CHAPTER 22 - EXPERIENCING INDIA

22.1, INTRODUCTION


During the period where we still lived in Beaconsfield after I retired we sold our home at 220 Sherwood Rd. and moved into a rented town house. This occurred during the time I was travelling back and forth in connections with negotiations for the job in India, and poor Fran was unluckily left withthe job of supervising the move and getting ouselves set up in our temporary home in the town house. We did enjoy the couple or so of years we lived there as we quickly made good friends with our new neighbors next door and across the walkway. Of course, when we got the contract to work in India we had to leave the town house and arrange for storage of most of our belongings, just taking clothing and personal necessities to India. I left to get the project started in Oct. 1985 and Fran joined me in New Delhi in November. New Delhi airport is really a dismal if busy place. On my first arrival I was welcomed by some of the Indian Railways people and found that the natives were basically friendly. Thus, although the consulting job did not do as well as we had hoped it was tremendous experience for all of our team mebers and their wives to be able to live and travel in India while we were there.

Our first stopping place was the Indian operated Ashoka Hotel, which although not quite as clean as we would expect in Canada, really served us well. The meals were good with fresh orange juice and other fruits new to us such as papaya. It was a large and interesting place with a turbanned greeter who had been in the British Indian army and was very helpful to us. The hotel would have as many as three different orchestras playing on any one evening there would be a pure Indian one playing Indian music on their traditional instruments, a Mediterranian type orchestra and a North American type orchestra. We felt that this abundance of music reflected the fact that cheap labor which was characteristic of all things in India also applied to musicians!I do not think that Fran got to the stage of liking the real Indian music with its different tonalscale but I came to find it attractive.

22.2, HOUSING AND PERKS

In addition to our pay, the Indian Railway supplied us with rental quarters in the suburb of Vasant Vihar. We got the ground floor in a concrete buildoing with a kitchen, living room two bedrooms and two bathrooms and they furnished the suite for us. The landlord and his family lived upstairs and there was a separtate room attached for our bearer. His name was "Balen" and he was from the south of India. He did the cooking and served our meals and while Fran had a hard time training him to do some dishes the way we liked we felt that he was a great help in a life style where servants were a substitute for modern appliances; though we did have a refrigerator and electic hot plate. The water heater, or "geyser" as it was called gave us a bit of trouble and the plumber was never quite able to get it operating reliably. During the hot weather the water storage tank on the roof would get hot enough in the sun to provide warm water for bathing.

For clothes washing, we had to have a "dhobeyman" come in. He simply washed the clothers Inidan style by sloshing them around in the base of the shower and spashing all over the place, much to Fran's displeasure. Also, the "sweeper" whom we shared with the landlord did a very poor job and drew Fran's wrath on many occasions. The gardener who came around weekly sometimes hindered growth more than help it--low pay often meant low quality work.The contract required the Railway to provide each team member with a car and driver. We were given a sedan called an Ambassador. It was the same name as our white Rambler back home but not the same car. Our Indian model was built in India based on about a 20 year old British Austin design. As such it served us very well but we had trouble with our drivers. As we did not have a garage where we lived and as the drivers lived some distance away and as I wanted the car for tennis early in the morning we let the driver use the car to get back and forth to his home. Service was not too good so we asked for a change . The next driver's service was better, but he was not putting oil in the car even though I was paying for it . The result was the cost of a partial ovrhaul costing 1200 rupees and our need to get another new driver! In general however we shall not want to leave the impression that we were hard done by. The perks, including house rental were all paid by the Railway as part of the contract. We also got to know our next door neighbor, Mr. Dewan quite well. He was a retired building contractor who helped us get informed on Indian ways of life.

22.3 - RAMBLINGS IN DELHI

We quickly learned who to get the best out of our living experience in New Delhi, this third world capital of the world's largest democaracy. On fine days we soon learned that to beat the heat, the eary morning was the best way to enjoy a walk. Also walks in our neighborhoood were most iontersesting as it was a mainly Indian rather than foreign neigborhood. There were parks with birds and small animals in them and also free roaming pigs and cattle. The latter of course are considered sacred to hindus and several thousands were said to be wandering in parks and streets in the city. Mention of these animals brings to mind the relatively cheap and efficient garbage disposal system they had. Each residential block of houses had a concrete bin to which the bearers would carry the household garbage. The bins would then be regularly visited, first by rag pickers, then by cattle, the by pigs and finally by dogs, cats and birds. By the time all had taken their own preferred foods,there was not much left to be hauled away by the city. I even saw a cow trying to eat a newspaper on one occasion. When I looked closely it was the New York Times, so we all laughed at the cow's seemingly broad taste in food and information!

22.4 - SOCIAL ACTIVITIES & TENNIS

For social activities in India we managed fairly well in New Delhi. There were many places to eat our where we gradually adjusted opur palates to the sharper tastes of Indian food. Now, back in Canada we still seek out Indian restaurants for the occasional feed of currey.

