Book: "Once Upon A Time in the Doon...
Writings From The Green Valley";
Edited by Ruskin Bond; publisher: Rupa; price: Rs.295
Scented pine forests, babbling brooks, gently sloping hills, birds from
paradise flycatchers to red-billed blue magpies, haunting greenery -
Doon Valley's picturesque details are plenty. The place is picked up for
some tender loving care by people who once passed through the valley,
lived there for a while or are settled there for ever. And who best but
Ruskin Bond, the grand old man of Doon, to edit these experiences into
"Once Upon A Time in the Doon... Writings From The Green Valley".
Nostalgia, history,
adventures, geography, discoveries, travel, ghosts - all form a part of
the reminiscences. Arijit Banerji advices: "With the growing tourist
trade, industrialization, new educational institutions, new hotels, and
the exodus away from the crowded dusty plains to our Dehra in the Dun,
the town grows. It is our job to see it improves as well."
The area's main attractions include the Wildlife Institute at
Chandrabani, the Asan Barrage, the Thano forest, the Kalu Sidh Temple
and forest blocks such as Barkot, Jhajra and Majaun.
Bikram Grewal fears: "Now there's a new threat. The city has been
declared the capital of the newly formed state of Uttaranchal (now,
Uttarakhand), a decision that has accelerated the crass urbanization.
The city is expanding and creeping into the pristine forests."
Historian Ramachandra Guha injects a contemporary note with "The Net and
nostalgia". "Nehru's love affair with Dehra Dun" by Raj Kanwar and "Milk
rusk to Maharaja Mac" by Palash Krishna Mehrotra juxtapose the Doon of
yore to the hip destination it is today.
Nayantara Sahgal gets "Up close and personal". "Empty space was fast
disappearing and hedges had become history as houses sprang up... There
were sentry boxes, night watchmen, burglaries - one in my own house -
and spectacular car crashes as traffic grew too big for roads and
ignored rules. In town glass-fronted shops sold imported brands from
shoes to virgin olive oil, eyelashes, lotions and potions at globalised
prices."
"I hoped that with health, beauty and the fountain of youth ours for the
taking in the Himalayan herbs growing wild on our hills, Uttarakhand
would patent and profit by this abundant miraculous yield before some
foreign brand did," she rues.
Guha tackles football while Sahgal dwells upon her writing career and
journo Karan Thapar breaks into "Random thoughts" that refer in no
particular order to Amitabh Bachchan, Abdul Kalam, Amitav Ghosh, Arun
Shourie, Naseeruddin Shah, Vikram Seth and Morarji Desai.
Fiction is a bare brush but Sumanata Banerjee does go "Traveling with a
phantom" as Rakesh Bahadur keeps up the eerie tempo with a "Touch of the
vanished hand". Eco-activist Florence Pandhi's arrival in the valley as
a bride is all charm and chaos. Actor Victor Banerjee boards the "Last
train to Dehra Bun" and Bond narrates the "Saga of a soldier" while Bill
Aitken mulls over "Mussoorie house names".
The writers' qualms are palpable and the solutions a misty spray. In the
end Sahgal consoles herself: "There are still reassuring reminders that
some things need not change: roasted coffee beans from Paltan bazaar,
freshly baked brown bread, puri-tarkari and the comfort of beautifully
stocked bookshops where every request is met and fulfilled with a most
unbusinesslike affection. My hillside is still there, too, still thickly
wooded, I hope for all time."
A hope echoed in every heart, be it a contributor to this anthology or a
reader.
IANS |
September 26,
2007
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