Talk:Almora

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[edit] Interesting Facts

This was the interesting facts section in the article. Are any of these facts actually interesting or is this just a trivia section? RJFJR (talk) 14:48, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

  • Almora was the capital of the Chand Dynasty Kings of Kumaon for four centuries, and was the administrative centre of Kumaon during the British Raj.
  • The first British Nobel Laureate (in medicine), Sir Ronald Ross was born in Almora in 1857.
  • Pt.Govind Ballabh Pant was born in Khoont village on the Shyahi Devi hill of Almora.
  • Doyen of Indian bureaucrats Bhairab Dutt Pande ICS, Padma Vibhushan, was born in Almora.
  • Swami Vivekananda, who established 'Adwaita Ashrama' near Almora which is also known as Mayawati. Sister Nivedita and many disciples of Swamiji came here for spiritual salvation.
  • A few miles away from Almora lies Mirtola, where an ashram was established in the 1929, by a Vaishnav saint 'Yashoda Ma', and later run by her disciples Sri Krishna Prem and after him by Sri Madhav Ashish [1].
  • Uday Shankar founded his famous dance school here in 1938 in a place called "Pine Lodge", which was later shifted to Kolkata after the World War II. His younger brother Sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar and the great Hindi film maker Guru Dutt studied in this school, while Ustad Alauddin Khan Sahib, or Baba of Maihar and Zohra Sehgal taught there.
  • The mystic-scientist Boshi Sen, a disciple of Swami Sadananda of the Ramkrishna order and of Sir JC Bose, set up an agricultural research lab here and lived in Almora for the rest of his life with his wife Gertrude Emersen.
  • Barechhina, a village 8 km from Almora, famous for pre-historic rock shelters, with coloured paintings.
  • Popular film star, Uma Thurman, resided in the same hill station, as a child.
  • Several leading figures of Hindi literature like Sumitranandan Pant, Manohar Shyam Joshi and Shivani are all natives of Almora.
  • Shooting of a 2006 Hindi film, Vivah took place in Almora
  • On the outskirts of the town, approaching Kasar Devi temple, is the famous Crank's Ridge, which has hosted various artists and writer's since at least the 1930's.
  • Indian Cricket Team Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a native of Almora. His paternal village Lvali is located in the Lamgarha block of Almora District.