All of the other things opent to us included the odd evening at the Canadain High Commission and even more activities at the Amerixan embassy. Fran was able to get together with other women and play bridge there and we were able to attend the annual gala of the Marine Ball sponsored by the local contingent of U.S. Marines. WQe shared a table there with Mr. & Mrs Rana who was for a while the Manager ogf the TRACS project. We also went to a student play presented at the American High School which was attended by the children of our group. They got quite a good education there spicewd with interesting field trips such as an excursion riding elephants. For hotter afternoons we enjoyed swimming in the karge pool operated by one of the local hotels and could enjoy saipping a cool drink in the shade.

Shopping was an interesting activity with all bvarieties of food in the local "C" market. For other things we could go to the main downtown area which in addition to clothing and other stores had a whole series of excellent handicraft stores carrying assorted productds of the various Inidan states. There were also interesting bookstores which carried many books written by Indians in Engkish. I read several of these while there and gained some insight to things Indian from such boks as "the Far Pavilions" written by M.M.Kaye and "the Vendor of Sweets".

On the tennis front we were asked by Mr. Krishnaswami if we woulld like to join the Gymkhana Club whigh was a club that had been extablsihe under the British Raj but stil operated by the Indians as if the British had never left! In addition to regular social affairs there was tea on the lawns on weekend afternoons and regular card games where the men played for money. While I didn't play I could see that the games were stictly governed and a man could be blackballed for not paying up on debts incurred at cards! Other interesting things about the club was the fact that it prouced its own carbonated drinks which the members coud buy to take home for a much lower cost thsn if obtained from teh regular stores.

Concerning the tennis, the club had both clay and grass courts. The clay ones were most used as the grass was reserved for weekends because of the difficulty in maintaining them in such a hot dry climate. Krishnaswami lined us up with a small group to come out at 6a.m. on working days to have a couple of sets in the cool of the morning before going to the office. Also, on Sundays we enjoyed going to the club because while Fran took tea on the lawn and watched the boys fending off the voracious black kites from gettting at the sandwcihes I could give my name to the tennis supervisor who got to know us well enough to work us into a set on a roational basis. I found out that the main advantge of playing on grass was that it was cooler than the clay because it absorbed the sun's heat rather than reflecting it. Tennis players who were most kind to us were Jasbir and Bir Khana who lived in the armed services housing area. Jasbir was a retired Lieut. Col. from a Ghurka battalion. These were the little men from the North who developed a fierce reputation for hand to hand fighting in earlier wars and were recruited as British Army units even up to the Falklands War.

22.5, SOME TRAVELS IN INDIA

Surely India is one of the most interesting and varied countries in the whole world and during our time there we were only able to cover some parts of it but we certainly enjoyed what we could. I have already told of our visit to Mr. Desai and family in Bombay, but we also managed a visit to Calcutta, that other large city on the eastern side. We enjoyed a trip there by train and we visited the local Victoian Museum which houses many historic paintings and other artifacts remeniscent of the days of the British Raj. Also the main park was special with its huge central Banyan tree spreading over 30 metres in diameter plus holes near the roots where cobras were said to come out in the night. However, the city was somewhat blighted by the influx of about 100,000 poor immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. These people were even dwelling on sidewalks downtown or living in temporary leantos against the sides of buildings. Traffic of all sorts struggles to cross the Hoogli mouth bridge of the Ganges river, rickshaws, pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, motor cycles, three or four wheeler taxis, cars, trucks and buses move in a slow halting stream with much horn honking. Movement of this mix of traffic is based on size determining rights and is typical of most Indian cities. Accidents are common and often reported in the press with the bottom line saying quaintly, "the driver is absconding".

While we enjoyed a number of visits to the Delhi zoo with its excellent selection of Indian wild life (incuding lovely tigers and jaguars) we were specially intrigued by our long weekend visit to Corbett Park some distance north of Delhi. This is an extensive piece of the country named after a famous tiger hunter who specilized in capturing or killing tigers who had developed a taste for native villagers who had no firearms and were terrified by these beasts. Corbett Park still has some wild tigers and a large herd of wild elephnts. We could only see the wild elephants from a distance but we did get to go on a morning ride on an elephant to where we could see fresh tiger paw marks and the charateristic wiggles in the sand where cobras had passed by!

Another interesting weekend trip was to the still much troubled Vale of Kashmir where Muslims from Pakistan still fight with Hindus from India over possession of this choice section of the sub-continent which has a cooler climate, much more greenery and running streams of water not found on the parched plains elsewhere. The place we stayed was just below the snow line of the Himalayas in a resort primarily made for skiers. We stayed in one of the the cabins where we even had icepellets rattling on the roof while we stoked up the wood burning stove to remain warm. I may be pardoned for admitting to a strong feeling of nostalgia for my far away childhood in Rivers, Manitoba where at that time a good deal of heating there was the same. There is a special lake in the Kashmir which specializes in large ornate houseboats where guests can stay. We spent one night in one of them and took in the ornate interior wood carving decoration whicih is a crdeit to the huge pool of hand artizans still at work in India. We were a bit disappointed however, in that the interior of the boat was not as clean as one would like; moreover, the lake which I am sure was once pristine, is badly polluted and smells of the large amount of wastes being dumped into it by the boats and other sources.

