Dehradun, Nov. 10 -- (Actor, hotelier and China hand Dev Raturi on cinema, enterprise, belonging-and the many meanings of home)

In the crowded map of my China years, there was one blank space I had never expected to fill: another Uttarakhandi who had lived, struggled and built a life in that vast country. Then, in Dehradun, I met Dev Raturi.

Dev, a son of Uttarakhand who has earned recognition in Chinese cinema while also building his identity in the hospitality world, carries a life story that moves across borders. I, too, spent more than twelve years living and working in China-a period I have recounted in my memoir, "12 Sweet and Sour Years in China". Yet, curiously, despite our shared Uttarakhand roots and our deep association with ...