Lansdowne: Garrulous about Garhwal
Sometimes, nothing makes sense anymore. Our jeep hustled down the twisty tracks of the Garhwal hills in the Southern Himalayas. The journey wasn’t over yet. We still had to visit a place downstream of the river Malini. It was getting dark and all the ancient history from the Mahabharata wasn’t able to enthuse us anymore. Legend has it that sage Vishwamitra meditated intensely on the banks of the river Malini. God Indra, afraid of his dedication had sent the damsel Menoka to distract him. Successful in her endeavor, she gave birth to a girl offspring, Shakuntala who was left at this place called Kanva-Ashram in the care of Rishi Kanva. Shakuntala was the mother of Bharata, a legendary Indian emperor who had conquered all of Greater India, his empire being named after him , ‘Bharat-varsa’ . What was supposed to be a quiet European-like vacation on a British military hill station turned out in the end a trip down mythological folklore. But I wasn’t complaining. Tattling in t...