by Dev Kumar Vasudevan
As published in Mhow Diary on July 12 2007; Free Press, Indore edition
Troops under the command of a Captain Hunt had defeated the Holkars at Mahidpur on December 21 1817. It was after this defeat that the treaty of Mandsaur was signed on the 6th of January 1818 and Mhow was handed over to the British. The Scotsman Sir John Malcolm was the seniormost British official in Malwa at that time. Mhow had remained the headquarters of Sir John Malcolm till 1821 – they year the Mhow Fort was built. Prior to 1818 the Holkar Maharaja had stationed some of his troops at Badgonda village in Mhow. This was the original Bombay track and was also the way used by Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar on her way up from Maheshwar in the Nimar plains to Indore in Malwa. The Mhow Fort was used by the Ordnance Corps to store arms and ammunition. This was later transferred to Kharki, near Pune in 1907. The Headquarters of the 5th Mhow Division was in Mhow from 1913 onwards. This Division was part of the Bombay Corps. The other two divisions in this Corps were the 4th and 6th Divisions whose headquarters were at Quetta (now in Pakistan) and Poona (now Pune) respectively. The 4th Indian Division (the famous Red Eagles) was under the command of Montgomery in the African deserts and had contributed immensely in defeating the combined German and Italian Armies there.
The period 1940-48 was one of unprecedented change in Mhow. Many institutions came into existence. Prisoner of war camps were built. The Chindits who specialised in jungle warfare against the Japanese in the jungles of Burma were trained in Mhow. And the Officers Training School here did its best to make up for the shortage of officers which the Indian Army was facing at that time. It was during this time that the Infantry School and the Signals School (later the MCTE or Military College of Telecommunication Engineering ) came into existence.
Army Units Stationed in Mhow During the British Raj
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is a fascinating list of Army Units and Army Establishments which were stationed in Mhow during the days of the Raj. The names of the Regiments which were in Mhow before 1840 are not known. This list was given to me by an Infantry Officer in handwritten form in the eighties. I was able to tally it with a booklet brought out by Infantry School Mhow during the mid-eighties a xerox copy of which I found in the collection of my friend Denzil Lobo whose ancestors had arrived in Mhow during the late nineteenth century from Goa. I was also able to cross check this list with a coffee table book on the Army War College Mhow which was published a few years ago a copy of which is in the reference section of MCTE Library. Of the British regiments stationed in Mhow the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons had fought under the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo in 1815. They were part of the Union Brigade under the command of a Major General Sir William Posonby who was killed in this battle due to his own foolishness. The Brigade was destroyed by the French and it took no further part in the battle. It is interesting to note that this list does not contain the name of any Indian unit in Mhow in 1891. It was in 1891 that Dr B.R.Ambedkar was born in Mhow and his father Ramji Maloji Sakpal was a Subedar in a Mahar Infantry Battalion. Given below, in chronological order are the units and establishments which were present in Mhow during the pre-independence era. I must add that I have stopped the list in 1948, the year after independence.
