Baba Bhalku and his contribution to Kalka-Shimla Railway

Shriniwas Joshi

I recently visited Baba Bhalku Rail Museum, Shimla, which was established on July 7, 2011, in the hope of seeing the long and solid wooden staff that Baba Bhalku carried with him to hit a section of the mountain and listen to the sound. Filtering the information based on the sound, he would direct engineers to dig at the point he had zeroed upon. It always used to come out as right alignment. The staff, however, was missing in the museum. 

After the completion of Kalka-Shimla Railway in 1903, Baba Bhalku went on a pilgrimage to Badrinath or Jagannath Puri, from where he is said to have disappeared. Most probably, he carried the staff to the pilgrimage and it got lost with him.

The entrance to the museum is on a ticket of Rs 30 and the stairs to the museum are through the old bus stand. The display of heritage property is neatly exhibited in a medium-sized hall. Each item has a plaque on its side giving information about the exhibit. There is a big brass bell, which was on the top of the main gate of Narrow Gauge Northern Railway Mechanical Workshop at Kalka. What was its use? The bell was rung as an indication to alert workers about their on and off duty time. It was replaced by hooters in 1968. There are three relaxing chairs, which were picked up from the waiting rooms of Dharampur and Kumarhatti stations. The shape and profile of the chairs is such that people can sleep comfortably in these. These were used from 1903 onwards until these were lifted from there for the museum. Then there is a special type of fire extinguisher (wet-type) used to extinguish the fire. Fabricated with rivets, it belonged to North West Railway period. Its associated placard reads: "The riveted joints were made with a lot of skill and were leak proof, capable of bearing high pressure developed due to mixing of chemical compound to extinguish the fire." It was lifted from Kandaghat station, where it was in operation from 1903 to 1988. A model of tunnel number 33 and repair work done under the reflection of a mirror has also been displayed here. There are many more.

Bhalku belonged to Jhajja village near Chail in Solan district. His fascinating work is the alignment of 1,140 metre Tunnel Number 33 at Barog Railway Station. This tunnel was dug from both ends of the hill under the supervision of an expert Colonel (or Mr) Barog. The alignment went wrong and the two ends did not meet. The DUK Company, which was getting the Kalka-Shimla Railway constructed, fined him a rupee for this slip-up. Colonel Barog could not digest this humiliation and committed suicide at the mouth of the failed tunnel. His dog, seeing his master bleeding, ran to the village, where the station exists today, and pulled some men to where his master was lying. They found him dead and buried him there. Baba Bhalku then appeared on the scene who was "guided by the local deity" to trace the right path in the mountains. The deity used to do it through the lice that he fed by pouring sugar and flour over his matted hair.

The job of completing the tunnel was handed over to HS Harrington, the Chief Engineer. Bhalku joined his team and soon became its most important man. He would point out the digging areas and Harrington's engineer would simply follow his instructions. The tunnel at Barog was properly aligned.

Bhalku did not spring out of nowhere to do the Barog tunnel. Earlier, he was mate or chaprasi in Lord Dalhousie's ambitious Hindustan-Tibet Road Project, which was started in 1850. That is why there is a road over Mashobra named as Bhalku Road, for which Bhalku laid the trace. There is a plaque in Baba Bhalku Rail Museum, in which testimonials have been poured on 'Balkoo' (note the spellings) by Lieutenant Colonel H Moore on the October 17, 1875: "All I can say is that I have known Balkoo for the last 14 years; that he is not only an excellent public servant, but a highly esteemed and excellent man, whose charity and benevolence is known throughout the hills to all. Whether rich or poor, who have occasion to travel between Simla and Pangi, character like Balkoo is rare among native officials, and not surpassed by any others in practice of true charity." Another testimonial issued by Major RM Lang in 1875 said Bhalku had been working on the road for 25 years, adding: “without his help, this road could have hardly been made." Lang said: "He has an instinctive aptitude for selecting the best line for a road across precipitous country.” A visit to the museum is must.

Tailpiece

“If you do not know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree."

 — Michael Crichton