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A Story Of Many People
read more →: A Story Of Many PeopleOutlook | July 26, 2010 While still in college, I read Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s Autobiography of an Unknown Indian. The social history of Bengal portrayed in it left a powerful impression on me. Now, I have come across another memoir by a Bengali intellectual, Ashish Bose. A distinguished scholar, Bose spent a life-time at the Institute…
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The Meadows of Sanasar
read more →: The Meadows of SanasarWhenever and wherever we discussed the charms of the valley during our recent visit to Kashmir a new name kept cropping up. Everyone agreed about the marvellous golf at Gulmarg, the trout fishing and riding at Pahalgam, the hilting and climbing at Sonamarg, and the quiet romantic shikara rides on the Dal Lake of an…
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She Could Only Be A Punjabi
read more →: She Could Only Be A PunjabiShe stood there alone like “Ruth amid the alien corn”. Behind her was the vastness of a tropical forest with trees more than a 150 feet high, enmeshed with myriads of creepers that kept out the sunlight and gave the forest a dark and forbidding look. Around her was a small patch of land, still half-reclaimed. Stumps…
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Pati, Patni aur Woh
read more →: Pati, Patni aur WohMy wife said: We must go to the pictures. Haven’t been there for years”. I demurred, seeing no reason to break a sensible policy. She insisted and said: “Everybody has been to see, ‘Pati, Patni aur Woh’.” I said: “What has that got to do with us?” She argued that her friend Bimla had been…
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Land of Perpetual Sunshine
read more →: Land of Perpetual SunshineIn September 1962, Spiti burst upon the national scene with a tragic drama, involving over 2,000 people – men and women engaged in the vital task of connecting this remote area with the rest of the country, and now trapped by the fickle gods of rain and snow. Day by day, hour by hour, the…
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Ladakh Notes
read more →: Ladakh NotesI like going to the Himalayas. The love affair started in 1961, when I trained at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, under Tenzing and his nephew, Nawang Gombu. I continued this, with a stint as Deputy Commissioner, Lahaul-Spiti, under the great Punjab Chief Minister, Kairon. A February winter crossing, of the Rohtang Pass, remains a…
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Give them hockey sticks
read more →: Give them hockey sticksAfter a long time I had occasion on Monday to see women at play. The occasion was the final of the Women’s Hockey Championship at Chandigarh. The spectacle was something of a revelation for me. Many years ago we used to enjoy watching the women students of Government College, Ludhiana, participate in the annual college…
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Shimla Diary
read more →: Shimla DiaryOutlook | July 12, 2010 Over The Ridge In mid-19th century, Capt Charles Kennedy rode up to the deodar-covered Shimla Ridge from the hot Ambala cantonment, liked what he saw and put down a Scottish loghouse. Others followed. And soon the High Ridge was dotted with houses named Peter Hoff, Ivanhoe, Dane’s Folly, Barnes Court,…
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Water Crisis in East and West Punjab
read more →: Water Crisis in East and West PunjabThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | May 23, 2010Republished in The Hindu | May 29, 2010 Let’s tackle it with a steady application of science, says Manohar Singh Gill As the long hot summer sizzles, men’s thoughts in Lahore and in Amritsar turned to water. It is scarce on both sides of the border. When the British…
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Corner Shot From Coorg
read more →: Corner Shot From CoorgOutlook | May 17, 2010 A people’s initiative for hockey with lessons to learn from This April, I had a chance to visit the Kodagu hills. Fifty minutes by chopper from Bangalore, these forested hills, 2.500- 4.500 feet high and with wide, shallow valleys full of paddy fields, are a southern delight. They are home…
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Our Stars Twinkle in Nigeria
read more →: Our Stars Twinkle in NigeriaSokoto is so far from Punjab, and yet it brings back little memories of that land. Like Punjab it is 1,000 miles from the sea. The Niger river swamps and the lush Lagos forests lie far to the south. Here we are, just on the edge of the Sahal, that dry land of stunted bushes…
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A Telephone for You
read more →: A Telephone for YouYesterday the General Manager of the Delhi Telephones, Mr. P.C. Jauhri, offered a gift to the citizens of the capital (Statesman, 20th May). “A telephone for the asking”, he announced grandly to the wonder and amazement of the long suffering Delhiwallas, many of whom have gone gray waiting for his gift from the Gods in…
