‘Where the Gods Dwell,’ a book on Uttarakhand, explores Pithoragarh and surrounding mountains in Kumaon

Mysore/Mysuru: A journey initiated as a social project to conserve the hill heritage and develop tourism and economy in the villages of Uttarakhand, led to the documentation of some of the places being affected by the spread of cityscapes.

A tea table book on Pithoragarh, a lesser-known hill town in the 27th State of India, was released in city recently by Dr. M. Jagannath Shenoy, Managing Partner, Mangaluru Ganesh Beedi Works.

The first copy of this photo documentation was presented to Rajwad Bhanu Raj Singh Pal (108th king of Askote). The proceeds from the sale of the book would be partially used for Desirazu Associates  Lalitha Rao Charitable Trust, Mysuru, created to enhance the lives of women.

The book titled ‘Where the Gods Dwell’ explores Pithoragarh and the surrounding mountains in Kumaon. Ar. D.S. Ramakrishna Rao, Managing Director of DA Associates and Managing Trustee of Lalitha Rao Charitable Trust presented an overview of the project aimed to promote tourism in the State.

Dr. M.D. Raghavendra Prasad, Managing Partner, Bhamys Constructions Pvt. Ltd., Venkat Desirazu,Trustee, Desirazu Associates Lalitha Rao Charitable Trust and others were present.

Documentation of heritage buildings being his forte, Ramakrishna Rao was so impressed with the hills and heritage buildings of Pithoragarh that he decided to document it. This is not the first such project by Desirazu Associates. In the past five years, similar books published by the Trust includes three books on Srirangapatna, one on Bijapur and Mysuru each.

“Conservation of heritage structure is a huge task not just in India but also everywhere in the world. Documentation of such heritage buildings not only educates the future generations about the history, but it also generates interest in history and encourages corporates to take up maintenance of heritage projects which are on the verge of extinction,” says Ramakrishna Rao.

The Desirazu Associates Lalitha Rao Charitable Trust (DA Trust) was established in 2019 in memory of late Lalitha Rao, wife of Ar. D.S. Ramakrishna Rao, with an objective to convert her passion of enhancing the lives of girl children into a  reality. The DA Trust was initiated to enable and empower girl children to rise to their full potential and face today’s world with confidence.

The Trust is aimed at funding education of girl children and encourage reading by supporting many libraries in the city.

 An office was created in Uttarakhand to enhance the lives of women in villages. The two major projects taken up by the Trust in Uttarakhand are construction of an extra room in the houses to provide home stay facility to the tourists and construction of a café called ‘Saras Cafe’ to a group of four women.