The Museum Home – A Hidden Wonderland In Sainj Valley That You Must Not MissBawray Banjaray

Caution: This picture blog contains highly classified images from a distant place and time. Pictures might cause envy attack.

We all have our dream-places where we all want to travel sometimes. And we all picturize them too. This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of those experiences where you get to have a face off with that dream. This happened to us almost a year ago on trip to Shangarh in Sainj Valley of Himachal Pradesh where we discovered ‘Singh Sahab’s Home’ – something of sorts that we dream and fancy about.

It is a typical Himachali small wooden house located at half an hour hike above Daggara Village in Shangarh. Although, at the time of writing this post, we share with all of you the loss of a man who would say – “I do what I do” with the essense of every word peeing through his eyes. Mr Virpal Singh or the Cow Boy, as ARMY addresses him in the invitation cards, breathed last on August 7, 2018.

Mr Virpal Singh was among the first cadets of the inaugural batch of Indian Army in 1949 at Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. He served the Army till Indo-China war and then moved to Kolkata to work for a shipping Corporation there. He married Ms Tara Singh in Kolkata around the same time and later moved to Delhi’s Vasant Kunj.

Wondering how all of this is related to this home in Sainj Valley?

Well, Mr Singh, an avid traveler, cyclist, adventurer and a crazy arms fan, came to Sainj Valley and probably never went back. He built this home and married a native charm Ms. Leelawati (we call her Leelawati Kaki) here. Until August 2018 before he passed away, Singh Sahab lived with both his lady-loves here.

Mr. Singh’s house was no less than a discovery for us. Without much ado, take a look on your own:

The Wall That Knows It All

Inside the house, this wall of the living room is a classified library. It comprises of a large variety of books ranging from from Literature, Languages, Medicines, Engineering and many other fields of study. And on the opposite side, there are some…

Musings Of The Past

This wall displays souvenirs of Victorian aristocracy. A collection of original cutlery from Victorian time that shows its logo if you look through the base against light. There are lamps (Aladin) that date back to late 1800s.

And Then Comes The Music

By the cutlery shelf, the corner is dedicated to music. You get exposed to a collection of original LP’s of old Jazz, Rock and l bands and artists is stacked in accordance to taste.

An original copy of Beethoven, Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell ‎– Symphony No. 6 In F Major “Pastoral”is just one from the collection. The Gramophone is attached to speakers and amplifiers that would actually take you back in time.

One That Literally Amplifies It All

And trust us you, Listening to l on these speakers teaches you a thing or two about l Music.

We know, you will not believe if we tell you that this is a fully functioning speaker cum base tube.

Anyway, This Is How It Looks From Mr. Singh’s Couch

Wait, There Is More

Mr Singh loved arms – from the legends of arms to the making of the latest ones, we had conversations with him listening about several of them. So, the second room – actually the workshop from where the entire world of Mr. Singh runs, has this mummified Tiger that he killed on one of his trips to Assam.

So, This Is Where It All Started

And, That’s How It Is

This house speaks so many stories from the past which consciously-subconsciously takes you into a distant time and space. The time which is gone back and the space which is far.

We are coming up with a detailed story of the museum worthy home in some time. Stay tuned!

Aly Chiman

Aly Chiman is a Blogger & Reporter at AlyChiTech.com which covers a wide variety of topics from local news from digital world fashion and beauty . AlyChiTech covers the top notch content from the around the world covering a wide variety of topics. Aly is currently studying BS Mass Communication at University.