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The Other Punjab
read more →: The Other PunjabThe Sunday Tribune | September 4, 1977 This is not the only Punjab there is. There is another one – the original one – that lies some thousands of miles away in the Northwest, across a series of mountain ranges. The historian always has known about it. The people of Punjab, a mixture of Aryan,…
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Kalapani
read more →: KalapaniThe Sunday Tribune | March 20, 1977 I first heard of Kalapani as a boy in an Amritsar village. It was a place familiar to every Punjab villager, for that is where you were bound to be sent, if you were unfortunate enough to kill a neighbour, in a sudden fit of anger. When the…
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Guns and Battle Flags: Remembering Anglo-Sikh Wars
read more →: Guns and Battle Flags: Remembering Anglo-Sikh WarsThe Sunday Tribune [Magazine Section] | December 19, 1976 The Anglo-Sikh wars were the last campaigns fought by the British in India. These battles were also the hardest, of their long career of conquest in the sub-continent, and the Sikhs, perhaps one of the most difficult foes, they had encountered anywhere in the world. On…
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The Aliens
read more →: The AliensThe Tribune (Magazine Section) | October 24, 1976Republished in The Statesman | January 2, 1977 We were standing at the bar sipping pints of bitter. The pub was rather special. Indian owned and Indian patronized, “The Oxford” stood in the seedy harbour front area of Southampton. The area around it was peopled by working class…
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Southall Revisited
read more →: Southall RevisitedThe Illustrated Weekly of India | July 11, 1976 The author, visiting Southall after eight years, finds the immigrant community in Britain greatly transformed. I first visited Southall in 1967. Being a former Deputy Commissioner of Jullundar, I was keen to see this new “canal colony” in the West that sent back such a steady…
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Rain Makers
read more →: Rain MakersShankar’s Weekly | September 2, 1973 The dramatic break-through, achieved recently by our rainologists (rain makers) has created a number of problems for our government. It just goes to show that scientific progress is not an unmixed blessing. Let me explain first the achievement. It is best done in the words of the famous rainologist,…
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Co ops lead in wheat procurement
read more →: Co ops lead in wheat procurementFor Hindustan Times Weekly | July 22, 1973 During the last 70 years the co-operative movement has progressed and proliferated in various directions, but credit still remains one of the primary objectives. Today, there are approximately 3.23 lakh co-operative societies with about 5.80 crore members in the country. They cover over 48 per cent of…
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Men of the Mountains
read more →: Men of the MountainsThe Sunday Tribune | July 1, 1973Republished in The Statesmen Magazine | August 12, 1973 Darjeeling has always been associated with mountain climbing. The other hill stations along the lower Himalayan ranges – Simla, Mussoorie, Nainital – are essentially sanatoriums, cool havens from the sun-scorched northern plains. Not so Darjeeling. It was born to nobler…
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Ten Years of NCDC
read more →: Ten Years of NCDCThe Tribune | March 13, 1973 Even though Cooperation was introduced in the years of the 20th century, the movement did not make any significant impact on the economy till after independence. Till 1947, the cooperative movement concerned itself primarily with credit activities. With the introduction of planned development in 1951-52, the attention of Government…
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Rising of the Dead
read more →: Rising of the DeadFor The Tribune | September 10, 1972 HAIR RAISING STORIES FROM LAHAUL The following are extracts from MANOHAR SINGH GILL’S forthcoming book “Himalayan Wonderland – Travels in Lahaul-Spiti” (Vikas Publishing House). Another instalment from the book which gives a first-hand account of life in Lahaul-Spiti when the author was posted there as D.C. in 1962…
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Travels With a Judge
read more →: Travels With a JudgeThe Tribune | September 3, 1972 It is not often that one is invited to travel with a Judge. I never dreamt of doing so, till one morning the Financial Commissioner of a neighbouring State telephoned me. Would I come for a walk and shoot in the Dhaula Dhar? His Lordship had invited the Financial…
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Life In Dacoit Land
read more →: Life In Dacoit LandThe Illustrated Weekly of India | July 30, 1972 The Punjabi farmers migrated to Madhya Pradesh in 1947.They cleared forests and cultivated the land – all the time having to contend with dacoits. In recent weeks a great deal has been written in the press on the surrender of dacoits in the northern districts of…
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Udham Singh: The Patriot Who Avenged The Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre
