Dehradun, Jan. 27 -- Milkman Prem Singh from Kimoi . courtesy Norman Van Rooy

By: Ganesh Saili

"Where do you live?'

'In Khachchar khana!' That would be the answer.

So perverse was the imprint of the Remount Depot in our hill station that by 1960, the residents had had enough, and now demanded a change.

'What could be more infra-dig?' they moaned.

Gopal Dutt Dimri, the fiery labour leader, (schooled with my father at Mesmore Inter College in Pauri-Garhwali) too had it to the gills of living in a place called 'a place of mules.'

After winning an election to the Mussoorie Municipality, he moved a resolution that it be renamed Laxmanpuri, and that is what it is known as today.

It was not always so. Next to the Remount Depot was the ol...