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.....
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.....
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