Far from the beauty

At a full-house Teen Murti auditorium, this was an usual affair — the launch of a book with some well known personalities attending it, speaking about it in the presence of the author. There was however, one difference. Here, the author of the book Himalayan Wonderland — Travels in Lahaul and Spiti, Manohar Singh Gill, better known to us as the former Chief Election Commissioner and Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, looked a tad unhappy.

He might have felt nice about people like Malvika Singh, publisher of Seminar magazine, asking him questions on the book, Vinod Mehta, the editor-in-chief, Outlook, recalling his association with Gill, Harish Kapadia, a distinguished Himalayan mountaineer, and Tshering Dorjee, Gill's companion to the Himalayas, sharing the author's love for the mountains and the glaciers, but when it came to Gill's own speech, he poured his heart out.

Full report here Hindu