Year: Unit/Establishment
1840: 2 Native Cavalry
1843: 26 Bombay Native Infantry
1857: 4 Scindhia’s Contingent
23 Bengal Native Infantry
14 Bombay Native Infantry
The Bengal Artillery
14 Light Dragoons
25 Native Infantry
1858: 5 Madras Cavalry
1859: 19 Bombay Native Infantry
92 Highlanders
1860: 17 Bombay Native Infantry
23 Bombay Native Infantry
Bombay Artillery
Dragoon Guards
1861: 72 Highlanders
Malwa Division Army
Bombay Rifles
6 Inniskilling Dragoons
1863: 6 Dragoons
1864-65: 45 Foot
103 Foot
28 Foot
1866: Royal Engineers
1867: 11 Hussars
95 Foot
1868: Dragoon Guards
2 Dragoons
95 Royal Artillery
1869: 8 King’s Regiment
1870: 15 Hussars
1873: Royal Horse Artillery
3 King’s Own (Hussars)
49 Royal Artillery
1875: 68 Light Infantry (Hussars)
1876: 108 Royal Artillery
2/17 Royal Artillery
1881: 5/11 Royal Artillery
1882: 2 Lancashire Fusilliers
1883: 17 Lancers
1884: 7 Dragoon Guards
1888-89: 5 Royal Irish Lancers
1890: 17 Hussars
1892: 7 Hussars
2 Durham Light Infantry
Royal Horse Artillery
1895-98: Brecknockshire Battalion
20 Hussars
The Royal Fusiliers
1902: 11 Yorkshire Lancers
10 Royal Hussars
1904: 104 Bengal Native Infantry
Yorkshire Regiment
6 Dragoons
Royal Horse Artillery
1907: 2 East Surrey Regiment
1911: East Lancashire Regiment
14 King’s Hussars
1913: 5 (Northumberland) Fusiliers
HQ 5 Mhow Division
1914: 125 Napiers Regiment
124 Rajputana Regiment
The Hampshire Regiment
14 Kings Hussars
1915- 19: 1 Brecknockshire Batallion
104 Rajputana Rifles
Durham Light Infantry
102 King Edward’s Own Grenadiers
1 South Wales Borderers
13 Hussars
128 Outram Rifles (4th Rajputana Rifles)
1920: 3 King’s Royal Rifles
3/60 Rifles
7 Queen’s Own Hussars
107 Battery, Royal Field Artillery
100 Battery, Royal Field Artillery
1922: South Wales Borderers
3 KK RC
1923: 3 Prince of Wales
2 Bedfordshire Battalion
13 Pack Battery
Battery Royal Artillery
1926: 2 Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment
1931: 1 Bedfordshire Regiment
16 Field Bengal Artillery
1933: 8 Field Bengal Artillery
28 Field Artillery
1934: 1 Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment
28 Foot
6 Bengal Cavalry
1936: 3/6 Rajputana Rifles
2 Suffolk Regiment
77 Field Battery
1940: 3/57 Field Battery Royal Artillery
52 Light Infantry
25 Field Artillery
Officer’s Training School
1941: Signals’ School
1944: 2/19 Hyderabad Royal Artillery
Detachment of the Intelligence Corps Burma Armed Forces (BAF)
1945: 1 Northamptonshire Regiment
Burma Intelligence Corps
Royal Indian Army Service Corps
Army Physical Training Corps
1946: Infantry School
1948: 5 Royal Maratha Light Infantry
72 Highlanders
====================
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Mhow Diary – A Collection of fascinating historical facts on Mhow.
(As it was published in the Free Press, Indore edition on May 31 2007)
In 1818 the English under the Scotsman Sir John Malcolm defeated the Holkars at the Battle of Mahidpur. The Treaty of Mandsaur was signed after this battle. The 7 th article of this treaty deals with the founding of Mhow. It was also as a result of this treaty that the capital of the Holkars was shifted from Maheshwar on the banks of the Narmada to Indore . Mhow was the headquarters of Sir John Malcolm till 1821.
According to the Treaty of Mandsaur (1818) the East India Company took the responsibility to "support a field force to maintain the internal treasuries of the territories of Malhar Rao Holkar, and to defend them from foreign enemies. It shall be stationed where the British Government determines to be best, and the Maharajah Malhar Rao Holkar agreed to grant some place of security as a deposit for stores." The place of security mentioned here is what is known as Mhow Fort.
The Army Garrison at Mhow consisted of an Infantry Battalion from a 'Native Regiment' (the rather condescending manner in which the British referred to regiments comprising Indian troops), a wing of a regiment of 'Native' Cavalry and an Artillery Battery comprising British Gunners but which was driven by 'natives'.
The highest point in Mhow is presently part of the campus of the MCTE (Military College of Telecommunication Engineering). It is roughly 1920 feet above mean sea level. It was the location where a British Infantry Battalion was stationed. It was from this point that the British guarded the Bombay track via Chotta Jam.
