Read the April 30th edition of the Doon School Weekly (PDF). The issue includes a conversation with the new house master of Martyn House and a report of the cricket match between The Lalit Hari Sugar Factory and The Doon School

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The March Rose Bowl (7.5mb pdf)is now online. The print edition is going to be published for the forseeable future. Thank you for participating in the poll where we asked you whether it should go "electronic" only. Your feedback matters.

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Malvinder Singh (136-JB '90) was nominated to join a group called the Young Global Leaders which has been constituted by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Malvinder is currently a Director at Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals.

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Padmanabha Gopinath (154-H '54) is serving as the Counsellor to the Director-General of the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to that, he worked for the United Nations. He has been recognized by Kofi Annan for his contributions to the UN System.

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Old Boys have been invited to play a cricket match against the Doon School in Dehra Dun on April 10, 2005. If you are interested in playing, please contact Nalin Khanna via SMS at 98100-28127 or at nalink@vsnl.com.

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Hari Menon (238-TB '85) has written an article about the Roopkund lake titled "Bones of a Riddle." Hari is Outlook Magazine's features editor. His email address is harismenon@excite.com.

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Karam Puri (655-KB'95) is acting in a new production called the SWAN in New York, NY. Read a review of the play by NY Theatre and buy tickets to watch the production.

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Dehra Dun was a popular retirement town till as recently as 10 years ago, famous for juicy litchis, fragrant basmati rice, the armed forces and elitist academies. Lately, however, after the formation of Uttaranchal state, this once sleepy town has been designated state capital and along with this title has come heavy administrative infrastructure and political machinery.

Dehra Dun was a popular retirement town till as recently as 10 years ago, famous for juicy litchis, fragrant basmati rice, the armed forces and elitist academies. Lately, however, after the formation of Uttaranchal state, this once sleepy town has been designated state capital and along with this title has come heavy administrative infrastructure and political machinery.

A year-long equable climate, high groundwater and proximity to the cool Himalaya accorded Dehra Dun the ideal ambience for establishing retirement homes for army officers, tea-estates, fruit orchards, boarding schools and research organisations, as well as training institutions - a factor encashed in plenty by the British after the annexation of the region in 1816.

They developed this town into an important hub in the early 1900s by establishing a number of academies. The Imperial Forest College was established in 1914 in the Chandbagh campus (which has been housing The Doon School since 1936). This was followed by the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in a sprawling 1,000 acre campus in the New Forest Estate off Vasant Vihar. FRI conducts research on flora and fauna. The Royal (Rashtriya Indian) Military College (RIMC, 1922) and the mock Tudor style Indian Military Academy (IMA) in 1932 were other institutions which put Dehra Dun on the Indian map.

Bisected by the seasonal streams of Ripana and Bindal Raos, Dehra Dun is yet predominantly a 'one-storey' city of bungalows, flower studded gardens, expansive cantonments in Garhi and Clement Town (which also has the Air Force Academy), and research institutes like the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, the Wildlife Institute of India (Chandrabani), along with the national headquarters of the ONGC and Survey of India (founded in 1767 with former surveyor generals like Sir George Everest).

The massive campuses of India's premiere boarding schools such as The Doon School, Welhams' Girls and Boys School, Convent of Jesus & Mary (CJM), have single-handedly brought international recognition to Dehra Dun by giving the country two prime ministers, viz. V P Singh and Rajiv Gandhi; mediapersons like Prannoy Roy; writers like Vikram Seth (winner of Booker's Award) and Amitav Ghosh as well as the hugely popular Ruskin Bond (from Mussourie) and a whole string of armed personnel (IMA), forest officers who train at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (FRI Campus). Today, these very institutions are the focus of tourism activity. For example the excellent museums in the FRI, where you could almost spend an entire day!

Geologically speaking, a Doon is a flat valley between the Himalaya and the Shiwalik Hills and like the Patli Doon and Pokhra Doon (Nepal), Dehra Dun too is snugly positioned at 695 metres (2,310 feet) in the hills and bounded on the east and west by two of India's most revered rivers, Ganga and Yamuna, respectively. On the south, the Rajaji National Park with its towering Sal forests, home to Asiatic elephants, tigers, leopards and a huge variety of wildlife, also shelter the deras (camps) of the semi-nomadic Gujjar tribes. On the north are the Mahabharat Ranges (a part of the main Himalayan range), in which nestles the famous 'Queen of Hill Stations' - Mussourie (1,970 metres), which was a stopover of the Pandavas before they headed into the Himalayan forests.