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Honour Killing
read more →: Honour KillingOutlook | March 22, 2010 I am impressed with what Sujit Saraf, from IIT and Berkeley, has achieved in this book. Sultana Daku lived and died long before I was born. He was hanged on July 7, 1924. Amazingly, as children we’d somehow heard this magical name. How it had filtered from the UP Terai…
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Bangladesh Diary
read more →: Bangladesh DiaryOutlook | March 1, 2010 Bangladesh’s development story surprised me. The figures given by our embassy were impressive; a growth rate of 6.9 per cent and, what is more, a population replacement of only 1.2… Buzz on the Field After many years, I was in Dhaka again, at the opening ceremony of the South Asian…
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Shivpuri Diary
read more →: Shivpuri DiaryOutlook | January 25, 2010 When we went to the Shivpuri jungle in 1950, Daaku Maan Singh was the great Robin Hood of India. He was a romantic figure… Winter Canvas I was in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh, for my Christmas break. When I went there last summer, there had been no rain for many months,…
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Shivpuri Diary
read more →: Shivpuri DiaryOutlook | September 7, 2009 As the Shatabdi wended its way south, we passed a continuous landscape of dusty fields with dispirited men and cattle, all wandering in search of food and water. I was recently in Gwalior and Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh. As the Shatabdi wended its way south, we passed a continuous landscape of…
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The Five-Day War
read more →: The Five-Day WarOutlook | August 10, 2009 India-Pakistan cricket fed a chauvinist imperative for decades. The liberal wind in the willows changed all that. A small-time cricketer, but a passionate observer, I have watched Indo-Pak cricket since 1947. I have seen many India-Pakistan matches, from the one in Amritsar under Imran, to the 1996 World Cup Bangalore…
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Floss Silk City
read more →: Floss Silk CityOutlook | June 1, 2009 The fleeting Indian spring is gone and summer is upon us. But the trees continue to offer surprises every day. There is a Chorisia Speciosa (floss-silk tree) opposite my porch. I hardly noticed it till I saw it produce green banana-like dangling fruits. I wondered what they were. As the…
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Planted On Earth
read more →: Planted On EarthOutlook | December 1, 2008 These days I once again have the temporary use of a Lutyens bungalow. As we did when we lived on Akbar Road, we immediately planted some trees to leave as a memory for later times. In this house, we planted kadam, gulmohar, magnolias, lime trees, jacaranda and ornamental pines. An…
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The Scattered Ashes of a Legend
read more →: The Scattered Ashes of a LegendOutlook | November 3, 2008 Empire’s marionette, Duleep Singh could only align his life with an idle absurdity. Maharaja Ranjit Singh ruled the Punjab for forty years, 1799-1839. For six years after his death, his sons, the Sikh sardars, the Dogra rajas of Jammu, and the Brahmin generals of Meerut, all his creations, fought and…
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An Ol’ Ranger
read more →: An Ol’ RangerOutlook | September 29, 2008 My love affair with the Himalayas started in 1961 when I trained at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, under Tenzing Norgay and his nephew, Nawang Gombu. The affair continued during my stint as deputy commissioner, Lahaul-Spiti, under the great Punjab chief minister Pratap Singh Kairon. A winter crossing in February…
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White Elephant March
read more →: White Elephant MarchOutlook | February 16, 2008 Republic Day was always long on ceremony, now it’s short on grace too I saw the Republic Day parade for the first time in 1958 as a young ias trainee on duty. It went on for far too long, with every arm of the army, navy and air force insisting on…
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Concrete Valleys
read more →: 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 →: 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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Remember ’83?
read more →: Remember ’83?Outlook | March 5, 2007 Meticulously researched and produced, it gives the entire history of India’s one-day matches. This will be manna for all schoolboys. Indians love a tamasha. With so many religions, and gods, 365 days are too few for celebrations. The entry of one-day cricket two decades ago has added to it. In…