The evocative subtitle of Robert Macfarlane’s partly introspective book – the history of a fascination – sums up rather well the thread that ties together this collection of books. The mountains – discovered through serious expeditions in the Himalaya, the Alps and the Andes or footloose wanderings and relaxed ambles – have a primeval attraction for many, irrespective of age, gender and class. And Ravina Aggarwal writes in her introduction to an excellent selection of 22 short writings, “the mountains have inspired writers” – whether to dwell on displacement, denial, desire or conflict and of course, belonging. The contributions cover a wide spectrum, from narratives around the introduction to snow-capped peaks for a group of young girls from Delhi’s suffocating resettlement colonies (Saba Dewan), forecasts of likely disasters (Jamling Tenzing Norgay) and an author’s return home to heal (Namita Gokhale) to the more straightforward essays on cliff goats (E.R.C. Davidar), conservation (Suketu Mehta), Sunderlal Bahuguna and the Tehri Dam (Ajit Bhattarcharjea). Ruskin Bond’s account of the trees he has known (“the sounds of the trees themselves, stretching their limbs in the dark, shifting a little, flexing their fingers” . . .) melds easily with Joseph Alter’s informed reflections on the economics of buffalo-rearing for milk. Harish Kapadia’s useful history of the Siachen glacier, Monisha Ahmed’s account of pashmina goats and Abdul Ghani Sheikh’s allegorical short story of malevolent winds in Ladakh bring this interesting book to an end.   Bill Aitken’s account of wanderings in the Himalaya is an autobiography with a difference; his serendipitous introduction to them way back in the 1960s turned him into a serious mountainphile, trekker and raconteur. After a rigourous stint at a Gandhian ashram in Kausani, he went on to Mirtola. The Mirtola ashram, earlier known as Uttar Brindaban was founded by Yashoda Mai, a Bengali woman who later chose a young Englishman who had been a lecturer at Lucknow University where her husband was Vice-chancellor, to be her successor. Krishna Prem exercised considerable influence over Aitken during the twelve years that he was at the ashram. The guru’s taxing commitment to physical labour combined with considerable extant knowledge of relevant poets and religious savants and a wry sense of humour kept the author going, finally convincing him to change his citizenship.   After he met Prithwi, a fellow disciple at Mirtola, Aitken moved to Garhwal and “to the worldly air of Mussoorie”. ...