The Mhow Fort was built in 1821. It covers an area of roughly 10 acres and was used as to store the arms and ammunition of the Mhow Garrison. During the 1857 uprising the Bengal troops in Mhow disobeyed their English officers and took up arms against the English. The surviving English, which included men, women and children, took refuge in Mhow Fort. They stayed here from 1st July 1857 till 2nd August when English troops from Aurangabad under the command of a Brigadier General Stuart entered Mhow via Simrol. Mhow was the only station in Central India which was never abandoned by the British.
If one were to go through the list of regiments stationed at Mhow one can read the names of many Indian Regiments which do not exist any more. In 1857 the year of the uprising the regiments stationed in Mhow were: 5 Regiment Scindiah's Contingent, 23 Regiment the Bengal Native Infantry, The Bengal Artillery, 14 Bombay Native Infantry, 14th Light Dragoons and 25 Bombay Native Infantry. In 1858, after the uprising was suppressed the 5th Regiment of the Madras Cavalry was stationed in Mhow. It is interesting to note that in 1857 the regiments from the Bengal Presidency Army had taken up arms against the British. The Armies of the Bombay and Madras Presidency had not participated in this uprising and were used by the British to crush what they called the Sepoy Mutiny.
In the period between the two World Wars Mhow was the headquarters of the 5th Indian Division which was also known as the Mhow Division. During World War II the troops who had retreated from Burma were kept in Mhow and were trained for jungle warfare in the forests around Mhow. The gruelling forced marches used to start from Mhow and end at Jhansi . Mhow was also used to house prisoners of war including Italian POWs.
From 1940 to 1946 Mhow also housed the Officers Training School . This School trained and converted many a raw young man into an officer of the Indian Army. In 1946 the buildings of the British Infantry Lines were used to establish the Indian Signal Corps School . The first commandant of the School of Signals was an Englishman named Colonel AL Lewis ( 1 Oct 1946 to 27 Oct 1947 ). After independence it was renamed School of Signals on 25 Jun 1948. In 1967 the School of Signals became the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering.
The Infantry School Mhow came into existence on 01 July 1946 and its first commandant was Brigadier RT Cameron, DSO of the 5 Gurkha Rifles (FF). He served in this post from 01 July 1946 to 19 April 1947 . In 1948 the Small Arms School in Sagar, or Saugor as it was known then, was shifted to Mhow along with the Tactical and Administrative School Dehra Dun, the Battle School and Tactical Training Centre DehraDun, the Indian Infantry Platoon Commanders School, Faizabad, the Indian NCOs Training School, Jhansi, the Methods of Instruction School, DehraDun and the Machine Gun School, Deolali. All these institutions merged into the Infantry School – the alma mater of the Indian Infantry. Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw was the Commandant of the Infantry School from 01 Jan 1955 to 29 Novemeber 1956. He was a brigadier at that time. In 1971 the tactical wing of the Infantry School was separated and The College of Combat was born. The first commandant of The College of Combat was Major General OS Kalkat, PVSM of the 6 Gurkha Rifles. The College of Combat is now known as the Army War College .
The Army Training Command or ARTRAC was born in Mhow in 1991. Its first GOC-in-C was Lt. General A.S. Kalkat who had earlier commanded the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka. ARTRAC shifted to Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) in 1994. At that time its General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC-in-C) was Lt. General Shankar Roy Chowdhary who went on to become the Chief of Army Staff (COAS). ARTRAC was housed in the former BMH (British Military Hospital) which was used by All Arms Wing MCTE for many years. After ARTRAC shifted to Shimla the BMH building was handed over to Army School Mhow.
Mhow will continue to provide fascinating facts of Indian Military History. The facts listed above could well be called the tip of the iceberg. Readers who wish to contribute more facts may send them to me at dev.kumar.vasudevan@gmail.com
--------------------------------------------------
(As it was published in the Free Press, Indore edition on May 31 2007)
In 1818 the English under the Scotsman Sir John Malcolm defeated the Holkars at the Battle of Mahidpur. The Treaty of Mandsaur was signed after this battle. The 7 th article of this treaty deals with the founding of Mhow. It was also as a result of this treaty that the capital of the Holkars was shifted from Maheshwar on the banks of the Narmada to Indore . Mhow was the headquarters of Sir John Malcolm till 1821.
