Himalayan reading

Dilliwala

Natraj Publishers in Dehradun is a great bookshop for books on the Himalaya, its environment and wildlife, etc. Apart from reprinting some hard-to-find titles, being publishers, they also publish works on the above topics.
They also are 'official' stockists for Ruskin Bond's books.
Mr Arora, the owner, is a great guy - very knowledgeable and very helpful. They are also happy to ship books anywhere in India. I have put their contact details here.

Dilliwala

Hi ronak,

I was about to put the info on Smythe's book in the above post, but I see Raghu's beaten me to it!

I got my copy directly at Natraj about 6 years ago.
EBD seems a good option (thanks Raghu, didn't know of their website - amused to see they have 'VOF' listed under Gardening!), but otherwise Natraj will be happy to send it to u. Best is to call them, they're somewhat slow in responding to email. Cheers.

EDIT:
I just ran a search on google - this book seems to be in the "rare / out-of-print" category.
Take a look here and see if there's any helpful info.
In fact, now that I've read the synopsis, I want to get my hands on a copy myself! Thanks for the info, Sadaji.

shahronakm

Thanks Raghu & Dilliwala for your detailed replies.
Will check with EBD & Nataraj publishers.
Will get back with my feddback, once I purchase the book.

Thanks

Ronak.

Sadanand Kamath

I have 1984 adition of Wanderings in the Himalayas. The book was published by Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, Powai Park Drive, Mumbai - 400 072. I hope, this helps.

I came across this book accidentally when I was going through many second hand books being sold on the footpath at Lucknow in Aug'94. I bought this book for Rs.20/- .

The Forword is written by Swami Chinmayananda. Surprisingly, I came to know today itself ob google that Swami Tapovanam was the Guru of Swami Chinmayananda.

I am not the great fan of any swamis or sadhus. But what attracted me about Swami Tapovanam was that he was a wandering Sadhu during 1923-1930. His style of travelogue is a mix of travel with spirituality. A few examples of his style of writing:

1. Uttarkashi Vs. Banaras
Quote: The Lord of Banaras is ever pestered by the pressure of worshippers, the hubbub of sightseers, the showers of flowers rained down by devotees. The Lord of Uttarkashi reposes in perpetual samadhi, in the solitude of undisturbed silence. Unquote.

2.In the context of hardship of wandering beyond Tapovan towards Badrinath:

Quote : Only people with a certain degree of mental refinement can enjoy the solitary grandeur of those heights so far away from worldly pleasures. For them pleasures of the senses are so many torttures. A life of poverty affords them heavenly bliss. Unquote.

3. In the context of hardship he went through at Gaumukh for not finding rock cave for staying overnight and spending night under a birch tree:

Quote: It is a well known scientific fact that a disagreeable feeling is sorrow and an agreeable feeling pleasure. That means that the end of adverse sorrow is the beginning of pleasure. The greater the sorrow, the greater is the pleasure on its elimination. Unquote.

Sadanand

__________________
Sirf ek kadam utha tha galat rahe shauk mein
Manzil tamam umr hame dhunti rahi.

[Just one wrong step on the way of the quest
My destination looked for me all life long]

Aishah

Another Ruskin Bond which I have really enjoyed, and can re-read from time to time is 'Roads to Mussoorie'. Plenty of humour, history, and acute observations, it is a collection of short stories, mostly factual of his more than forty years' living in Mussoorie, Dehra Dun and Landour areas.

__________________
"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

Dilliwala

Thanks, I was wondering about it. I only flipped thru it once at a bookshop and it didn't seem too interesting. I think I'll pick it up when I clear my backlog.

Sadanand Kamath

I have a hard bound book Beautiful Himalaya (1988) published by EBD Educational Pvt Ltd, Dehradun. The book contains 15 short accounts of Garhwal region, about its rivers, villages, temples, trees, flowers etc. - all written by Ruskin Bond. Some of these accounts may have been taken from his works printed elsewhere - like Magic of Tungnath, Road to Badrinath, Where Rivers meet.. Apart from these, what I liked most in this book is many beautiful pictures of Garhwal printed on art papers.

