Nothing ennobles human beings more than the company of their beloved ones in an environment suffused with the splendour of nature. My latest such experience occurred last summer when Maggie and I visited Shimla. The verdurous hillsides that rise majestically all around cling to your soul with an unearthly tenacity. They bewitch you so much that you feel oppressed and liberated simultaneously. You become the questing knight of Keats’s La Belle Dame Sans Merci . You are drowned in transcendental beauty. You are intoxicated with it. Having spent the day visiting various places of tourist interest, we were dropped back by our driver at the Old Bus Stand from where we wished to walk up the fairly steep ascent to the Mall Road. The narrow lane is lined on both sides with goods of all sorts ranging from exotic trinkets to day-to-day grocery items. The mundane and the sublime coexist in an edifying spirit of camaraderie in the markets of hill stations. A view from the Ma
Cerebrate and Celebrate