashant’s grandfather, the late Lala Naranjan Dass Jain, bought this place in the 1950s. The building was renamed Jain Ashram as my family wanted to serve the Jain sadhus who came and stayed here. Even today one floor is always reserved for them,” Aanchal said.
The café is sprinkled with many nostalgic elements: a vintage rotary dial telephone, chandeliers that hark back to colonial times, insignias from old British ships, photos of colonial Shimla.
Cake and coffee at the The Heritage Trail Café, Shimla, India (Photo by Deepanwita Gita Niyogi) 
The curated furnishings and decor of The Heritage Trail Café on Mall Road in Shimla, India, preserve the look and feel of the colonial British era. (Photo by Deepanwita Gita Niyogi) 
A collection of photographs in The Heritage Trail Café, Shimla, India, documents the history of the city. (Photo by Deepanwita Gita Niyogi) 
A colonial era rotary dial telephone in The Heritage Trail Café, Shimla, India. (Photo by Deepanwita Gita Niyogi)
“It was my husband’s vision to recapture the colonial-era look,” Jain said. She said her husband, Prashant, curated vintage products from various collectors’ stores and exhibitions. Everything in the cafe has been thoroughly researched to create the right period ambiance, she added.
When it comes to the café’s core offering – the food – Aanchal said she keeps the menu fresh with new items not readily available in the city. The café serves up a variety including ganache, chocolate fondue, biscotti, waffle chips, and a tres leches panna cotta named Alia. I tried some of the coffee, tea and cakes, and as a café-lover, I approve!
A heady mix of the old and new
As I walked down Mall Road, I stopped to admire the majestic Christ Church, its tall, colonial steeple defining the city’s skyline. I thought about the Kipling story, of betrayals in love, of how I too was betrayed in love.
Then came the beautiful, gray, stone-and-timber town hall building that now houses Shimla’s municipal corporation.
Historian Bhasin explained to me later that Shimla has a fair mix of different forms of architecture: Tudor, Mock Tudor, Norman and even Gothic, the latter characterized by high ceilings, narrow Lancet windows and spires or conical towers. “The only significant Gothic buildings are the Old Town Hall, the Gaiety Theatre building opened in May 1887 and the Gorton Castle. The Old Town Hall was partly demolished in 1911 and restored in 2000,” said Bhasin.
In the few hours that I was in Shimla to scratch a literary travel itch, I discovered a city that is a heady mix of the old and the humdrum of the new. While the grand colonial buildings tell a story of a bygone era, the milling crowds, the ubiquitous shops and the crisscrossing overhead electric wires make it feel like any other Indian city.
Perhaps a Kipling story would not be possible in Shimla today. But you can find a comfy pink coat for a bargain at one of the numerous shops that line Mall Road, or discover a fine café that takes you back in time.