Sadanand

Dilliwala

Correct link:

http://www.google.co.in/search?sourc...himalayas% 22

Sadaji,
This seems to be very similar to the paperback 'Ganga Descends' released in 1992 by EBD, which I mentioned on previous page. The 3 stories u mention are all in there; 16 in all.
I'm mentioning all the others for comparison, in order to decide whether there's anything different and therefore worth buying:
The Writer on the Hill
Rani of the Doon
Growing up with Trees
A Village in Garhwal
Tales of Old Mussoorie
Landour Bazaar
Along the Mandakini
Your 3 above, in same order
Ganga Descends
Great Trees of Garhwal
Bird-song in the Hills
Early Plant Collectors
White Clouds, Green Mountains
Walking Life My Way

There are 11 drawings in all - Tungnath, Badrinath, birds, villages; these are sketches by M. Chakraborty, and a few charcoal illustrations taken from the 'Gazetteer'.

I see that "Where Rivers Meet" and "Growing up with Trees" also appear in 'Rain in the Mountains', mentioned earlier.




Also, does anyone have an idea where to find the 2 books mentioned here? I'd love to get my hands specially on the older book, but I suppose it'll be imposs to find.

unclelach

John Morris's 1963 account of a six month stay in Nepal is an old favourite. C. J. Morris known as John (not the writer who became Jan) was a man of immensely varied experience.

In younger days he was a gurkha officer and member of British Himalayan expeditions. He was recruited by the Japanese government to teach English at Tokyo university from 1939.

Morris was repatriated following the start of the Pacific war and became a BBC broadcaster. Morris published an account of his Japanese experience in 1944(I think) as "Traveller from Tokyo". I bought an original Penguin paperback secondhand in Thamel, Kathmandu this year.

"A Winter in Nepal" was widely read when first published so should still be available at least secondhand. Apart from being well written it deals with a time when outsiders had only recently been free to enter Nepal.

Sadanand Kamath

[i]Dilliwala,
You are correct - about the contents as well as of sketches.
Just for the sake of comparision, I give below the chapters in serial order:
1. Legent and History (of Garhwal)
2. Land of Gods
3. Rani of Doon
4. A Village in Garhwal
5. Tales of a Hill Station
6. Landour Bazar
7. Along the Mandakini
8. The Magic of Tungnath
9. The Road to Badrinath
10.Where Rivers Meet
11.Ganga Descends
12.Great Trees of Garhwal
13.Flowers of Garhwal
14.Bird Songs in the Hills
15.More about Garhwal.

There is an introduction by Nayantara Sahgal.
The Forword is by S K Misra, IAS.

There are comments on the inner flap of the book by B K Goswami, Director General, Tourism and by Deepak Singhal, IAS ( probably the then MD of GMVN). The credit for colour transperencies used in the book has been given to GMVN. Hence, it seems to me that this book was published by IBD, Dehradun in 1988 as part of promoting Garhwal as a tourist destination. There is no mention of price in the book. I had purchased ths book from a footpath in the Fort area, Mumbai on 6/8/1993. I don't remember at what price I bought this book.

The comments by the publisher in the inner flap of the book suggest that this book is a tribute to Ruskin Bond as he has spent most of his period of stays in the hills of Garhwal.

As I mentioned earlier, the pictures in the book are superb. The best picture is of Nandaghunti from Bedni Bugyal probably taken early in the morning. This picture has made me to think of trekking to Bedni Bugyal if not Rupkund .

Sadanand

Dilliwala

Thanks, Sadaji
I think the few stories that are different appear in 'Rain in the Mountains', so although there's no need for the 1988 book as such, it wud be worth having it for the photos, if one can find it.
Yes, I believe Bedni is beautiful, along with Dayara Bugyal. They are going to ruin the latter with a ski-resort. I hope it doesn't happen very soon.

Sadanand Kamath

I agree. I don't think we can lay our hands on these books.

