Category Archives: India

Woodstock 150th: Back to Delhi

shot Nov 2, 2004

Most of the group left Mussoorie Monday morning in Sanjay’s buses. Anne and I took the Shatabdi back to Delhi that evening (about half the seats were occupied by Woodstockers), joining Marilyn at the Park Hotel where the three of us shared a room. Tuesday we shopped all over Delhi, visitedJantr Mantr, and Marilyn flew out Tuesday night after an excellent dinner at the Park’s restaurant. Anne and I were joined by Yuti on Wednesday for still more shopping, then had dinner, drinks, and music with Yuti, her husband Sumit, and Pinder (who had meanwhile been in Chandigarh, shopping for furnishings for his new home in Nairobi).

shot Nov 2, 2004, 1:15 mins, 3.9 MB

We wrote song requests out on napkins and gave them to the DJ, who was probably wondering who these old fogeys were.

Anne and I shared a car to the airport at midnight and kept each other company (thankfully – Delhi airport is awfully boring) until our flights left around 3 am.

Next?

We’re all agreed that we want to see each other again, often, and soon – and preferably more of us. The open question for the moment is when and where to do that. Sanjay has suggested a regular appointment each year in Mussoorie, around the first week in November. Which is certainly fun, but not convenient for everybody, especially those who have kids in US or European schools.

One possibility would be to piggyback on the WOSA-North American reunion next June 23-26, in Silver Bay, New York. And some of us are looking into other suggested reunion spots, such as Italy and Iceland.

Sitar and Tabla

shot Oct 30, 2004, 3:40 mins

The festivities for Woodstock School’s 150th Anniversary included a recital on sitar by Sanjeeb Sircar in the school library. This is only about a quarter of the full piece.

sitar: Sanjeeb Sircar – tabla: Bharat Shinde

My classmate Chris was playing air tabla; I think he studied tabla in school (so did I, for a semester, but I was as hopeless at it as I am at other musical instruments – all I can do is sing).

shot Oct 28, 2004, 33 secs

Woodstock History Resources

I’ve been doing lots of reading for the Woodstock history project, including some books that may be interesting even to non-Woodstockers. I was excited to finally lay hands on the journal of Fanny Parkes, an Englishwoman who lived in India from the 1820s to 40s. She was the first person to write about Mussoorie and Landour (the Himalayan town which is the site of the school), so is quoted in many of my sources, but her book has been out of print since 1850. It has now finally been republished (under the title “Begums, Thugs & White Mughals”), thanks, I suspect, to William Dalrymple, author of “White Mughals” (another source I’m using). Fanny was an amazing woman who travelled extensively in India and enjoyed everything and everyone she encountered, at a time when it was becoming unfashionable among the British to like anything much about the country they were taking over. Her book is rich in detail about life in India in those times, an excellent source for all kinds of research.

For current news for Mussoorie and Uttaranchal, see The Garhwal Post.

Amazon US Store

Amazon UK links below; note that some items available in the UK are not available in the US, and vice-versa. 

Amazon UK:

Alter, Joseph S. Knowing Dil Das: Stories of a Himalayan Hunter
Alter, Robert C. Water for Pabolee: Stories about People and Development in the Himalayas
Alter, Stephen All the Way to Heaven: An American Boyhood in the Himalayas
Barr, Pat The Memsahibs: In Praise of the Women of VictorianIndia
Bond, Ruskin Mussoorie & Landour
Bond, Ruskin Mussoorie & Landour: Days of Wine & Roses
Bond, Ruskin Mussoorie: Jewel of the Hills
Dalrymple, William White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in 18th-Century India
James, Lawrence Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India
Keay, John The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale of How India was Mapped and Everest was Named
Kennedy, Dane Keith The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj
Parkes, Fanny Begums, Thugs, and White Mughals – The Journals of Fanny Parkes, selected and introduced by William Dalrymple (Originally published in 1850 as “Wanderings of a Pilgirm in Search of the Picturesque, during four-and-twenty years in th tEast; with Revelations of Life in the Zenana”)
Pollock, David and Van Reken, Ruth E. The Third-Culture Kid Experience: Growing Up Among Worlds
Riddle, Katharine Parker A Nourishing Life
Van Reken, Ruth Letters Never Sent
Yule, Henry and Burnell, A.C. Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary