The 'Rahul Sankrityayan Paryatan Puraskar Yojana' running by the Ministry of Tourism to reward books originally written in Hindi on tourism-related topics, for the year 2020-21, the book 'Chalein Saath pahad' by Dr. Arun Kuksal has been selected for the first prize under this prestigious award.
This book was published by 'Sambhavna Prakashan', nowadays famous for the book 'Tareekh Mein Aurat' by writer Ashok Pandey.
'Preface' is the reflection of book.
Arun Kuksal has chosen senior author Devendra Mewari to write the 'Preface' of his book and Devendra Mewari has been successful in making it completely clear in the introduction of the book that the book takes us to the beauty of the hills as well as introduce us with the problems of the hills.
In 'Apni Baat' the author tells the importance of travelling in a individuals life.
This book is a compilation of the author's ten tours to the hilly regions of Uttarakhand. According to the author, the purpose of the book is to bring out the social, economic, educational and cultural picture of Uttarakhand and he has been completely successful in bringing these pictures in front of the readers.
The author has started 'Chalein Saath Pahad' with the journey of Shiva's paradise-Madhyamaheshwar, with reading this the readers feel that they are also with the writer during his journey in hills.
The author has written the words of the people who were in contact with him during the journey exactly as they have said, for example the author writes that a person named Jagat held his hand and said "One to three, tum Bhi free hum bhi free to baitho".
While reading the book, along with seeing the black and white photographs, you will also get information about different books, which the author remembers after seeing some places.
Diring his journey The author sometimes remembers the work of Rahul Sankrityayan and sometimes he remembers the poems of Chandrakunwar Bartwal.
Along with some local words, this book questions on the system too.
Pahari words like 'Danman' of rain were also used in the book, but the readers do not have any problem in understanding their meaning and they imbibe them easily.
In this book the author has also hit out at the system.
Book teaches a lot on the history and present of Uttarakhand.
While reading the book, it is also felt that if you keep this book with you during the Uttarakhand journey, then you will not need to ask anyone for the way forward for your journey.
The author talking about his college which has become a godown in Ranikhet reminds us how much we have taken care of our archaeological buildings.
The history of Uttarakhand has also been exposed in the book, like the Tiladisera incident was probably bigger than the Jallianwala Bagh incident, but due to being done by 'own' people, this dark chapter of history is not talked about much.
Reading further in the book, we come to know about the village 'Ponti', where people are engrossed in themselves even in the absence of basic needs like road, electricity, but the story of people dying due to lack of treatment in such villages and the plight of schools. Distracts the mind.
This book easily explains the main reason why there is such a difference in 'development' between Himachal and Uttarakhand.
It is important to read about the damage caused by tourists to hills in Sunderdhunga region.
During the visit of Devadhidev Kedarnath in 2019, the author also conveys the effects of 2013 disaster to the readers.
Even after reading the book continuously for ten hours, I did not feel boring reading it.
This book should be declared as the state book of Uttarakhand.
The author has not put his different journies in their chronological order, but still you like the way he write this book.
The conversation between the dog and the chicken sounds awkward.
After reading this book, you may be think that
this book should be declared as the state book of Uttarakhand and it should be handed over to the people who are in the political power of uttarakhand.
Himanshu Joshi
@himanshu28may
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