About the Author

My family hails from Rawalpindi in Punjab, which is now a part of Pakistan. Having left our roots behind during the Partition of India, the family had to make a new beginning. My maternal grandparents resettled in a hill station nestled in the Himalayan range, called Mussoorie. They also had farmlands in the vicinity of the Yamuna Canal Headwaters ? about two and a half hours away. I spent a lot of time in my childhood visiting my grandparents in Himachal and was lucky to be exposed to the area. This is a beautiful part of the Himalayas with the pilgrim towns of Haridwar and Rishikesh; the Yamnotri and Gangotri ? sources of the great Yamuna and Ganges rivers; many shrines such as Badrinath and Kedarnath; as well as the Valley of the Flowers ? all within short reach. The foothills of the Himalayas, the Shivalik Hills with places such as Paonta Sahib and Nahan, are also places of great beauty in the vicinity.I have used this area as the background of my story and have also introduced something of rural Punjab and the popular festivals of this region. The festivals and the legends which abound in this area, have been interwoven into the fabric of the story to make it informative and interesting as well as entertaining for my young readers.