THE LATEST OFFERING from the pen of journalist Jaskiran Chopra Memories of Another Day harks back to times when the author spent her childhood in the Doon Valley. The book is a collection of personal, interesting anecdotes that take you on a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

Divided into five sections — Footfalls of time; Seasons in the sun; Vanishing world; Memories lost and found, and Notes on nostalgia — the book contains 11 short chapters that brings alive memories of the past.

Chopra dips her pen into the ink-pot of memory bringing to life a world that has gone by. It is a world of familiar sights, sound, taste and smell.

In the chapter Vanished Landmarks, she writes, “Doon was once a city of canals and the disappearance of almost all of them has taken away much of the character of the city. Most of the clear, bubbling canals have now become roads; the expansive fields of fragrant basmati have turned into concrete residential colonies. This unhurried, friendly town of tongas, litchi orchards and sprawling bungalows has changed into a crowded, rushing city. The world has finally caught up with Dehradun,” she laments. “But then, old places like Prabhat, Natraj and Orient cinemas, Hotel White House, Kumar Sweets, Joshi’s “Buffet” and the Chaat wali gali are still going strong!’

How one wishes the pictures could have matched the elegance of the prose. And the photo-editor could have done more work and trawled the photo agencies for more iconic images of this city of “green-hedges and grey-heads”.