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He Risked His Life For A Muslim Friend
Read more here: 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 here: 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 here: 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 here: 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 here: 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…
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The Other Punjab
Read more here: 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 here: 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 here: 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 here: 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 here: 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 here: 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 here: 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 here: 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 here: 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 here: 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…
