Life Back Then

Satinder Mullick received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1965 in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, with a minor in Economics. He was Director of Economic Planning and Research for Corning Inc., where he worked on different consulting assignments for improving growth and profitability for 30 years. Later, he helped turn around Artistic Greetings (40% owned by American Greetings) and doubled the stock price in four years. He received Lybrand Silver Medal in 1971 from Institute of Management Accountants.

I left India in April 1960 for West Germany after getting my engineering degree, and a couple of years of experience working for Rourkela Steel Plant construction. There were some differences between Germany and India in foods and cold weather, which were challenging but not drastically different.

However, when I moved to the United States of America, I ran into different norms that took a while to fully adjust to.

First was the language. British English is different than US English, especially in Industrial Engineering.

Words like Schedule threw me off completely in first few days. I kept asking what is Scheduling Technique but after I saw it spelt out, then I realized what my professor was talking about.

Dr. Anand - an unholy person born in 1932 in the holy town of Nankana Sahib, central Punjab. A lawyer father, a doctor mother. Peripatetic childhood - almost gypsy style. Many schools. Many friends, ranging from a cobbler's son (poorly shod as the proverb goes) to a judge's son. MB from Glancy (now Government) Medical College Amritsar, 1958. Comet 4 to Heathrow, 1960.
Widower. Two children and their families keep an eye on him. He lives alone in a small house with a small garden. Very fat pigeons, occasional sparrows, finches green and gold drop in to the garden, pick a seed or two and fly away.

I read today (December 2018) that the river Ravi has run dry in Lahore.

Reminded me of the times past. The 1940s.

Then, the Raavi (or Ravi) was a majestic River. We used to cross it by the road bridge when travelling by "Lorry." Yes. You read it right. In those days, in the Punjab, the term lorry was not exclusively used for motorised Goods Vehicles. What one calls a Bus now was a "lorry "then. We, the passengers, sat inside on seats, mostly. Some passengers sat on the roof top - in the company of boxes, trunks, bales of fodder, baskets (covered by a string netting) containing squawking chickens.

Inside the lorry, you sat in the front seat, next to the driver. That is, if you were an important passenger - a policeman (Pulsia, in Panjabi colloquially). Or, if you paid extra.

Dr. Prabodh K Gupta attended Government Medical College Amritsar, and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, with additional training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He specialized in Cytopathology. He was a professor at the Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Pennsylvania, from where retired in 2016. He is recognized internationally as a gifted clinician, educator and investigator. He has received numerous awards, including the highest awards by the American Society of Cytopathology (The George Papanicollou Award) and the International Academy of Cytology (Maurice Goldblatt Gold Medal).

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from the author's book My India My America: Success Yatra available on Amazon.

Editor's note: This article has been written by several people who were involved with the production of X-Rays, the newsmagazine of St. Xavier's School, Jaipur in 1965-66.

Subodh Mathur

Manjula Mathur was born to Bengali parents in Kolkata on 29th May 1955. Her father was an Indian Army doctor, and her mother a home-maker. She travelled extensively in India with her parents, and lived in quaint, closely-knit Cantonments. She served in the Indian Defence Accounts Service, and retired in 2015. She is married to Satish, who retired from the Indian Police Service. She is a devoted mother to her sons Sachit and Suchir, and daughter-in-law Pankhuri. Manjula is an enthusiastic bird watcher and bird photographer. Her bird photos have been published in her book Bird's Abode. She lives in Mumbai and Poona.

In our childhood and early adult years, we lived in a succession of Barrack-type Army bungalows in diverse Cantonment towns such as Allahabad, Poona and Alwar. As my father ascended the rank hierarchy, we graduated to more modern duplex houses with garden spaces at Tenga Valley in Arunachal Pradesh and lastly at Bhatinda in Punjab. The common thread through all these residences spread over various corners of our large and beautiful country was the presence of verdant and fragrant gardens due to the efforts of one member of our family - our father.

Brigadier C.H. Majumder (Lt. Col. at that time) at Nowshera, Jammu and Kashmir, 1971.

Salil Dutt, born 11^th August 1949, lives in Jaipur with his wife Suman. Their son Ashish is a financial analyst and their daughter Anuradha, a Clinical Psychologist. Salil's father, Wing Commander Mayukha Kanti Dutt (1915-1998) was born at Sreepur, Kharandip, Chittagong. Salil's mother, Biva Dutt (1924-2003) was born and brought up in Rangoon. She too hailed from Sadarghat, Chittagong.  Salil has four siblings. He graduated from St John's College Agra, and retired in 2009 as Vice President, Tata's Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. His interests are sports\; music, particularly Jazz, Classical and fusion\; reading, writing on travel &amp\; hospitality. He is a food buff.

