Dehradun, March 16 -- Rahul Kohli

There is a castle, that is no longer a castle and to a casual observer, there are no signs of it. As you walk through the bazaar, you have no inkling what the hillside hides behind shops of all kinds, petty dealers in fruit and vegetables, grain merchants, traders and merchants of all sorts and sizes, cloth merchants, money-lenders and native bankers. It was, and still is, one of the best-stocked bazaars in India.

If you peer through the surrounding frieze of trees, sometimes at the witching hour, you might just about get a glimpse of the place that once was a summer home for Maharaja Duleep Singh. Undisturbed for years, gregarious deodar trees have simply taken over.

On the left as you enter the gate,...