The Himalayas (An Expedition to the Indian Range)

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About the Book The Himalayas, the precious pinnacle of our country.... Acknowledged as the birthplace of many life giving rivers, playing host to bio-diverse hotspots in its forests, it is the pot where cultures and traditions of our country brewed and were born carrying forward ethnicities of a unique kind that remain alive even today.

Mountains of Our Destiny' is a unique book that features the Indian Himalaya from Arunachal Pradesh in the Northeast to Kashmir in the Northwest.

A travelogue, this coffee table book includes Over 300 mesmerizing photographs of the mountains in its varying moods, captured in different seasons from Arunachal Pradesh to Kashmir Enchanting flora and fauna of the Himalayas Description of treks undertaken by the couple from their 40 year tryst with this mighty mountain range Interesting nuggets from their camping experiences Fascinating folk lore about the culture and the people Thought provoking concern about the deteriorating mountain system The photographs of different parts of the Indian Himalaya have been captured by photographer and mountaineer, J. Ramanan and description supported by Vrinda Ramanan, mountaineer and author.

Foreword From at least the time of the Mahabharata, the Himalayas have evoked awe and fascination for poets and writers, spiritual seekers and the common people alike. The poet Kalidasa begins his Kumarasambhava not with the traditional invocatory verse but with a reference to the Himalayas: "To the North stands the Himalaya with a divine soul, the king of mountains." In geological terms, the Himalaya is literally the king of mountains, with the highest peaks formed by the collision of the Indian sub-continent with the Eurasian plate. The 2500-km range stretches from the point in China, where the Brahmaputra turns sharply South towards India in the East to the Karakoram range in the West.

Introduction Readers of The Hindu Friday Review would be familiar with Vrinda Ramanan and J. Ramanan, who authored the column, 'Hidden in the Himalayas'. Snapshots of flora and fauna from their collection had embellished the supplement's Tamiraparani Special. It was a book, authored by the duo, which introduced Vrinda-Ramanan to The Hindu Friday Review Desk, in 2016. During the conversation, they mentioned their unusual passion - Nature photography and mountaineering - which had taken them to pristine locations. Most fascinating was their tryst with the great Himalayas - repository of mystic secrets, womb of the Ganga and many other rivers, an icon worshipped by Hindus and much more. So when the supplement was planning columns for its tabloid format, one of the first choices was Vrinda Ramanan and J. Ramanan.

**Contents and Sample Pages**