Manohar Singh Gill: An Officer of the People
Diaries from Home and the World
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Concrete Valleys
Read more here →: Concrete ValleysOutlook | September 3, 2007 Pre-1966, the Beas-Kangra valley was part of the Punjab. My early service was spent in that beautiful valley. In 1961-62, I was deputy commissioner, Lahaul-Spiti, across the Rohtang Pass. My family and I have continued to visit Lahaul since then. Last week, I went after a decade and a half…
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Peaks Of Power
Read more here →: Peaks Of PowerOutlook | April 30, 2007 I first went to Kathmandu when I was CEC many years ago. It was a world congress on mountaineering and tourism, Nepal’s main bread-earner. But I spent most of my time with the political establishment, the Election Commission of Nepal, and the late King Birendra. I can never forget the…
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Socratic Egghead’s Gown
Read more here →: Socratic Egghead’s GownOutlook | October 23, 2006 Last Wednesday, more than 50 years after he was a graduate student in St Johns’ College, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh walked the Senate House lawns in a ceremonial procession escorted by the chancellor, the Duke of Edinburgh, to receive an honorary degree from this 800-year-old university. I went to Queens’…
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Don’t Call The Cavalry
Read more here →: Don’t Call The CavalryFor Outlook | July 3, 2006 Lutyens’ Delhi is under siege and no one cares. It’s an unholy coup d’etat. I have lived for many years in Lutyens’ Delhi, and for almost two decades worked within the one square kilometre of the capitol complex. Still, every time I go up Rajpath and see the great presidential palace,…
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Requiem For Ranthambhor
Read more here →: Requiem For RanthambhorFor Outlook | February 27, 2006 Tigers roamed here once. Now, it’s a jungle of caterwauling tourists. Ranthambhor and its tigers were recently in the news. Poaching seems to have all but exterminated the already limited numbers. Horror and anxiety led to immediate, apparently energetic steps: the mantra of a CBI inquiry, the naming of central…
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Royalty in Flannels
Read more here →: Royalty in FlannelsOutlook | May 12, 2003 Recently, I had the chance of an extensive tour of Saurashtra. Raj Kumar College in Rajkot, set up in 1870 as the first of the Prince’s colleges created by the British to educate future maharajas, invited me for their annual day. Jet Air left at 6.10 am sharp. The service…
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Birds, Bees And Squirrels
Read more here →: Birds, Bees And SquirrelsOutlook | February 11, 2002 Indians have hardly any curiosity about the external world. Perhaps they are more focused on the interior self and future salvation. To them all birds are generally chhiris. Their specific knowledge is limited to crows, kites and kabootars (pigeons). Flowers are lumped as phool, trees as darakhat. We all suffer…
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Sun, Salmon And Cambridge Spires
Read more here →: Sun, Salmon And Cambridge SpiresOutlook | September 3, 2001 Former CEC M.S. Gill on an English summer, lazy flashbacks … and lots of cricket. Sitting in the garden of an elegant two-hundred-year-old house, within sight of college spires, a cool zephyr gently blowing, I feel a million miles away from the Election Commission. How could it be otherwise? The…
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Europe on 2 bottles of “achaar”
Read more here →: Europe on 2 bottles of “achaar”The Tribune | February 25, 1986 In lighter vein by M.S. Gill If you are up at Cambridge you want to go somewhere for the vacation. The place is closed for six months in the year to allow people to study. Terms are meant for more serious pastimes! A friend says we have holidays between…
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The Hermit of Ta-Yul Gompa
Read more here →: The Hermit of Ta-Yul GompaThe Tribune | March 21, 1981 In the summer of 1967, my wife and I went for a visit to Lahaul. We thought those high remote valleys, with their perfect sunny weather and carpets of alpine grass, studded with wild roses of every hue and colour, were the ideal place for a short rest. We…
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A matter of sixpence
Read more here →: A matter of sixpenceThe Tribune | March 6, 1981 It was a wet winter evening in Cambridge. The rain dripped gently on the college lawns. The fog, as T.S. Eliot might say, curled about the ancient buildings. The yellow street lights gave everything an eerie appearance. My wife and I had gone to Wolfson College to dine with…
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Shuffle, reshuffle and a shake-up
Read more here →: Shuffle, reshuffle and a shake-upThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | November 23, 1980 Falling administrative standards continue to cause concern among the public. Efforts have been made from time to time, particularly with the help of foreign experts, to improve matters. An American, Paul Appleby, came to India in the fifties, and submitted a report. Sir Malcolm Darling, a famous…
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The Doctors From Pathankot