According to the Treaty of Mandsaur (1818) the East India Company took the responsibility to "support a field force to maintain the internal treasuries of the territories of Malhar Rao Holkar, and to defend them from foreign enemies. It shall be stationed where the British Government determines to be best, and the Maharajah Malhar Rao Holkar agreed to grant some place of security as a deposit for stores." The place of security mentioned here is what is known as Mhow Fort.
The Army Garrison at Mhow consisted of an Infantry Battalion from a 'Native Regiment' (the rather condescending manner in which the British referred to regiments comprising Indian troops), a wing of a regiment of 'Native' Cavalry and an Artillery Battery comprising British Gunners but which was driven by 'natives'.
The highest point in Mhow is presently part of the campus of the MCTE (Military College of Telecommunication Engineering). It is roughly 1920 feet above mean sea level. It was the location where a British Infantry Battalion was stationed. It was from this point that the British guarded the Bombay track via Chotta Jam.
The Mhow Fort was built in 1821. It covers an area of roughly 10 acres and was used as to store the arms and ammunition of the Mhow Garrison. During the 1857 uprising the Bengal troops in Mhow disobeyed their English officers and took up arms against the English. The surviving English, which included men, women and children, took refuge in Mhow Fort. They stayed here from 1st July 1857 till 2nd August when English troops from Aurangabad under the command of a Brigadier General Stuart entered Mhow via Simrol. Mhow was the only station in Central India which was never abandoned by the British.
If one were to go through the list of regiments stationed at Mhow one can read the names of many Indian Regiments which do not exist any more. In 1857 the year of the uprising the regiments stationed in Mhow were: 5 Regiment Scindiah's Contingent, 23 Regiment the Bengal Native Infantry, The Bengal Artillery, 14 Bombay Native Infantry, 14th Light Dragoons and 25 Bombay Native Infantry. In 1858, after the uprising was suppressed the 5th Regiment of the Madras Cavalry was stationed in Mhow. It is interesting to note that in 1857 the regiments from the Bengal Presidency Army had taken up arms against the British. The Armies of the Bombay and Madras Presidency had not participated in this uprising and were used by the British to crush what they called the Sepoy Mutiny.
In the period between the two World Wars Mhow was the headquarters of the 5th Indian Division which was also known as the Mhow Division. During World War II the troops who had retreated from Burma were kept in Mhow and were trained for jungle warfare in the forests around Mhow. The gruelling forced marches used to start from Mhow and end at Jhansi . Mhow was also used to house prisoners of war including Italian POWs.
From 1940 to 1946 Mhow also housed the Officers Training School . This School trained and converted many a raw young man into an officer of the Indian Army. In 1946 the buildings of the British Infantry Lines were used to establish the Indian Signal Corps School . The first commandant of the School of Signals was an Englishman named Colonel AL Lewis ( 1 Oct 1946 to 27 Oct 1947 ). After independence it was renamed School of Signals on 25 Jun 1948. In 1967 the School of Signals became the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering.
The Infantry School Mhow came into existence on 01 July 1946 and its first commandant was Brigadier RT Cameron, DSO of the 5 Gurkha Rifles (FF). He served in this post from 01 July 1946 to 19 April 1947 . In 1948 the Small Arms School in Sagar, or Saugor as it was known then, was shifted to Mhow along with the Tactical and Administrative School Dehra Dun, the Battle School and Tactical Training Centre DehraDun, the Indian Infantry Platoon Commanders School, Faizabad, the Indian NCOs Training School, Jhansi, the Methods of Instruction School, DehraDun and the Machine Gun School, Deolali. All these institutions merged into the Infantry School – the alma mater of the Indian Infantry. Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw was the Commandant of the Infantry School from 01 Jan 1955 to 29 Novemeber 1956. He was a brigadier at that time. In 1971 the tactical wing of the Infantry School was separated and The College of Combat was born. The first commandant of The College of Combat was Major General OS Kalkat, PVSM of the 6 Gurkha Rifles. The College of Combat is now known as the Army War College .
