Dehradun, Aug. 3 -- Author's collection

If you take the road from Sisters' Bazaar and go beyond the last hill and keep going, you will find, below the road, the barracks of the old British Military Hospital built over two hundred years ago. Eastwards lies Oakville, which is home to the Alter family and stands at 2,250 metres above mean sea level. This colonial bungalow is made of lime mortar, and random rubble, and a roof built using the local rhododendron and oak beams. It earlier had a thatch-roofed house which burnt down, according to author Stephen Alter. After that the place was rebuilt in 1836.

Had you walked here in the 1970s, you would have met much younger versions of famous actors Naseeruddin Shah, Tom Alter and film director ...