Description
‘What is it about the hills that draws us to them again and again?’ asks one
of the editors of this collection. In these pages, over forty writers—from a
daughter of the Tagore family and a British colonial officer in the 19th century,
to a young poet and an Adivasi daily-wage worker in the 21st century—show
us what the many reasons could Green hillsides glowing in the sun; the
scent of pine and mist; the wind soughing in the deodars; the song of the
whistling thrush; a ritual of worship; a picnic, a party, an illicit affair. They
show us, too, the complex histories of hill stations built for the Raj and
reshaped in free India; the hardship and squalor behind the beauty; the mixed
blessings of progress.
Rich in deep experience and lyrical expression, and containing some stunning
images of the hills, Between Heaven and Earth is a glorious collection put
together by two of India’s finest writers, both with a lifelong connection
with the hills. Among the writers you will read in it—who write on the
hills in almost every region of India—are Rumer Godden, Rabindranath
and Abanindranath Tagore, Emily Eden, Francis Younghusband, Jim Corbett,
Jawaharlal Nehru, Khushwant Singh, Keki Daruwalla, and of course the
two editors themselves. Together, they make this a book that you will keep
returning to for years to come.