Read more here →: The Doctors From PathankotThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | November 9, 1980 In the course of my official duties I once had occasion to meet a deputation of unregistered medical practitioners of Punjab. These are men who carry on the trade in the countryside. They argued for the honour of being declared “Registered Medical Practitioners.” The medical men present…
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The Prince Who is Best Forgotten
Read more here →: The Prince Who is Best ForgottenThe Tribune | November 7, 1980 QUEEN VICTORIA’S MAHARAJA – DULEEP SINGH, 1838-93, by Michael Alexander and Sushila Anand. Vikas, New Delhi, Pp. 326. Rs. 150. MAHARAJA DULEEP SINGH first impinged on my consciousness in our village gurdwara. Occasionally Giani Sohan Singh Seetal came there, with his famous “dhadi” jatha to sing stirring ballads about…
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A Wet Day in Edinburgh
Read more here →: A Wet Day in EdinburghThe Tribune | September 9, 1980 The Edinburgh Festival held in September every year is famous the world over. Tourists come from all over Europe, and the town is given over to art exhibitions, film shows, musical evenings, and sports contests. The highlight is the military tattoo which is staged outside the portals of the…
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In a haven of peace
Read more here →: In a haven of peaceThe Tribune, Chandigarh | September 1, 1980 With my morning newspaper these days full of gory details of murder, stabbing and arson, I find some cheer in the remembrance of an incident long past. Some years back I went on a tour from Delhi to the Andamans. I had heard much of their green forests,…
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The Real Punjab Mail
Read more here →: The Real Punjab MailThe Tribune | July 18, 1980 The Orient Express was made famous by Agatha Christie. In the days of the raj the most romantic train on the subcontinent was the Frontier Mail which ran from Bombay to Punjab and the Khyber Pass. Men like John Masters have described the fascinating journey by this train, full…
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The supermen who failed – Last of the Burra Sahibs
Read more here →: The supermen who failed – Last of the Burra SahibsThe Hindustan Times Magazine | July 13, 1980 The qualities claimed for the former Indian Civil Service – the rule of law, a sense of justice and fair play, sympathy for the underdog, love for the countryside and pursuit of scholarship – were more British than Indian. No wonder, after Independence, the Brown Burra Sahibs…
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Grey Beards, Green Hedges
Read more here →: Grey Beards, Green HedgesThe Sunday Tribune | June 8, 1980 We were sipping iced nimboo-pani with some friends. The conversation was about life at Chandigarh. “What is there to do in this dull city?” exploded the husband in virile Punjabi, “All you get here are serving or retired bureaucrats, and a duller lot would be hard to find.…
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A rare get-together
Read more here →: A rare get-togetherThe Tribune | April 18, 1980 Possibly the most exclusive Indian club is a worldwide group of Punjabis. Since Punjabis are spread over the far corners of the globe, the membership perforce has to be an international one. Of course, it is another matter that when the members, like good Americans, decide to exchange visiting…
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Scientist Emeritus
Read more here →: Scientist EmeritusThe Tribune | December 28, 1979 I knew Mr Lal Singh Kang many years ago as my Sub Divisional Magistrate in Jullundur. A tall, grave-faced and mild-mannered man, he attended diligently to his duties as a revenue officer. He was always a picture of dignity. I was, therefore, surprised to see in a recent issue…
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A Punjabi Tamilian
Read more here →: A Punjabi TamilianThe Tribune | April 26, 1979 In a country obsessed with the activities of politicians, big and small, the death of a bureaucrat in distant Madras should be a matter of no importance to the people of Punjab. Yet Jeet Singh Bhangoo, former Transport Commissioner to the Government of Tamil Nadu, deserves notice, howsoever briefly…
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A Swiss aid project
Read more here →: A Swiss aid projectThe Tribune | March 29, 1979 I had taken an Air India flight from Heathrow for Delhi. The Jumbo jet was packed with Punjabis looking forward to a home holiday and an assortment of Westerners eager to savour the excitement of the East. The Jumbo is like a vast class III carriage of an Indian…
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Down With Those Fountains
Read more here →: Down With Those FountainsThe Sunday Tribune | November 5, 1978 Why is it that our city fathers (I include in this category both officers and elected public men) are friends of fountains and foes of parks? This may seem a harsh query but seems valid, at least to my knowledge of Punjab. Many, many years ago my first…
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Cambridge Characters
Read more here →: Cambridge CharactersThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | September 3, 1978 Cambridge is pleasant and Cambridge is always full of little surprises. This town of a few lakh people has grown up around the University, which is the core of its being. The Cantabrigia of the Romans is the Cambridge of today. The 20 odd colleges dating from…