Dehradun, Sept. 27 -- Culinary Chronicles

Fall takes me to the hills where it is the most fascinating season. Good old memories! I miss the highlands during this part of the year, rather, when don't I?

Born and bred in the mountains, my little life was nothing less than that of the English author Enid Blyton's penned world. Eating sweet chestnuts, collecting pinecones, watching the mushrooms bloom below the tree trunks near the Camel's Back Road cemetery but never ever found a red one with white polka dots as shown in the illustrations.

The rains would bid adieu by now in the past. After the autumn equinox with the tilt of the sun, subtle sun beams penetrated throughout the day with a nip in the air during dusk and dawn.

There was the...