PRAYERS

The unattractive building was large and square and official - I hadn't enjoyed my previous visits.  For a start the stairs had a horrible odour, corridors were dark and unfriendly and the offices were either empty or occupied by bored officials, who seemed to have nothing to do and resented the presence of outsiders.

I found the right office, two women were sweeping out the previous day's accumulation of dust, with their charoos - I greeted them in Gujarati "kem cho" - "majama" they replied unsmilingly.  I was left in an empty room with a row of hard seats facing the Chief's desk.  I sat down and waited.  The room was filled from floor to ceiling with bundles of papers tied with official pink string.  I had once seen a mouse scurrying round the room and wondered where it was now.  The women had left one window open to air the room and it was a relief to see the world outside and the greenery of a large Neem Tree.  I waited nervously....I hated this building and always felt intimidated by the rudeness of petty officials and the glowering brusqueness of the Chief.

He walked briskly into the room - surprisingly, he greeted me with an off-handed 'good morning', then picked up a duster and began dusting the area around his desk, a colleague came in to talk to him.  I waited patiently.....when he had gone, the Chief continued with his dusting.  Then standing in front of his desk,  he raised his hands together in prayer, looking inward and upward, touched his forehead and then his chest and bent down and kissed his desk.  Sitting down in his chair, he looked over at me:  "And what can I do for you"  he said ....... I hoped my astonishment at his civility, didn't show on my face.....! 

KHANDERAO MARKET

TIGER COUNTRY

Her brother had arrived in town from Dehradun in Uttarakhand, far up in the north of India.  Brother and sister looked alike, only a few years between them.  He usually lived in Montreal but because there was a dispute looming over family property in Dehradun, he'd been summoned home as backup. "My brother should inherit the whole property even if he is younger than me - it's right that the males of the family should inherit property - I don't mind at all" said his sister.  They were of a minor royal family and she had the wide jawline which often seems to distinguish royalty in India.

I was reminded of the era of Jane Austen - the sister with her melancholy expression, could easily  have been a self-effacing character in an Austen novel.  Her brother was more difficult to place - he was not exactly a 'rake' nor was he particularly 'dashing',  but he would have been very much at home during the days of the British Raj.   He talked about tiger and leopard hunts in Uttarakhand with enthusiasm and spoke reverently of Jim Corbett, who wrote the book 'The Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag' .  Corbett was commissioned by the British to hunt  troublesome tigers and leopards in Uttarakhand.

He spoke idly of setting off back to Dehradun, in days, but stayed on and enjoyed his role as the favorite 'Uncle' to his sister's two children and attending the seasonal round of parties and playing tennis at the club.   Canada had been a strategic move for him ten years ago, for economic reasons, but now with the recession, many Indians were returning home to India, back to their origins - they swop countries,  but the constant in their lives is 'the family' - to which they owe their whole allegiance !

He seemed rootless and caught between centuries - his only option to return to the North to the mountains and valleys of Dehradun.  Would he become a wild life conservationist ?  I wondered idly what Jim Corbett would have advised.....

UDAIPUR IN THE LIMELIGHT