Due to its location in a flat valley, Dehra Dun experiences regular inversion and a cool climate even in the peak of summer. It is a pleasant sight waking up to the glow of the snow-capped peaks, sipping tea sitting on the terrace of a bungalow along the spinal roads leading to hill towns of Chakrata (94 kms) or Rajpur Village (12 kms) or having dinner while night-lights bejewel Mussourie, a bare 34 kms away.

The city centre marked, like any north Indian town, by a clock tower (Ghanta Ghar) lies next to an ever-crowded shopping street popular as Paltan Bazaar, flanked by an eateries' street - the Chatwali galli, which has the famous Kumar's Sweet Shop at its entrance. Heading along the Rajpur Road, you pass the General Post Office (GPO), several modern shopping malls (Windlass), quaint and popular eateries such as Moti Mahal and Kumar Foods to some of India's oldest and unique bookshops. Flanking the Barista on each sides are the English Book Depot and the only truly 'Green' Natraj Book Store, which stocks books, multimedia and publications relating to nature, wildlife, gardening and outdoors - right opposite the Gandhi Public Garden. Further along the road, Hotel President with its Polo Bar and Hotel Madhuban are the most popular high-end accommodations in Dehra Dun.

However, if you head away from the GPO - towards Delhi (235 kms), you pass the Interstate Bus Depot and one of India's oldest railway station, past the congested Prince Chowk, which has mid-range hotels such as Meedo's, Prince and the GMVN-run Drona (with dormitories), to really cheap Dharamshalas, which pilgrims on the Chardham Yatra avail of during the summer and monsoon months. Heading further down you reach the Majra Village famed globally for its excellent Basmati Rice, past the central vegetable market (Sabhzi Mandi), towards Clement Town, which has a huge Tibetan Settlement having a massive and superb monastery, stupas, a meditation centre, all worth visiting and the Air Force Academy (AFA), training the high-fliers of the country. Around two kms from the Clement Town junction, along Subash Nagar Road and into Chandrabani Village, are the pyramidal academic blocks of Asia's topmost wildlife research organisation, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

In the third direction, along the Chakrata Road, the town is far more affluent, rarely populated, retains the quaint flavours of the Raj and has some of the most popular establishments of the city, viz. the Doon School, FRI, IMA, RIMC. As you pass the narrow lanes of old Dehra Dun towards the depot of the highly polluting Vikram (six-seater rickshaw) stand you encounter some of the town's oldest black and white photo studios, such as Melaram & Sons who for over three generations have been documenting the growth, progress as well as genealogy of the original residents, schools and academies. However, newer photography services like that of Goyal Colour are probably more well-suited for the quicker pace of urban Dehra Dun. Past two movie halls and you are into truly metropolitan region, with a funny mix of Punjabi, Garhwali, Kumauni, Bengali and Himachali people, along with a largely transient populace on deputation!

With Dehra Dun becoming a capital city, villages such as Prem Nagar, Kaulagarh, Kaonli Rd and Clement Town (Subash Nagar), which were considered outside the city limits, have now turned into its suburbs and house a sizeable number of new residents, organisations, small-scale industries and the Central Braille Press or Rashtriya Drishtibaditarth Sansthan Bharat, the largest producer of Braille texts in India.

For sightseeing, Dehra Dun is the gateway to a variety of beautiful locations right on its outskirts. These include the sulphur springs at Sahastradhara (14 kms), the cold water gorge at Robbers' Cave (Guchhupani) (8 kms), the religious places of Tapovan (5 kms) and Tapkeshwar Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva (5.5 kms), as well as Laxman Sidh (12 kms) and Malsi Deer Park (9 kms), which are extensively used by the locals for their weekend picnics. The Jhanda Fair marking the arrival of Guru Ram Rai, at Dehra Dun is celebrated with great pomp and aplomb in the heart of the town on the fifth day after Holi, every year, attracting hundreds of Sikh pilgrims from the entire country. The renowned religious town of Rishikesh, where the Ganga enters the plains, is a mere 42 kms away. The temple town of Haridwar (67 kms) famous for its evening aarti (prayer) with floating lights at Har-ki-pauri, Mussoorie, Rajaji National Park, the deodar clad Chakrata hills all lie in the Dehra Dun district and are a day-visit.

All in all, this city snugly located in the arms of two mountain ranges is an ever-smiling and ever welcoming city, burgeoning into a metropolis, albeit limited by massive mountains and rivers!

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Vikram Seth, one of the best known Indian writers in English, was on Tuesday presented the Government of India's `Pravasi Bharatiya Samman' 2005.

The Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs, Jagdish Tytler, presented the 53-year-old writer a medal and a citation at a function here in his office.

