Artist in Residence

Antonio Puri, Woodstock Class of 84, is currently the artist in residence at the school. He is currently working on two installations based on the theme of 'varna.' He discussed this project in a Woodstock news release last month. One installation is wall and ceiling paintings in the entrance to the Business Centre (in our day, the entrance to the music cells where Mrs. Biswas kept an eye on us);

the other is a sculpture in place (but not yet revealed) just as you turn towards the Teacher's Garden from the Quad.

Uttarakhand

Mussoorie and Landaur, where Woodstock School is located, is in the Indian province of Uttarakhand. This province broke off from the old U.P (Uttar Pradesh) is 1998, first under the name of Uttaranchal. In 1994 there was some political agitation in favor of the secession, and police fired on and killed some unarmed activists in Mussorie. Twenty years after the event, a memorial was built for the fallen, located along the Mall next to the Gun Hill cable car.

Statues of the victims:

A model Gharwali house that serves as a shrine:

Sunday adventures

This will be an abbreviated listing of all we did on Sunday!

Service at Christ Church, Library Bazaar, at 11:30 [see my entry from 2013]. Attendance was less than usual because of special Thanksgiving Service going on at Union Church. Small group of regular folks plus young adults from South India and the NE (Assam area) students from the Administrative Academy and the Border Patrol training academy.

Lunch at the Rice Bowl. This is a Tibetan restaurant right near Hamer's and the old Rialto Cinema area. They have such good food and very generous portions.  Cate and I shared a big bowl of chicken-noodle thukpa, a plate of steamed momos, a fried rice dish, and a chicken-chili dish.

Shopping. We walked the length of Library and Kulri Bazaars. In one of the two bigger Kashmiri stores I (ahem) bought some totally unnecessary but beautiful things, as did Cate. Poked around in Batas Shoes and other shoe shops, provision stores, Chemists, touristy souvenir stores.  Ended up at Cambridge Book Store where I was very judicious and only bought 2 of the books on my list to buy (I Alan Sealy's Small Wild Goose Pagoda and the Gantzer's Lynsdale Raj) and 1 other book.

Evening event. We made our way back to Library Bazaar and then up to the Savoy Hotel, where we rested a bit and had a cup of tea.

We then attended a lecture by an American architect on the Chateau Kapurthala, which is just up the hill a bit from the Savoy. This American woman (whose name I didn't catch and I haven't so far been able to find online) had been hired by the Kapurthala family as a consultant for their many late 19th century & early 20th century buildings. There were about 100 people at the lecture - a mix of representatives from Mussoorie Old Families, architects, and journalists. The illustrated lecture was very interesting, and is one of a series being organized by Ms. Surbhi Agarwal, manager of the Mussoorie Heritage Centre, a small museum right behind the [no longer extant] Clocktower.

Saturday outing

It is still late Saturday afternoon here but I wanted to write about all we did today while it was still fresh in my mind.

Cate and I got a taxi from the school gate to Rokeby at about 7 this morning.  We had a wonderful leisurely full "English Breakfast" at Rokeby's with tea/coffee, eggs, potato, tomato, meat, toast witn Rokeby made marmalade or papaya/ginger jam.

After that we continued on around the chukkar past St. Paul's Church, Chaar Dukaan, to the 'new" Lal Tibba where we got good views of the snows (though a bit hazy - so not a strong clear view) including Bandar Punch and the Gangotri range.

Then on around by the cemetery, stopping to look at the ferns

that were still out from the monsoons (Bible, Maidenhair, Spleenwort, Crete) .. and all around to Prakash's store.  We had to wait about 20 minutes for Prakash's to open .. but when it did bought jam, peanut butter, soup packets, Cadbury's chocolate, and cheese

[for all you others .. the senior Mr. Prakash learned to make cheese from my father back in the 60s, and makes it every winter, and one of his sons has even gone to Switzerland fro more training and now they make several varieties]. The senior Mr. Prakash came in to sit and visit - he is 87 now but looks quite healthy. He and Cate have a special bond as he and Cate's father played together as children right there.