read more →: Udham Singh: The Patriot Who Avenged The Jallianwalla Bagh MassacreFor The Illustrated Weekly of India | January 30, 1972 The day of reckoning came after 21 years. Sir Michael O’Dwyer left the Punjab as Governor in 1921, censured for having condoned the killing of over 375 innocent men and women by General Dyer. Sir Michael was shot by Udham Singh on March 13, 1940.…
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The Old Men of Southall
read more →: The Old Men of SouthallThe Tribune (Magazine Section) | June 13, 1971 “There they sit”! cried my guide excitedly as we spied a group of old men sitting on a park bench in Southall. His voice had the thrill of one who had spotted a covey of partridges in a Punjab field during a winter shoot. “They are here…
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Green Revolution and Punjab Cooperatives
read more →: Green Revolution and Punjab CooperativesThe Tribune, Chandigarh | October 28, 1970 It is a matter of pride for the Cooperatives of the Punjab State that today the Chief Minister, Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, is inaugurating the Fertilizer factory set up by the Markfed in collaboration with Deccan Sales Limited. The Markfed has played a key role in bringing about…
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Cooperative Movement in Agriculture
read more →: Cooperative Movement in AgricultureThe Tribune, Chandigarh | August 20, 1970 The ‘Green Revolution’ has been ushered in during the past three years. It has been made possible through the new agricultural Research Stations and the important role played by Cooperative Societies in Punjab for the supply of fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs to farmers. It is basically a…
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A House In Chandigarh
read more →: A House In ChandigarhPublished on August 9, 1970 In Chandigarh you can’t avoid the topic. The conversation invariably turns to house building. “In which sector have you built your house”? Someone asks. “I haven’t built one”, l answer. “Oh, l suppose, you are still at the planning stage”. He asks looking a little anxious. “I am afraid I…
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Shades Of Caesar’s In Simla
read more →: Shades Of Caesar’s In SimlaThe Tribune | May 3, 1970 Pompeii evokes memories of Imperial Rome; Istanbul of the Caliphs and Pashas who are no more. Where is one to find the ghost of Imperial Britain? Some say in London. But like Vienna, the city is one vast museum of vanished history. It does not evoke memories of a…
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Baisakhi in England
read more →: Baisakhi in EnglandThe Illustrated Weekly of India | April 12, 1970 Easter was the first holiday of 1968. And so the people of this affluent society gave themselves up to an organised, single-minded pursuit of leisure. Ten million cars on the roads, traffic queues miles long with police in helicopters trying to unsnarl them, hundreds of fatal…
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Hikes and Hiking
read more →: Hikes and HikingPublished on November 2, 1969 Even while sitting on the door-step of the most magnificent mountains in the world we all but ignore them. Simla in the summer is the sum total of our knowledge of the hills. The ultimate in pleasure lies in pushing people about at Scandal Point, and gorging ourselves, at popular…
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Movies – Chandigarh Style
read more →: Movies – Chandigarh StylePublished around March 30, 1969 These days everyone wants to have a good time. They all “want to enjoy”. How does one do that in an overgrown village like Chandigarh? There is the club of course. You can sit out on the lawn surrounded by lush green foliage, and drink barley water! Or you can…
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A Punjabi in Cambridge
read more →: A Punjabi in CambridgeThe Sunday Tribune | February 23, 1969 l heard of him as soon as I arrived in Cambridge. The one and only Mr. Singh. We met a few days later. It was not difficult. He stands out even when surrounded by mini skirts and long-haired intellectuals. Introduction was no problem. I just went up to…
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Part of Punjab in a Strange Land
read more →: Part of Punjab in a Strange LandThe Tribune | August 18, 1968 Thirty-five miles north of Cambridge lies Elveden Hall Estate, 20 thousand acres of rich Suffolk country land, around a stately country house. It is the seat of the owners of the Guinness Breweries. Elveden is also a model farm. And that is how I happened to see it. By…
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Study of Law at Cambridge
read more →: Study of Law at CambridgeThe Tribune | March 31, 1968 ”Politics”, said Dr. Johnson, “is the last refuge of a scoundrel”. In Punjab the study of law is often, the temporary refuge of students, who have been wash-outs in their academic careers. Men who have struggled through to a third and don’t know what to do next, join law.…
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The Curry at Cambridge
read more →: The Curry at CambridgeThe Sunday Tribune | November 12, 1967 In Cambridge one does not feel too homesick. There are a host of Indian students and some dons who can be easily picked out in a crowd by their familiar hues and precocious looks. There is the occasional sari or the kurta-churidar which brings elegance to the streets…