W have been to Kumaon 3 times. The Diwali vacation of 1960 was our first visti – the 3 of us. The return leg of our raradah trip saw us branch to Pithodagarh and meet up with the Damania’s for a trek to Pindari. The third was in 1988 Diwali with a 18-month old Vaidehi on my back in a baby carrier, Mahendramama, Surabhimami and Dolly for company.

• Frontier Mail (our favourite train to the Himalayas) to Mathura and a meter gauge overnight train to Kathgodam, followed with a bus ride to Nainitaal. Hotel bookings were difficult at best in those days, so mummy and I parked ourselves at the bus stop while papa went and organised the Hotel room, right by the mall around the lake. Later we had organised permits or took our chances at PWD or Forest Dept. Rest Houses (except at Almora) because we had traced the officer whose jurisdiction controlled the rest hosue we were keen on, and many a letters had flowed between papa and the officer. More on the Nainitaal page.
• Jaydevkaka and a new friend called Suchita had joined us for the Raradah trek - which by our standards was relatively short – but dropped out for the next leg to Pindari glacier in Kumaon. Suchita wanted to return to Bombay, and Jaydevkaka escorted her back to avoid letting a single girl go back on her own. Jumla to the nearest rail head in India, and onto Pithodagarh, Bageshwar and Kapkot. See the Pindari page.
• Vaidehi was 11/2, and travelled everywhere on my back in a baby carrier. We had not planned any trekking -although we did do a day trip out of Ranikhet – and that convinced Surabhimami to join us. Mahendramama had already come with us to Gangotri earlier. Dolly a.k.a. Snehal had vacation, and joined us. Chaukori page.