We wanted to get some fruit also, so decided to walk into Landaur Bazaar .. so down the upper Mullingar area from Chaar Dukann to Tehri Road .. down through Mullingar bazaar with a stop to visit with Faiz .. some peeks into fabric stores to try to find some nice cotton print (harder to find these days as there are more synthetics or mixes) .. buying santaras and a few guavas from a phal wala  .. a wonderful pizza lunch at a new place called the Little LLama Café, run by a young Tibetan couple, and crammed with Woodstock students on their free bazaar day

.. a stop in a wool shawl shop that I hadn't known about (may go back there) for Cate to buy some gifts .. and then a taxi back from Picture Palace Bus stand to the school gate!

Then a nap in my room and a cup of tea with Cate in her sunny quarters!

and tomorrow we have a big day planned so more to come ...

Hospital adventure

My chronic sinus problems met with travel stress, elevation gain, Delhi pollution etc. to give me a series of nosebleeds .. one in the middle of the night resulting in a trip to the Woodstock student's dispensary for ice and comfort .. and then a worse one the next day that made folks whisk me off to the Landaur Community Hospital (so kindly accompanied by both Cate and Monica).  I was seen by about a half-dozen nurses of various nationalities and two doctors in the emergency room and given various tests and pokes. The doctors just concluded that it was all of the factors in the first sentence above, and nothing serious, that was causing these.  They prescribed a few pills to take for a few days to get the situation settled, and sent me off.  The whole visit - registration, medical tests, emergency room, blood work - cost less than $20.00.

I have been fine today!

Trip up to Mussoorie

I hope to add pictures once computer situation is resolved .. which I hope will happen early this next week.

Yogesh from Udai Travel was at the YW to pick me up at 5:45 am .. quick trip to the New Delhi train station in the sparse traffic of the early morning.  Cate met up with us there.  We had nice seats in the "Executive Class AC Chair Car" for the 6 hour trip to Dehra Dun.  I always just like looking out of the window and watching the scenery.  I felt the first excitement of the trip as we got to Saharanpur, and the topography starts to change to that of the Terai .. a little more rugged and jungly, with more sugar cane and rice in the fields by the tracks. Right after the Hardwar stop the train goes through two short tunnels as we get into the Siwaliks (low range of hills). Then there is the Dun valley which now seems to be all small farms with quite prosperous looking houses [took pictures of all of these}.

Once in Dehra we stopped for lunch at the President Hotel (owned by the Chugh family) and had a wonderful lunch of reshmi kebabs, sag, and roti .. a stop at a chemist (pharmacy) to get some things for Cate .. took Rajpur Road route for another stop for an errand of Cate's .. then finally to the Woodstock School Gate by about 4 pm.

Cate was given 'my' guest room - the one that I have stayed in the last 3 visits that is in the tower and looks out over the Teacher's Garden and the Dun. I am in the same one that Tom, Suzie, and I stayed in in 1997.  It is a bit larger and has 2 beds, but is not as sunny.  

India Again!

Ah India ..

In early September this wonderful article appeared on BBC web site: India's Chaotic Lesson in Letting Go

On arrival I have experienced some wonderful examples of this -

Coming into the Delhi Airport at 2 am .. must be 5-6 international flights all arriving at the same time .. two lines through immigration that move very slowly such that it takes about 45 minutes to get through what previously has been maybe a 10 minute process.

Staying at the YW guest house I double check with front desk that restaurant is open all day (until 10 pm they assure me) .. I want just a light supper so go down about 5:30 pm (still considered tea time in India) to get chai and a small meal, only to find that the young men in the restaurant are starting to move the furniture in order to wash the floor.  So I say, OK, I will come back down in about an hour .. so an hour later I go back down and furniture is all still out & floor wet .. so I give them another half hour .. not only is floor still wet but they have more water on it and they seem to be having great fun sliding around on the soapy floor.  At that point I give up and go back to the room and have a granola bar and some almonds from my travel food stash.