Dehradun, March 24 -- Roli Books Author's Pix

By: Ganesh Saili

Life has taught me that once the genie is out, you can't put it back into the lamp. Ours is the bandstand in Library Chowk. Gifted to the hill station a hundred years ago by H.H. Jagatjit Singh, Maharaja of Kapurthala, it never found a permanent spot. After being repeatedly pushed around, a few feet at a time, it was finally shifted southwards to ease the way for today's traffic. The music went the way of the Raj, and when I last went past it, it hung on to the very tip of the Library. If pushed any further, I'm afraid it would slide down the hill, coming to rest in Dehradun.

Mussoorie's affair with the royals or ex-rulers of princely states began in the nineteenth century,...