mountains - Comfortably Numb

Travel: Looking for that clear day

On a clear day….. It is the nature of the footloose traveller to muse, to ponder, to introspect. As one of the tribe, I find myself thinking deeply about one set of four one-syllable words that hold in them much hope, despair and patience. On a clear day. This was the leitmotif of my travelling…

Book review: Becoming A Mountain by Stephen Alter

Becoming a Mountain Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime By Stephen Alter (Aleph Publications) Mountains, says Alter, have been endowed through history with nobility, wisdom, omniscience, as well as described as fearsome, treacherous, demonic. Of course, all this is but the expression of human sensibilities towards the natural world. The…

Photo Feature: Himachal Heights

All photos by Sheila Kumar. All images are subject to copyright. Blue skies, crowded hill towns….. A glimpse of Solan between trees. The Shimla Hills, shrouded in gauzy blues. The original cottage in Jutogh cantonment near Shimla where Bishop Cotton started his school. St…

Book review: Walking The Himalayas by Levison Wood

Walking the Himalayas by Levison Wood. Hodder Books/Hachette India. A couple of disclaimers need to be inserted at the start of this review. One, I`m a sucker for any book that has the word `Himalayas` in its title. Two, the rather edifying jacket pic played its part in my picking up this book. That aside,…

Book review: All the Way to Heaven by Stephen Alter

This is more a brief take than review. Stephen Alter`s All the Way to Heaven will strike an immediate chord in anyone who loves mountains. This is an account of his childhood in Landour, lovingly and evocatively rendered. Hunting, fishing, trekking and of course going to school at Woodstock; it’s a good life indeed, and Alter…