When a veteran journalist like Raj Kanwar brings out a book on Dehradun which has been his home for several decades, one can expect it to have a title related to journalistic terminology. So we have his new book that talks about the history of the city, its major institutions and eminent people down the years, all intricately linked to the author’s personal memories. And the book is aptly titled Dateline Dehra Dun.
Essentially, dateline is a term used by newspapers and news agencies to indicate the city or town from where the news emanates or a news story is sent as also the date of its dispatch. Dateline Dehra Dun thus means that the book is all about Dehradun. What was Dehradun like in the 1930s? What was then its administrative structure? Who was its first District Magistrate? And who was its first Superintendent of Police? Who are its prominent citizens? And who are its well known authors? What is the origin and growth of its famous schools that has given Dehradun the sobriquet of the school town of India? What are its world- famous institutions and how and when those were established? How and when Dehradun became the headquarters of the ONGC and in what way that changed the town’s face? Why did Jawaharlal Nehru love Dehradun and why did Indira Gandhi frequently visit the town? And what were those early struggling days of well known author Ruskin Bond, and why did he visit the main Post Office so frequently? From a small quaint town, Dehradun slowly grew into a larger town.
Kanwar says, “And so did I grow.. From a teenager, I jumped to my adulthood bypassing the years of adolescence. In a way, the town and I grew in a togetherness of sort, and I seriously felt as if the town was my sibling. Over the past 70 years, Dehradun and I seem to have developed inextricable and somewhat unusual ties, more like an umbilical cord. I believe that not many of my fellow residents know what Dehradun was like in those early years and how it grew from a small town into a flourishing city. Dateline Dehra Dun answers those questions.”
The book has come out recently and has a foreword by well-known author and diplomat Navtej Sarna (former ambassador of India to the US) Sarna spent his childhood tears in the valley and did his schooling from Saint Joseph’s Academy. He has a strong emotional connection with the town. “I knew that he would set the tone for the book by sharing his memories of Dehradun in the foreword,” says Kanwar.
The book talks at length about the many famous schools of the valley including the Doon School, Welham Boys’, Welham Girls School and Saint Joseph’s Academy. It includes chapters about their principals, headmasters, well-known alumni and teachers, chronicling the existence of these educational institutions that have made Dehradun known the world over. There is a section titled “Dehra Dun: The School Town of India”
Indian Military Academy, Forest Research Institute (FRI), Survey of India and ONGC feature prominently in the book which has on its cover the FRI’s imposing corridors. The book shows the vast experience of the author who has been a journalist in Dehradun since the 1950s. He met Nehru when he used to visit the valley and stay at the Circuit House. There is a chapter titled “Nehru’s love affair with Dera Dun”.
As Sarna writes in the foreword, “ Those who are familiar with the town in its pre-capital days are nostalgic about its cosy smallness, its attraction as a retirement destination …its days of bungalows and Baghs…..Mr Raj Kanwar has seen it all, lived it all. He has made his life and writing synonymous with the best of Dehra Dun. This is a treasure trove of his memories being pulled out straight from his heart. All those who share his love for the valley will enjoy the book and others will be inspired to learn about the little heaven that was.”