Sitting under the winter morning sun in our terrace at Jaipur, overlooking the not too distant low-lying hills of the Aravalli range, I indulge myself in one of the most de-stressing activities that I had not done in a long time - shelling green peas. It is quite meditative, and I dare add, therapeutic. It effortlessly empties the accumulated clutter in the mind. During my childhood in Gurgaon in the 1950's and "Dilli" later, it was a favourite winter afternoon activity. Green peas were one of my favourite vegetables, tasty to the core. It made for some of the most popular Indian dishes anywhere - aloo mutter (peas and small potatoes), gobi mutter (cauliflower and green peas), and paneer mutter (cottage cheese cubes and peas), to name a few..

M. P. Vasudevan hails from a small village in Kannur district of Kerala state. After post-graduation in Zoology he worked on a research project at the University of Calicut. He joined the Central Board of Excise &amp\; Customs as a Preventive Officer through the Staff Selection Commission exam. He started at Goa Customs in 1981, and became Assistant Commissioner in 2014. He retired on superannuation in June 2015. Post-retirement, he devotes most of his time to maintaining his website http://www.referencer.in/, which serves as a reference library for both tax officers and tax payers under Government of India.

“Where am I?”

“Where are others?”

I am lost!

It was during April-May 1964 during my school annual vacation that my mother along with me and my younger brother had gone to stay with my father at Somwarpet. I was a nine year old boy who had just completed the fourth class. My father was working as a manager-cum-accountant-cum-driver in a big estate of one Mulliah.

Meera was born and brought up in Madras, Tamil Nadu. She graduated from Stella Maris College with a BA in Sociology, and got her MBA from the Asian Institute of Management, Manila. She has enjoyed living in Manila, Istanbul and Hong Kong, and currently lives in a suburb of Washington, D.C. with her husband.

Editor's note:  Lakshmi Raman, the author's mother, was born in 1922. The memories in this story are of mid-1960s to early 1980s.

L to R: Lakshmi Raman and Meera Raman. Madras (now Chennai).1982.

Mother's Day - I am trying to put together a meal for some dear friends and am hard pressed for choices from my limited range of capabilities. I would never have imagined the need to plan and plot a dinner - I had never seen Amma (mother) cook by design - she just cooked - it was supposed to be natural! As usual, with my lack of focus, I let my mind wander - and I find myself in my comfort zone - Amma's blue kitchen. I get lost in its aromatic flavors, feel the vibrancy of its high level of activity, its constant stream of visitors and warm embrace.

Mira Kathuria Purohit had her early education in Presentation Convent, Delhi, MGD, Jaipur and Hindu College, Delhi. She is a Pediatrician, having pursued her medical studies in SMS Medical College, Jaipur. She served in Rajasthan Government devoting her working career to treating children and teaching budding doctors to treat kids. She retired as a Professor, and now leads a retired life in Jaipur.

My Bhupi Mama (mother's younger brother, Bhupendra Hooja) was working for BBC in London in 1949. He met his soul mate, Usha Rani Joseph there.  She was studying sculpture. They got married there the same year. In 1954 they decided to relocate to India. Their first home was a spacious apartment on the first floor of a building called Exchange Stores, in Civil Lines of Old Delhi. It was also their son, Rakesh's (who had been born in London) first home in India.

At that time, my father, an officer in the Posts and Telegraph Department was posted at New Delhi. We were living in a government allotted house on Baird Lane, off Baird Road, in New Delhi. We were quite close to the Lady Harding Medical College, and Connaught Place.

President of the Indian Peoples Theatre Association and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Ranbir Sinh has lived a multifaceted life as an actor, director, playwright, historian, author and public intellectual. He resides in Jaipur, and is still going strong with his research, writing and theatre.

At the end of the Second World War it was decided to host the World Jamboree of Boy Scouts. The battlegrounds where the fierce battles were fought in north of France were selected as the venue. In all about 70,000 Boy Scouts from all over the world attended it. The Indian contingent consisted of 165 Boy Scouts from all parts of India. The Rajasthan contingent consisted of seven Boy Scouts from Mayo College, Chanchal Singh, Nahar Singh, Prithivi Singh, Bhim Singh, Guman Singh and myself, and Aftab from Jamia Miliya of Ajmer. Jasdev Singh and Kaul (I have forgotten his first name} from Jaipur State, and in Nasrulla from Bombay's Daly College joined us. Mr. Dhanmal Mathur of Mayo College was our Scout Master. Mr. Thadeus was the leader of the Indian contingent.