Nostalgia in the hills
While the highlight of the recently concluded Dehradun Literature Festival was The Ruskin Bond – Promising Writer Award, those who attended the three-day event were in for a heartwarming peek into the bond the Pataudi family shares. Soha Ali Khan and Sharmila Tagore hosted a session in the idyllic hill station to talk about the former’s new book, The Perils of Being Moderately Famous.

In it, Khan chronicles many tales from her life and some of those came to light during the talk as well. The audience there was made privy to stories that are as funny as they are touching. The one that we heard of is a sweet tale about Tagore’s late husband and Indian cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi using his love and knowledge of Urdu poetry to woo the uninitiated actress, who learnt only from Feroz Khan that the poem meant for her was really written by Mirza Ghalib. Khan, too shared a story about her father giving up his socks to ensure she got to be part of her college ceremony that had made stockings mandatory. As if Dehradun’s charm wasn’t enough, now with these nuggets of nostalgia, our FOMO levels have only risen.