The Army Training Command or ARTRAC was born in Mhow in 1991. Its first GOC-in-C was Lt. General A.S. Kalkat who had earlier commanded the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka. ARTRAC shifted to Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) in 1994. At that time its General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC-in-C) was Lt. General Shankar Roy Chowdhary who went on to become the Chief of Army Staff (COAS). ARTRAC was housed in the former BMH (British Military Hospital) which was used by All Arms Wing MCTE for many years. After ARTRAC shifted to Shimla the BMH building was handed over to Army School Mhow.
Mhow will continue to provide fascinating facts of Indian Military History. The facts listed above could well be called the tip of the iceberg. Readers who wish to contribute more facts may send them to me at dev.kumar.vasudevan@gmail.com
--------------------------------------------------
Ask any sports lover in India whether he or she knows who Shankar Laxman was and I would be surprised if the answer was yes. Shankar Laxman was the goalkeeper of the Indian hockey team which won the gold medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The next time India would win the Olympic hockey gold would be in 1980 when the Western countries would boycott the Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Well, here is the tribute I wrote for Shankar Laxman and which was published in the Mhow Diary column of Free Press on April 28 2007, a day before the hockey hero's first death anniversary.
Shankar Laxman - The forgotten hero of Indian hockey by Dev Kumar Vasudevan(From the Mhow Diary column of April 28 2007 of Free Press Indore)
Shankar Lakshman - Indian hockey hero, goalkeeper of the Indian hockey team in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics died almost a year ago on 29 April 2006. A month before his death the people of Mhow were shocked to learn that he was suffering from gangrene in one leg. Doctors suggested amputation. He and his family refused. They opted for alternative therapy. He was going to Ramesh Parmar, former cricketer and a healer who uses traditional herbal remedies. Member of Parliament Jyotiraditya Scindia had promised him all help when he had come to Indore to attend the One Day International Match against England on April 15, 2006.
When I asked somebody who knew him I was told that Dada, as he is still known in Mhow, was improving. It was a shock to learn about the death of someone who lived just a few miles away by seeing a flash on a New Delhi based television news channel. I had been hearing of Shankar Lakshman since my childhood and was always in awe of him. I had visited his house a fortnight before his death and was told that he had gone to get herbal medicine applied on his leg. I was asked to come later. I could never go. Perhaps I was destined not to meet him.
Shankar Lakshman was born on July 7, 1933 in Mhow. He belonged to the Shekhawat community of Rajasthan. He played hockey at a time when the goalkeeper had only the pads as a protective gear. He was a member of the Olympic gold medal winning hockey team in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. The other medals he won include the 1958 Asian Games gold medal (Tokyo), 1960 Olympics silver medal (Rome), 1964 Olympics gold medal (Tokyo) and the 1966 Asian Game Gold medal (Bangkok). He was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1965 and the Padmashri in 1967. He was dropped from the Indian hockey team to the Mexico Olympics of 1968 and the decline of Indian hockey also began with that tournament.
