By Abhinav Chaturvedi
Om, Vande Mataram!
On behalf of the Garhwal Post family and Satish Sharma I would like to wish the people of Uttarakhand, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Governor Lt General Gurmit Singh (Retd), a Happy 3rd Anniversary of the BJP Government in this capital city of Dehradun.
I came to Anchor the Uttarakhand Tourism Samman 2025 on the invite of Hemant Kochar, Chairman, PHD Chamber of Commerce of Uttarakhand, at the Madhuban Hotel.
Here we felicitated the Trailblazers and the workforce in Tourism from various dimensions of the industry.
The Uttarakhand Government was awarded the Best in the Field of Forests and Dehradun City was awarded for the significant contribution towards development of Tourism and putting the State of Uttarakhand on the Global Stage.
I have been associated with the state’s tourism when I anchored the Uttaranchal Tourism Conclave in Mussoorie, where I met Satish Sharma of GP and Anjali Nauriyal for the first time.
Since then I have been in touch with the DEV BHOOMI as my Celestial Destination.
I had come for my honeymoon with my wife to Dhanautli Breeze way back in 1993.
Then we used to come and play for our Cricket Club with the late Tom Alter and the jing bang lot of Vishal Bhardwaj, the late Baba Mazgaonkar, Robin Bhatt, Sanjay Bhutiani, Yashovardhan Tyagi in Mussoorie and played at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration.
In the process I had the pleasure of meeting the late Nand Kishore ‘Bamboo’ – the International Roller Skate Umpire hailing from the Holy Land of Uttarakhand.
On the shifting sands of time, I had the pleasure of gaining my ground with Satish and I fell into the trap of Ankur Aggarwal, who was the GM, Royal Orchid Hotel, in Mussoorie where my wife Nandini and I witnessed the gory rained night of Kedarnath Ji along with the late Vinod Mehta of Outlook Magazine. My heart went out to the people of Uttarakhand. A nightmare that I would never like to revisit.
When my father had pancreatic cancer, the family with my able mother the late Dr Vineeta Chaturvedi came to stay at the Garhwal Terrace in Mussoorie. His last outstation visit before I came to immerse his mortal remains in the Holy Ganga in Rishikesh, where I saw my grandfather off too. Rishikesh saw off my mother, too, last year. Full Cycle of Life!
During my regular visits to Dehradun and Mussoorie, I also had the pleasure of meeting Kamal Sharma – the Ace Photographer of International repute who has become family.
I kept coming for Garhwal Post Anchoring as Satish turned this newspaper from black and white to colour, from a weekly to a daily, with uncle continuing with his own publication.
Then I had a surprise call from Dr S Farooq to visit him at his residence and the plant of Himalaya Drugs now The Himalaya Wellness Company, who recited the Kalma for my mother. How soulful.
I recently visited the Graphic Era University along with Satish and Kamal Bhaiyya.
So… cut to 2025 … celebrating ‘The Uttarakhand Tourism Awards’ I anchored to near perfection only to land up with my Senior from St Stephen’s College – Michael Dalvi, former Delhi Cricketer, to visit his own curated Retreat – where MSD married Sakshi.
Hence, another concentric circle to speak to my fellow cricketer, “Volly Bhai”, the legendary fast bowler Sunil Valson – member of the 1983 World Cup winning team…
Watched the inaugural game of the IPL between KKR and RCB.
The Tata IPL 2025 opened on the eve of the 3rd year of CM Pushkar Dhami’s government – committed to a rather MODIfied Bharat.
The first state to have introduced the CAA.
Baar Baar Naman, Devabhoomi ko!
(Abhinav Chaturvedi is best known for his role as Nanhe of the iconic television serial, HUM LOG)