Present on the occasion were Mr. Seth's family members, including his father Prem Seth and mother Leela.

For 2005, there were 15 award winners, including Mr. Seth who was not able to attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2005 in January when the awards were given away.

After the ceremony, Mr. Seth said: ``It feels great to get an award from your own country.''

In a lighter vein, the writer, who divides time between London and New Delhi, said, ``but I don't feel completely pravasi.''

After four novels, five collections of poems, a picture book and a travelogue, Mr. Seth is working on a `double biography', which he expects will be out by October this year.

Titled `Two Lives', the book is based on the lives of his ``Indian grand uncle and German grand aunt.'' ``The book is set partly in India, partly in Germany and partly in other places,'' Mr. Seth told PTI here.

He said the process of writing the book began after the death of his grand aunt, when at his mother Leela Seth's insistence he began interviewing his grand uncle.``I interviewed him, giving him something to do. And I did it initially partly out of a sense of duty. But then I was very fascinated by his story and the book happened,'' the writer said.

The book is also based on letters written by his grand aunt to his grand uncle, who was a dentist and whose right arm was shot off in the war.

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One doesn't hear much about Anish Kapoor. He's not based in India and avoids the limelight. He's an artist after all and one who prefers to speak through the art he creates. In the last 30 years since his move to London to study, he's had phenomenal success in the art world letting his sculptures do the talking.
Visit the spotlight to learn more.

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The 4th DSOBS Inter House Cricket was held on March 5, 2005 at the Central
Secretariat grounds. The semi-finals got underway under damp but sunny conditions.

On Ground 1 the last years champs 'K' house led by Sheel Sharma won the toss and put 'T' house led by Donny Singh into bat. Pepe opened the batting with 44 runs in 41 balls and Asheet Lanba's 34 runs off 22 balls along with Extras (35) allowed Tata to reach 148-8 in their 20 overs. Sheel Sharma and Moin Quereshi took a wicket a piece whilst Manas got 2 wickets and Raghav led the analysis with 3 wickets for 28 runs. Manas took on the chase for Kashmir but astute field placing by Donny Singh along with a determined Tata house fielding side resulted in the run outs of Shashi Vaish, Vivek Narain and Raghav Malik. Bowling figures of 2 for 14 by Ambuj Bansal ensured that Kashmir could only muster up 124 runs in their allotted 20 overs. Tata won by 24 runs.

On Ground 2, Arun Khanna beat Sandeep Chandra to the toss and put 'J' house to bat. Seeing the slightly damp conditions the experience voices of the Malhotras (Vipin & Anil) hollered the H house team to get on to the field quickly. Abhishek 'Boozy' Misra scored 61 off 51 balls, Sandeep scored 20 runs off 17 balls and J house finished with a late flourish from Vivek Seth (16 off 8 balls). But the J house start off 33 runs in the first 7 overs meant that Jaipur finished only with 135-8 in their 20 overs. 2 wickets by Shobit and a shrewd last over by Sunil 'Melly' Gupta along with Udayan's brilliant catching helped the H house cause. Hyderabad had no problem in knocking off the runs in the 16th over with Arun Khanna scoring 45 in 31 balls and Pranav Sahai scoring 32 runs in 14 balls.

For the 3rd/4th place, Kashmir rattled up 140-7 in 15 overs after being 52 for 7 at one stage. Shashi Vaish led the way with 43 runs off 30 balls with Sheel Sharma supporting him with 20 runs off 13 balls. Raghav finished the K house innings with 43 runs off 17 balls with four 6's and three 4's. Boozy's 4 for 14 was J house only consolation. Raghav's blitzkrieg seemed to have affected the J house batsman with Boozy scoring 22 runs off 31 balls and only Sandeep Chandra provided the flourish scoring 30 runs off 18 balls. Sheel Sharma showed his versatility by taking 2 wickets for 17 runs. J house could only score 86 runs in their 15 overs.

In the final, Amitoj 'Jonny' Singh led the Hyderabad House assault with 58 runs off 43 balls. With Arun Khanna's 43 in 36 balls, H house reached 149-8 in their 20 overs. Asheet, Dhiru (of 'O' house) Singh, Siddhart took 2 wickets a piece but T house were badly let down by their beer (sorry butter) fingers. Perhaps the liquid arrangements organised by Vipin was part of the overall strategy of Hyderabad House. In reply Tata faltered early with Sandeep Sharma taking a one handed catch to dismiss Pepe off Yadav and Vibhas Prasad accounting for Sanjay Mediratta and Dhiru. But Donny and Asheet rallied for Tata before Mannu bowling his flighted leg spin got Donny caught behind by Anil Malhotra (yes 'Paps' did keep wickets for H house) and Asheet fell to a brilliant catch by Jonny. Indu Shekhar kept up the tempo and finally Tata needed 9 runs off the last over. The tension was palpable and even had the senior DSOBS members including Shanti Bery, Kr. Prem Lal, 'Tishi' Khanna and Vikram Lal(match referee) fully engrossed. The last over bowled by Nalin yielded only 5 runs and hence Hyderabad won by 4 runs.