His opponents called him the Rock of Gibraltar. According to the manager of the silver medal winning Pakistani hockey team of the '64 Tokyo Olympics, Shankar Lakshman was the sole obstacle between the Pakistani team and the gold medal. Just take a look at his stunning record. In three Olympic finals against Pakistan he conceded just one goal and in three Asian Games finals he conceded two goals. That makes it six matches and three goals. Charles Cornelius, the former India hockey player had once said of him " Lakshman was among the game's greatest. He was an epitome of courage and a role-model for others of his ilk. Unfazed by any situation, he had the ability to defuse any crisis. His team-mates were at a loss to know how his pads grew broader and broader as the contest wore on ." Referring to his performance in the 1964 Hockey finals against Pakistan in Tokyo the Australian Hockey magazine Hockey Circle had said "...for Lakshman, the ball was the size of a football. It was his afternoon of glory and fame. "
Lakshman had joined the Indian Army as a bandsman in 1947 at the tender age of 14 and served in the Maratha Light Infantry's 5th Battalion. He had retired from the Army as a Subedar Major in 1978 and was awarded the rank of honorary captain. As luck would have it one of the battalions posted in Mhow at the time of his death was the 26th battalion of the Maratha Light Infantry- his funeral was conducted with full military honours by this battalion. It was an emotional experience not only for the townspeople of Mhow but also for the Army. The Maratha Light Infantry could bid goodbye to one of its most illustrious sons. Garrison Ground Mhow has been converted into a mini stadium by the Infantry School and has been named after him. The Infantry School Mhow has also instituted the Shankar Lakshman Hockey Championship Trophy. An apt honour for a son of Mhow. This trophy was won for the first time by the 26th Maratha Light Infantry. That is something which must have made him proud if he had been alive.
He had begun his sports career as a footballer. He was the captain of the football team of Kodaria village in Mhow. It was only after he joined the Army that he switched over to hockey. The rest, as they say, is history. He had founded a club named Heroes Club in Mhow to popularise hockey. Young Brothers, Mhow's best football club, also benefited from his expertise. His expert comments given during the 1982 Hockey World Cup in Bombay (Mumbai) were much appreciated. He was the coach of the Indian Hockey Team to the Barcelona Olympics of 1992. His son Manohar Singh was also a hockey player and had played for Indore Christian College and the University of Indore (as Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya was known earlier). But his grandsons have taken to wrestling which is another sport Mhow is famous for. According to Manohar Singh healthy sponsorship is the only way to make hockey popular again in India. He is not surprised that today's youngsters go for cricket and not for hockey.
Lakshman lived a quiet retired life in Mhow. Almost every sportslover here has some anecdote about him. The IHF and officialdom may have ignored him but he was loved by the people of this small town who were very proud of him and loved him dearly. For them, he was, and will always remain, one of the few genuine heroes that their small town has produced.
-------------------
Note: I was under the mistaken impression that Shankar Laxman was the captain of the Indian hockey team to the Tokyo Olympics. And the scanned copy of this article will also show this error. I was told by a researcher that Laxman was the captain of the Indian hockey team which played in the 1966 Bangkok Asiad.
--------------------
Shankar Laxman - The forgotten hero of Indian hockey by Dev Kumar Vasudevan(From the Mhow Diary column of April 28 2007 of Free Press Indore)
Shankar Lakshman - Indian hockey hero, goalkeeper of the Indian hockey team in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics died almost a year ago on 29 April 2006. A month before his death the people of Mhow were shocked to learn that he was suffering from gangrene in one leg. Doctors suggested amputation. He and his family refused. They opted for alternative therapy. He was going to Ramesh Parmar, former cricketer and a healer who uses traditional herbal remedies. Member of Parliament Jyotiraditya Scindia had promised him all help when he had come to Indore to attend the One Day International Match against England on April 15, 2006.
When I asked somebody who knew him I was told that Dada, as he is still known in Mhow, was improving. It was a shock to learn about the death of someone who lived just a few miles away by seeing a flash on a New Delhi based television news channel. I had been hearing of Shankar Lakshman since my childhood and was always in awe of him. I had visited his house a fortnight before his death and was told that he had gone to get herbal medicine applied on his leg. I was asked to come later. I could never go. Perhaps I was destined not to meet him.
Shankar Lakshman was born on July 7, 1933 in Mhow. He belonged to the Shekhawat community of Rajasthan. He played hockey at a time when the goalkeeper had only the pads as a protective gear. He was a member of the Olympic gold medal winning hockey team in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. The other medals he won include the 1958 Asian Games gold medal (Tokyo), 1960 Olympics silver medal (Rome), 1964 Olympics gold medal (Tokyo) and the 1966 Asian Game Gold medal (Bangkok). He was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1965 and the Padmashri in 1967. He was dropped from the Indian hockey team to the Mexico Olympics of 1968 and the decline of Indian hockey also began with that tournament.