The name of Christina Noble mentioned in kullukid's post has reminded me of the paper back edition of her book Over the High Passes: A Year in the Himalayas with Migratory Gaddi Shepherds, which I had read sometime in early 90's. The book is based on the author's experience in staying and moving with Gaddis for one year covering summer and winter migration.

Sadanand

nyraghu

Ruskin Bond's writings, both fiction and non, were my introduction to Garhwal, and I like all the books of his that I have read. I first came across the Mana Pass in his story `Time Stops at Shamli,' in which one of the characters, upon being told that someone has absconded into the mountains near Tibet, says, "Did he? What part of the country? I come from the hills myself. I know the Mana and Niti passes quite well." Artistic license no doubt, considering the inaccessibility and the difficulty of the Mana Pass, but still the passage remains clearly in my mind. I admire the gentleness and kindness that are there in Ruskin Bond's writings, in spite of the rather difficult childhood and youth that he seems to have experienced.

As my first contribution to this thread, here is a list of the Ruskin Bond works in my bookshelf:

• Landour Days, A Writer's Journal, 2002, Penguin Books India: A compilation of diary entries, classified into seasons. The entries themselves are about all manner of things, e.g., birds, mountain streams, trees, Landour society, the Savoy hotel, tips to budding writers, Pahari Wilson, and John Lang.
• The Book of Nature, 2004, Penguin Books India: Collection of essays on topics like conservation, flowers, and leopards in railway tunnels.
• Mussoorie and Landour, Days of Wine and Roses, coauthored with Ganesh Saili, 1997, Roli Books: Essays on the history of the two places, delving into topics like the cemeteries of Mussoorie, and the schools of the town. It also contains extracts from A Mussoorie Miscellany written in the 1930s by the editor of a local newspaper. This extract describes murder, people falling off roads, and other heady happenings of those times.
• Himalayan Tales, 2003, Rupa: A collection of short stories and of essays on topics like the Landour Bazar, a Tibetan lama in Mussoorie, and storms that blow away roofs.
• Roads to Mussoorie, 2005, Rupa: Aishah has described this book above. A collection of essays on Mussoorie, and travels near the place and far from it. Includes a description of a trek to Tungnath. In a piece on Kipling's connection with Mussoorie, there is a mention of Peter Hopkirk's meeting with Bond when Hopkirk was doing the spadework for his own book, `Quest for Kim.'
• Indian Ghost Stories, ed. Ruskin Bond, 1993, Penguin Books India: Includes stories by John Lang, Arthur Conan Doyle, Satyajit Ray, and others.
• The Room on the Roof, reissued 1987, Penguin Books India: His first book, a novel.
• Ganga Descends, 1992, English Book Depot, Dehradun: Yet to read this.
• Rain in the Mountains, Notes from the Himalayas, 1993, Penguin Books India: Got this after reading Dilliwala's and Aishah's comments on it. Yet to be read.
• Days of Innocence, Stories for Ruskin Bond, 2002, Roli Books: Not written by Ruskin Bond, but dedicated to him. Contributors include Keki N. Daruwala, Namita Gokhale, and others. It doesn't seem very interesting, so I haven't read much of the book.

To close, here is a sampler from `Landour Days:'

Raghu.

__________________
colorless green ideas sleep furiously

capt_mahajan

And his short story, "The Eyes Have It" is a perennial favourite with me.

As well as his book about 1857, 'A Flight of Pigeons'.. made into a pretty good Hindi movie, 'Junoon'

Agree with DW, though, his ghost stories are avoidable.

Spirit of Havelock

In Abor Jungles of North-East India by A. Hamilton (1915) - a crazy story, about a forgotten war against the Adi people of Arunachal Pradesh in 1912. Shows how the border was drawn with Tibet. Some really strange stuff.

My quest for the Yeti, confronting the Himalayas' deepest mystery by Reinhold Messner. He explored the mountains for many years, he thought the Yeti was a silly myth, then one day.......

__________________
Neither worry about, nor rejoice in the future (Ancient Egyptian saying)