The Doon Valley and the adjoining hills draw holiday crowds and those interested in learning and instruction. The Doon, as it is more commonly known, abounds in temples of learning for all age groups?the Forest Research Institute, the Indian Military Academy, the Survey of India, the Doon School, St. Joseph'sAcademy and many others. Over the years the Valley has grown from a small garden town into a bustling mini city, the capital of Uttarakhand.
This book on the Doon Valley comprises a collection of writings by some well-known authors who write entertainingly but ?whose occupations prevent them from becoming full-time writers,? says the editor Ruskin Bond. In spite of it all, the richness and diversity of the Doon is lovingly captured in their personal stories and vignettes.
The book opens with David Keeling'sobservations as he laments seeing Dehra (as he refers to it) lose ?all its former glory? when it was tree-lined ?with grand old houses and wide boulevards. No longer!? to give way to the ?sprawl of urban development?, making it unreconisable from its former self. He says, ?encroachments and the interminable and apparently uncontrollable traffic, the latter with tempos, trucks, buses and cars vying with two-wheelers for space?, but still ?squeezed between the high rise and the shopping malls remain some lovely old compounds.?
Keeling talks of Dehradun which used to be like the bed when street lights become ?superfluous after seven in the evening?. Here he compares it to Seychelles where everything lay deserted, even the hotel which was ?a place for the newly weds and the nearly deads??neither category getting out of bed even for room service and in the evening they would sit on their balconies looking at the sea, ?coddling and canoodling, not too far removed from their favourite piece of furniture??the bed.
There are many interesting episodes narrated in the book. The final one by Ruskin Bond about a soldier, Lieutenant Young, who was the first person to introduce potatoes in the Himalayas, is the piece de resistance.
Here is a book worth reading and the editor needs to be commended for the selection of writers and articles, renowned as he himself is a writer, especially of books for children.
(Rupa & Co., 7/16, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110002.)
