Author: Naginder Sehmi

ESCAPE FROM THE GOLDEN CAGE – RETURN VISIT TO KENYA (December 2006) by Naginder Sehmi Eleven happy days with the family; I could have stayed indefinitely. One desire was to see the real Kenya; not that for tourists. I wanted to see rural families and the way they lived. Central Province around Neyri and Mount…

Mauritius Discovered 16 – 25 June 2001 By Naginder Sehmi (An abridged version forms a chapter in  the book TWISTED TURBAN, Naginder Sehmi, Memoirs Publishing, UK. Dec.2013)  My first contact with this island, the “Pearl of Africa” was through many Mauritian students in Dublin University in the early sixties. They impressed me tremendously because most…

10. VASCO TO BHAGWAN (5 – 8 April, 2000) Indian Airline landed me at Goa’s Dabolim airport, on time at 11.50 on Wednesday 5 April. I decided to stay in a small coastal town, Vasco da Gama, and not in Panaji (Panjim), the capital, about 25km further to the north. May be I wanted to…

9. ASHRAM TO OOTY (March 27 – April 4, 2000) It was just after five in the evening when I arrived at the bus station in the southwest of Pondicherry. It is easy to find places here because roads are laid on a grid plan just like towns in North America. A strong evening breeze…

8. TEMPLES AND BUNS (March 27 – April 4, 2000) I rested on a bench at Bhubaneswar station for over an hour. Coromandal Express screamed in grudgingly. It departed on time at 20.47h for a 20-hour journey to Chennai (Madras). Just when I sat down in my airy compartment a family of six poured in.…

7. LADY WITH A HANDBAG (March 24 – 27, 2000) Puri is one of the four most sacred centres of Hindu pilgrimage; the others are Badrinath, Rameswaram and Dwarka. Since my youth I have heard of Puri in a story told or read innumerable times. In early months of 1509 (Indian travellers shun keeping a…

6. KALI’S BLACK LAMB (March 22–24, 2000) “Go to Calcutta. My father would love to see you again. I have talked to him. He is thinking of taking you to his tea estates in Orissa. You will like it,” Bharat Dube had insisted in Geneva. I had taken a guided tour of Calcutta in December…

5. MUSLIM-BRAHMIN  (March21-23, 2000) Soon after boarding the seven thirty train from Mughal Serai (Varanasi) to Patna, I ordered egg and toast and drank tea from a mini thermos flask, watching the flat green countryside roll by. I had learnt to override my prejudice regarding food ordered in the train. But try not to visit…

4. GANGA YOGI (March15 – 21, 2000) I have not yet been able to “lose myself”.  I must escape from the Punjabi ambiance. It took me four days to disentangle myself from affairs in Chandigarh. I cannot forget my bus journey from Ludhiana, my first this time and the worst. Almost every piece in the…

3. THE VILLAGE POND Jyoti Dhaliwal is the chairperson of the village committee (Panchayat) of Nawan Pind (New Village) also called Chhanna/Kishangarh. It is hardly ten-minute walk from Tajpur. She in her thirties lives with her husband Sabha and three lovely children in a house that from out side looks like any other in the…