His opponents called him the Rock of Gibraltar. According to the manager of the silver medal winning Pakistani hockey team of the '64 Tokyo Olympics, Shankar Lakshman was the sole obstacle between the Pakistani team and the gold medal. Just take a look at his stunning record. In three Olympic finals against Pakistan he conceded just one goal and in three Asian Games finals he conceded two goals. That makes it six matches and three goals. Charles Cornelius, the former India hockey player had once said of him " Lakshman was among the game's greatest. He was an epitome of courage and a role-model for others of his ilk. Unfazed by any situation, he had the ability to defuse any crisis. His team-mates were at a loss to know how his pads grew broader and broader as the contest wore on ." Referring to his performance in the 1964 Hockey finals against Pakistan in Tokyo the Australian Hockey magazine Hockey Circle had said "...for Lakshman, the ball was the size of a football. It was his afternoon of glory and fame. "
Lakshman had joined the Indian Army as a bandsman in 1947 at the tender age of 14 and served in the Maratha Light Infantry's 5th Battalion. He had retired from the Army as a Subedar Major in 1978 and was awarded the rank of honorary captain. As luck would have it one of the battalions posted in Mhow at the time of his death was the 26th battalion of the Maratha Light Infantry- his funeral was conducted with full military honours by this battalion. It was an emotional experience not only for the townspeople of Mhow but also for the Army. The Maratha Light Infantry could bid goodbye to one of its most illustrious sons. Garrison Ground Mhow has been converted into a mini stadium by the Infantry School and has been named after him. The Infantry School Mhow has also instituted the Shankar Lakshman Hockey Championship Trophy. An apt honour for a son of Mhow. This trophy was won for the first time by the 26th Maratha Light Infantry. That is something which must have made him proud if he had been alive.
He had begun his sports career as a footballer. He was the captain of the football team of Kodaria village in Mhow. It was only after he joined the Army that he switched over to hockey. The rest, as they say, is history. He had founded a club named Heroes Club in Mhow to popularise hockey. Young Brothers, Mhow's best football club, also benefited from his expertise. His expert comments given during the 1982 Hockey World Cup in Bombay (Mumbai) were much appreciated. He was the coach of the Indian Hockey Team to the Barcelona Olympics of 1992. His son Manohar Singh was also a hockey player and had played for Indore Christian College and the University of Indore (as Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya was known earlier). But his grandsons have taken to wrestling which is another sport Mhow is famous for. According to Manohar Singh healthy sponsorship is the only way to make hockey popular again in India. He is not surprised that today's youngsters go for cricket and not for hockey.
Lakshman lived a quiet retired life in Mhow. Almost every sportslover here has some anecdote about him. The IHF and officialdom may have ignored him but he was loved by the people of this small town who were very proud of him and loved him dearly. For them, he was, and will always remain, one of the few genuine heroes that their small town has produced.
-------------------
Note: I was under the mistaken impression that Shankar Laxman was the captain of the Indian hockey team to the Tokyo Olympics. And the scanned copy of this article will also show this error. I was told by a researcher that Laxman was the captain of the Indian hockey team which played in the 1966 Bangkok Asiad.
--------------------
Friday, April 13, 2007
MHOW DIARY: (As it appeared in Free Press; Indore 5 April 2007)
An interaction with Jaysinh Birjepatil the author of Chinnery’s Hotel
Technology is indeed a wonderful thing. I couldn't imagine doing this in the pre-internet era. I have been in touch through email with Jaysinh Birjepatil, the author of the novel Chinnery's Hotel which is set in a fictitious Mhow. Jay, as he is known to friends, is a retired Professor of English. Although technically retired he returns to Marlboro College, Marlboro, Vermont, U.S.A to teach one course in literature each semester. He has been associated with this college since 1987. He completed his M.A. in 1965 and his PhD from the University of Manchester (U.K.) in 1967. When I asked him to send me some biographical information about him his response was very modest. This is what he had to say: ”As for my bio may I say that I am too old to relish the thought of being written about in greater detail than is absolutely necessary.” If only some of our politicians were to think along similar lines. He sent me some information about himself from the Marlboro College Calendar. I have promised to stick to the information provided in this Calendar.
