Dehradun, July 5 -- Culinary Chronicles

Remember that simple, looping handwriting in our childhood autograph books? "We meet to create memories and part to cherish them." We used to scribble those words with ink-stained fingers, not really understanding what they meant, just thinking they sounded poetic. Today, the weight of that little phrase hit me with the force of absolute truth.

They were sitting just a single row ahead of me at the army club, right in the middle of the noisy, familiar hum of a tambola game. Yet, somehow, they looked like they belonged to a completely different era.

The lady, Ruby Chetinder Sandhu, was the picture of fragile, tender grace. She had a breathtaking, timeless look about her. The kind of beauty that ma...