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Scientist Emeritus
read more →: 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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The lure of mountains
read more →: The lure of mountainsFor The Tribune, Chandigarh | December 8, 1979 INDIAN MOUNTAINEER SPRING NUMBER, 1979. Indian Mountaineering Foundation. Pp 135. Rs 6. The Himalayas are nature’s greatest gift to the subcontinent. Indians in the past, apart from a limited amount of pilgrimage travel, largely ignored them. It was the Europeans, particularly the British, who went out to…
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Musings on the Match
read more →: Musings on the MatchThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | December 2, 1979 AMRITSAR, Dec 1 – The cancellation of play on the first day was a big disappointment. A huge crowd had gathered and a large number of tickets were sold at the gate even though there was little chance of play. But Amritsar has a long tradition of…
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Chandigarh’s Hyde Park
read more →: Chandigarh’s Hyde ParkThe Tribune | November 26, 1979 He stands defiantly on the traffic island leading to the Punjab Secretariat. He wears a yellow turban and a military great coat, over which he carries a sword. A steel chakra in his hand, a distant and aloof look in his eyes, he occasionally walks with a proud and…
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A step towards cultural revival
read more →: A step towards cultural revivalThe Tribune | November 12, 1979 Mr Parkash Singh Badal will today lay the foundation stone of the Punjab Arts Council building near the Rose Garden in Chandigarh. This will be an important step in the cultural revival of the State. Ever since 1966, when the miracle wheat seeds came to Punjab, we have all…
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Ludhiana redeems a promise
read more →: Ludhiana redeems a promiseThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | November 4, 1979 Today the Chief Minister of Punjab will unveil in Ludhiana a 10 ft. high bronze statue of Major Bhupinder Singh, M.V.C., of Hodsons Horse, who gave his life for the country in the Sialkot sector in the 1965 war. For me, personally, it is the fulfilment of…
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A Sikh from Norway
read more →: A Sikh from NorwayThe Tribune | September 27, 1979 He walked into the plush office of a refrigeration company in New Delhi and asked to see the managing director. His request was simple. Could they please build him a cold store in his native Jullundur? The managing director was surprised. The man who sat opposite him was a…
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Himalayan ‘Ajanta’
read more →: Himalayan ‘Ajanta’The Tribune | September 24, 1979 Kee, Tabo, and Dankhar are among the important Buddhist monasteries, locally known as Gompas, which have lifted the desolate valley of Spiti, situated on the Indo-Tibetan borders, to the artistic status of a “Himalayan Ajanta.” The Monastery of Kee on top of a hill, just ten kms from the…
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A rambling compendium
read more →: A rambling compendiumFor The Tribune, Chandigarh | June 9, 1979 PORTRAIT OF A POLITICAL MURDER by H. S. Bhatia. Deep & Deep Publications, New Delhi; Pp 178. Rs 35. The sleek Boeing 707 came to a halt. The yellow Presidential flag, embossed with a scimitar fluttered, outside the pilot’s window. Soon the door opened and a tall…
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A Punjabi Tamilian
read more →: 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 →: 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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Oh, for the “kikar” tree!
read more →: Oh, for the “kikar” tree!Published on March 9, 1979 My grandfather loved “datuns”. Along with sugarcane chewing, they were the best recipe for strong sparkling teeth. There was a pleasant ritual attached to their chewing. Grandfather would get up at dawn; clear his throat a bit, and then saunter off into the green fields. Somewhere along the way he…
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Chandigarh Footlights
read more →: Chandigarh FootlightsThe Tribune | March 4, 1979 At Cambridge University, achieving high academic results is not the main purpose of life. The students are there to savour the unique intellectual and social atmosphere of the place and to endeavour to develop their talents and faculties to the fullest extent possible. Some want to be artists, others…
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Living dangerously in Lahaul Spiti
read more →: Living dangerously in Lahaul SpitiPublished on March 29, 1979 While M. S. Gill writes of the hazards of life in this Himachal area, struck by a disastrous avalanche recently, in the article below Mr SunderJal Bahuguna, leader of the Chipko movement in Uttarakhand, UP, warns of the mounting dangers to the eco-system of the Himalayan region. The heavy snowfall…
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Down With Those Fountains
read more →: 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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First flower of freedom
read more →: First flower of freedomThe Indian Express | October 6, 1978 Chandigarh: Glorious tributes have been paid to Le Corbusier by many great architects of the world. The great American Architect, Louis Khan, once said, “I came to live in a beautiful city called Le Corbusier”. On seeing Chandigarh in 1960, Paul Rudolph, a famous architect, remarked: “It is…
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Cambridge Characters
read more →: 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…
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Commemorating Our War Dead
read more →: Commemorating Our War DeadThe Illustrated Weekly of India | June 18, 1978 The author recalls his correspondence with the Army authorities in which he had made a plea for a suitable memorial for the unknown Indian soldier. I come from a family of soldiers. An ancestor served in the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and possibly fought at…
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Chandigarh: road sense and nonsense
read more →: Chandigarh: road sense and nonsenseThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | June 11, 1978 Such is the chaos that one notices on the Chandigarh Roads Many years ago the road going past Safdarjung airport in New Delhi towards the Kutb Minar was christened “the murder mile” by an enterprising journalist: The reason was simple enough. The road was narrow, the traffic…
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The history of Everest
read more →: The history of EverestThe Tribune, Chandigarh | April 16, 1978 FACES OF EVEREST by Major H. P. S. Ahluwalia. Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi. Pp. 238, Rs. 225. Since it was pinpointed on a map in the middle of the 19th century, Everest, the highest point on this little earth of ours, has continued to fascinate man. The…
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He Risked His Life For A Muslim Friend
read more →: He Risked His Life For A Muslim FriendThe Sunday Tribune | March 12, 1978 He sits opposite me with the inherent dignity of those born to the soil. A tall grey-bearded man with piercing brown eyes, Ajaib Singh looks one in the eye with the bold candour of a man who earns his bread with the sweat of his brow, a man…
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For peace and quiet
read more →: For peace and quietThe Tribune | February 26, 1978 A Delhi newspaper earlier this month carried two innocent looking news items behind which lies a much bigger story. According to the Special Representative of this newspaper, “the Shah of Iran said today that he hoped Indian visitors to Iran would feel as at home there as he and…
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In Death as in Life
read more →: In Death as in LifeThe Tribune | January 29, 1978 Delhi is full of marvellous names: Maharani Bagh, Sunehri Bagh, Punjabi Bagh, Gulmohar Park, Green Park. The list is a long one. The colonies and the names are free India’s contribution to the national capital. The colonies are an expression of the ever-expanding and relentless march of suburbia outwards…
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Memories of an Amritsar Man
read more →: Memories of an Amritsar ManThe Tribune | October 24, 1977 I grew up in the shadow of Amritsar, or Ambarsar, as we say in that part of Punjab. My village lies just a mile away from Tarn Taran. For us, living in a small hamlet of less than 200 families, Tarn Taran was “shehr”, the city. No one ever…
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The Road to Xanadu
read more →: The Road to XanaduThe Sunday Tribune | October 16, 1977 In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.So twice five miles of fertile ground,With walls and towers were girdled round;And here were gardens bright with sinuous rillsWhere blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;And here were forests…