December 7, 2006 Jolly Grant, Dehra (India) On a day when I failed to make it to the ‘hardly-known’ Pari Tibba (the infamous burnt/haunted hill), the day ended with a pleasant meeting with one of my all-time favorite authors, Ruskin Bond. On our way to Lal Tibba, we saw Ruskin standing on the narrow lane…
Category: Anecdotes
During my visit to Ranikhet (a beautiful small town set amidst the Great Himalayas in India at about 6000 ft. above sea level) last summer, I met an old watchman, who told me how people live in the mountains. He said that he travels about 6-8 miles a day just to get to work through…
This is another video from the same Sukhanfaham evening I spent with Capt. Lal during my Summer 2005 India trip. Click on the play button to start the video. You may want to pause it until the progress bar finishes streaming and reaches the end. He recites a beautiful Hindi Poem in the beginning and…
This is Capt. Lal, our old time neighbor back in Rohtak, India, reciting a very old (may be as old as him) Urdu poem from his college days. The man is a World War II Veteran, a former All India Radio Director, a Lawyer, and a connoisseur of Urdu Poetry. I recorded this during my…
Everyone knows that change is a must. It’s about the only thing one can count on. Changes may be good or bad, but it’s not something that we can bargain with. Of course unless you take a permanent leave from the Human Race and live away from the so-called civilized world. But I have a…
[audio:http://gdhar.com/uploads/lovestory.mp3] I walked along the river while the evening commuters whizzed by me. The moon’s reflection was shimmering in the silent waters just below the bridge. Someone was playing music farther away in a car. It was the theme from the movie, The Love Story. Story of how love can drive you to do things…
I wrote this back in August 2004. Some names and incidents have been changed, but like most of my writings – this one is more or less autobiographical. By the way Mozart would have been 250 today. …It had been raining all morning and I could still feel it in the winds. I had not…
This is just another page from my diary. A diary I haven’t written anything in – for more than 5 years. This incident dates back more than 10 years. Sometimes it’s easier to recite in a room full of people than narrating something about your life to one person. You sit down with your pen…
This happened about six months ago and I’ve often kept myself from writing about it. But here is it, anyhow. On an autumn evening, I was coming back from my stroll when I ran into her in the forest. She was standing under an old Deodar tree, as if waiting for someone. As I approached…
Saturday usually finds me going through my archives and re-arranging things. I found this little poem that someone had once written for me. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way you want them to be, but later when the future unfolds, you sit back and think that everything happens for a reason. Or like Edward…