Lost in India – 9. ASHRAM TO OOTY
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…
Lost in India – 8. TEMPLES AND BUNS
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.…
Lost in India – 7. LADY WITH A HANDBAG
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…
Lost in India – 6. KALI’S BLACK LAMB
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…
Lost in India-5. MUSLIM-BRAHMIN
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…
Lost in India – 4. GANGA YOGI
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…
Lost in India – 3. THE VILLAGE POND
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…
Lost in India – 2. BACK TO ROOTS – TAJPUR
2. BACK TO ROOTS – TAJPUR (March 13 – 15, 2000) My niece, Melo’s three daughters fall in the same age group as my daughter? All three are doing university degrees from home and give private tuition to students and help in a school. This was my first contact with them and I found them…
Lost in India – 1. PALACE IN WHEAT FIELDS
Travel Log- Lost in India By Naginder Sehmi (An abridged version forms a chapter in the book TWISTED TURBAN, Naginder Sehmi, Memoirs Publishing, UK. Dec.2013) 1. PALACE IN WHEAT FIELDS (March 9 – 12, 2000) I sleep so deeply that I rarely remember dreams in the morning. This rule was shattered after my return from…
Mauvoisin Dam in Val de Bagne
Association of Former WMO Staff, Bulletin No. 5, November 2006 MAUVOISIN DAM IN VAL DE BAGNE 8 August 2006 By Jean Hume (Organized by Naginder Sehmi) Our party built up gradually: Samuel and Helena Mbele-Mbong took the train at Cointrin, joined shortly by Arthur and Janet Askew, Ilse Bourgain and our doughty leader Naginder Sehmi…