Gulab Ramchandani gave away the winning trophy to Hyderabad House and the event was attended by a large number of the fraternity including most members of the Board of Governors and the DSOBS executive committee. The event was sponsored by HDFC Mutual Fund, Kotak Bank, Daks clothing and prizes were provided by ITC, Taj Hotels and Tappu Prasad. Each house raised its own Funds with Kashmir House leading the fray. As always Vipin Malhotra organised drinks and Vivek Seth rounded off the event with a well organised Delhi chapter dinner.

Results Summary

Match 1: TATA HOUSE vs KASHMIR HOUSE

Tata House : 148-8 (20 overs)
Pepe - 44 runs in 41 balls
Asheet Lanba - 34 runs in 22 balls.
Raghav took 3 wickets for 28 runs
Manas took 2 wickets for 26 runs

Kashmir House: 124-6 (20 overs)
Manas - 50 runs in 29 balls
Ambuj took 2 wickets for 14 runs

RESULT: T won by 24 runs

Match 2: JAIPUR HOUSE vs HYDERABAD HOUSE

Jaipur House : 135-8 (20 overs)
Abhishek Mishra - 61 runs in 51 balls
Sandeep Chandra - 20 runs in 17 balls
Shobit took 2 wickets for 33 runs.

Hyderabad House: 137-3 (16 overs)
Arun Khanna - 45 runs in 31 balls
Pranav Sahai- 32 runs in 14 balls
Abhishek Mishra took 2 wickets for 18 runs.

RESULT: H wins by 7 wickets

Match 3: KASHMIR HOUSE vs JAIPUR HOUSE

Kashmir House: 140-7 (15 overs)
Shashi Vaish- 43 runs in 30 balls
Raghav Mallik- 43 runs in 17 balls (four 6's)
Abhishek Mishra took 4 wickets for 14 runs

Jaipur House : 86-6 (15 overs)
Abhishek Mishra - 22 runs in 31 balls
Sandeep Chandra- 30 runs in 18 balls.
Sheel Sharma took 2 wickets for 17 runs

RESULT: K win by 54 runs

Match 4: HYDERABAD HOUSE vs TATA HOUSE

Hyderabad House : 149-8 (20 overs)
Amitoj Singh- 58 runs in 43 balls.
Arun Khanna- 43 runs in 36 balls
Asheet Lanba took 2 wickets for 25 runs
Dhiru took 2 wickets for 27 runs
Siddharth took 2 wickets for 27 runs

Tata House : 145-7 (20 Overs)
Donny - 41 runs in 39 balls
Asheet - 38 runs in 29 balls
Nalin Khanna took 3 wickets for 31 runs

RESULT: H win by 4 runs

FINAL RESULT
Winners: Hyderabad House
Runners up: Tata House
3rd Place: Kashmir House
4th Place: Jaipur House

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Ashvin Kumar's (271-OB '91) film Little Terrorist was recently nominated for an Oscar in the "Short" film category. Download the movie. Also read Ashvin's exclusive Doon Online interview. While Ashvin did not win an oscar, we congratulate him for being nominated.

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Dr. Gurpreet Singh, Board Member of The Doon School has started ’Äò’ÄòSikhya-The School of Learning,’Äô’Äô a luxury school for slum children.

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Lt. General Deepak Summanwar (160-K '64) took over as the new Director General of Military Intelligence at the Army headquarters on February 22nd. He commanded an infantry brigade in Rajasthan and a mountain brigade on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir during the Kargil conflict in 1999.

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Dr. Kanti Bajpai will be a panelist at an Asia Society event in New York on March 11, 2005 titled, "India���s Tryst with Destiny in the 21st Century." The event is sponsored by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF).

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Bharat Talwar (452-HA '93) and Deep Deshpande (500-HA '94) were recently featured in IndUS Business Journal. Read the article in the Press Coverage area.

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Lt.Gen.Adi M.Sethna (191-K '39)has written an article titled, " The Dosco and Public Consciousness." in which he reminses on the dosco value of public duty. Discuss whether doscos today have lost their sense of public duty in Virtual Doon. Also read B.G.Verghese's (150-J '44) article " The Rewards of Giving."

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