On one of my working trips, I was privileged to fly to the North-east corner of India and got a lovely view of the Himalayn mountains along the way. One place in the north-east is said to have the heaviest rainfall in the world and this is the source of the terrific floods regularly affecting the Bramaputra River which we crossed on a huge steel railway bridge, but could see the remains of several earlier road and railway bridges which had not survived earlier rampages of that river! Somewhere in the works of Kipling there is a poem graphically referring to these floods and their effect on the railway as well as the people.

22.6 TRIPS TO PUSHCAR FAIR AND A SPECIAL RAIL SAFARI

These two trips are so special among our Indian memories that they warrant writing about them in this special sub-paragraph. I'll deal first with Pushcar Fair which is a large annual celebration held in the state of Rajistan, west of Delhi. While Rajistan is largely a desert state with its own desert culture, there is a lake at Pushcar which carries special religious meaning for Indians and religious ceremonies ae part of the season of the fair.

The culture of this state is litle removed from biblical times with the camel being the central means of cultivation and conveyance. We saw the encampment of hundreds of families with their little fires in the cool of night burning camel dung. The men and women dressed as almost from biblical scenes. The only acknowledgement to modern development that we could see was that the desert carts had large rubber tires so they would not sink in the sand and some of the men had a wrist watch and a few famiilies had a portable radio. As in most parts of India there were musical instruments, mostly stringed, but different from the ones we are familiar with in North America. There was even an ancient dancing bear performing daily at the site! There were also sports games and races held that were different from our sports and just as hotly contested between the groups.

One of the central activities at the fair ws the buying and selling of camels. There was all sorts of haggling and trading going on for them at all hours together with official auctions. A good working camel we found out would fetch a price of about 1500 rupees (about $150 Canadian). We ourselves had gone up to the fair with a group from the Canadian High Commission and we stayed in special large tents erected for tourists at the fair. Camels were tethered immediately behind and we coud hear their loud rough growling at all times.

Now it is time to tell you about the great week long rail safari we took called "The Palace on Wheels." It was one of the greatest experiences and it took place toward the end of our stay in India. Helen Morse was visiting us at the time and she accompanied us on the train. The train is meter gauge and runs through Rajastan. It consists of refurbished private raiway coaches owned by various nabobs and the like in the heyday of India. We visited the famous Taj Mahal at Agra which is certainly one of the greatest gems of architecture and art in the whole world. It is carefuly maintained to provide an inight to some of India's glories from the days of the Muslim rulers. We visited a new city each day on our trip, drawn by one or two real live decorated steam locomotives. It was music to my ears to hear them tearing through the night with exhausts and whistles blaring as we moved between cities.

Places that we visited in addition to Agra included Ajmer, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaisalmir. Each day we were always met by the local guides who would ensure we got to see the main attractions of their city. Often they met us on horseback, all dressed up in mediaeval costumes. At this late date (April, 2002) I have difficulty in remembering all of the things we saw. However I will recite a few of the highlights from memory and try to associate them with the place we saw them.

We did get another elephant ride, which was at Ajmer where we rode up to the top of a mountain plateau where an old palace existed. It had been a place where a famous battle had been fought and the women on the losing side are said to have committed suicide rather than be taken by the enemy!

Jaipur was the place contained in an ancient walled city where people still live within the walls as they have for centuries. It gives one a real feeling of how each family lived behind protective battlements in mediaeval times, still with their animals tethered to their doorsteps! At Jaipur we also got to go to the nearby desert and took a ride on a camel. Getting on and off of a camel is a difficult task and both Fran and I had to be assisted. Moreover, once you get there the ride is not all that comfortable.

At Udaipur I remember visiting a special castle, which instead of having a protective wall or a moat was built out in the lake. It is very lovely and beautifully kept with flowers and fountains where we sat and enjoyed a fine lunch!

At Jaisalmir we toured a beautiful city area where the merchants who built there created a whold series of verandahs and facades all carved into screens and trellises of unimaginable beauty. I believe it was here that we also passed by the beautiful "Palace of the Winds" where the high ladies of the land could look out on street parades without being seen. At Jodhpur we saw another walled fort from the distant past, mounted on top of a samll treeless mountain and so commanding an all around view from an ancient redoubt which would be easy to defend!

22.7 - FAREWELL TO INDIA

As I said at the outset, we could write a book on India, but even in retirement I don't think I can spare that much time and I wonder who would read it in any case. The Railway wanted me to stay for another year but I decided to go because both Fran's and my mothers were ailing and we would not have wished to be in India when they passed away. For those of you who would like to get more of a feeling for India we can only suggest that you take a holiday there or failing that look at our photo albums in which we have preserved the glories of our own seeing while we were there. Also, most librairies will have excellent books about India and its fabulous past history. Meanwhile, I shall deal in my next chapter with the details of leaving India and travelling to the other side of the world to a new home, this time in British Columbia!