‘Wanderings in the Land of Mist: The complete story of Mussoorie’ launched at VoW
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 17 Dec: One of the books launched on the concluding day today at the Valley of Words Literature and Arts Festival was ‘Wanderings in the Land of Mist: The complete story of Mussoorie’, authored by journalist and writer Anmol Jain who himself is a fourth-generation resident of Mussoorie. The book has been published by Rupa Publications. The book launch session was moderated by senior journalist Yogesh Kumar while the session was chaired by noted environmentalist Ira Chauhan. The session was attended by a large audience including the VoW Founder Director Dr Sanjeev Chopra.
Responding to a question by Ira Chauhan on how his book is different from several other books that have been published on Mussoorie, Anmol Jain stated that his book has 16 chapters and each chapter is focussed on a different facet of the town. There is no need to read the book in a sequential manner. One can pick up and read any of the preferred chapters as there is no direct sequential link between the chapters. Jain further stated that each chapter is full of anecdotes and real incidents, some of which are funny, and contain a lot of information. Some chapters even described ghosts of the past.
In response to another question, Jain also shared that the book has quotes and anecdotes related to noted residents of the hill town and authors like Ruskin Bond, Hugh Gantzer, Ganesh Saili, the late Tom Alter and several others, which make the book much more personalised and interesting.
Yogesh Kumar observed that he had read the book thoroughly and that Anmol Jain had broken several myths prevalent about Mussoorie. Kumar even asked Jain to share some myths that had been broken through this book. In response, Jain informed that a big myth that was prevalent about Mussoorie for the last 150 years was about the location of the first construction in Mussoorie or “shooting box” erected by Captain Frederick Young. According to the myth, the first construction in Mussoorie came up on Camel’s Back Road, but according to his research and the evidence collected by him in this regard, the first construction in the hill town was done above the famous Mall Road adjoining where the Christ Church is located.
Jain further shared that yet another myth that prevails in Mussoorie is that Landour, the old town, is named after Llandowrr, which is a town in Wales (UK) whereas, according to another myth, Landour was named after another town called Landaura near Roorkee in district Haridwar. Anmol Jain asserted that, as per his research, there existed a small village called Landour at the same place where Landour, the old Mussoorie town, exists today.
One of the chapters in the book is titled, ‘Pleasure Capital of the Raj’. Yogesh Kumar asked Jain to share with the audience why Mussoorie was termed as the pleasure capital of the Raj. In response, Jain shared that Shimla was the summer capital of British India, while Darjeeling was made the summer capital of Bengal Presidency. However, Mussoorie was kept free from any official status and officialdom. It was used by the British administrators as a place for leisure and pleasure. As Mussoorie was free from officialdom, this allowed the British soldiers and the elite British gentry a free hand in Mussoorie to freely indulge in drinking, dancing and merry making. As a result, scandals were quite common then and, therefore, Mussoorie came to be known as the pleasure capital of the Raj.
When asked about the market response that his book was getting, the author shared that it has been widely appreciated by the readers from across the country and that it is available in all the major book stores across the country and also on Amazon.