Jaysinh Birjepatil was born in India and educated in England. He is trained in theatre in which he won a Gold Medal Certificate from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Chinnery's Hotel was his first novel and he is currently at work on another. He first arrived in the United States as a post-doctoral fellow at Yale. Subsequently he served at Brown as Visiting Professor of Comparative Literature and Theatre Arts. He describes his past as "a patchwork quilt of multiculturalism," and, in his own words, "a constant search for roots across three continents." He has published poems and scholarly works in Indian, British and American journals. The courses he taught at Marlboro range from "Shakespeare and his Contemporaries" to British and American fiction, poetry and drama. According to the college calendar, and I quote verbatim: He has produced and directed more than 50 plays. As a creative writer operating primarily from a Third World perspective, He has been particularly influenced by the work of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. "My approach to literature is semiotic and dialogic," he says, "but I part company with the signifier that floats beyond the range of human intelligence." Although technically retired he returns to Marlboro to teach one course in literature each semester.
This what he had to say about why he chose Mhow as a setting for his novel: “In my book Mhow is a trope for all the Cantonment towns in undivided India and serves as a as an imaginary locale. The characters as well as incidents are invented and mostly drawn from people our family knew in Poona and Ahmednagar and other Cantonments. Chinnery's Hotel itself is based on Percy's Hotel in Secunderabad and a couple of places in Poona. I should like to add that Mhow was chosen as a locale because it still retains, albeit in a slightly tumble down form, the old world charm of a cantonment whereas Poona and Bangalore Cantonments have been superseded by highrise structures. “
Though the novel is set in a fictitious Mhow the real Mhow is not absent from it. Most booklovers from Mhow, self included, have thought of Craven’s Hotel in Mhow whenever we hear the title of Birjepatil’s novel. This is what he has to say about the real Mhow seeping into the novel: “Although largely fictional, Mhow in my book is fraught with history, with the graves of the Lilleys in the Old Cemetery making a strong appearance in the context of the famous Crawley affair.” He also gave some very interesting information about Craven’s Hotel: ”Mrs. Threlfel nee Craven was very nostalgic about Craven's Hotel when I met her just before she passed away in Basingstoke. But unlike that of the Chinnery's her life in Mhow was apparently a bed of roses. She was very helpful in evoking the social life in Mhow between the wars. Craven's was on a much smaller scale, a bungalow opposite the Bakery off Post Office Road. I met her after Chinnery's Hotel had been conceived but something of her nostalgia for Mhow must have inevitably seeped into the book.”
When he came to know that I live in Signals Vihar, a colony where retired Defence officers and their families reside, he commented “Signals Vihar in my book is called Signal Vihar.” I smiled when I read this. Signal Vihar, the corrupted form of Signals Vihar, has become institutionalized in Mhow. Even signboards on the Mall refer to it as Signal Vihar. I wrote to him that in my childhood I would often hear One Tree Hill in Mhow being referred to as One Trill. If the English in India could anglicize Indian words I am sure that non-anglicised Indians had an equal right to Indianise English words.
When I wrote to him quoting Khushwant Singh that it was a pity the book did not get the readership it deserved, Birjepatil wrote: “My book has not done so badly in the West. If you let me have your postal address I'd be happy to ask Amazon.com to mail you the new edition with strong endorsements from distinguished British and American critics.“ Needless to say I have jumped at the offer. There is nothing a booklover would love more.
Tailpiece:Aruna Rodrigues, who belongs to the first Goan family which arrived in Mhow in the mid-nineteenth century, writes to me: "Perhaps the best claim to the name 'Mhow' is that it was derived from the word ‘Mowasee’. This was an area inhabited by them, i.e. the 'Mowasee', (tribals) and the word appropriately means "stronghold". It is also where Holkar's troops were cantoned before 1818.” According to her Mhow has been spelt as ‘MOW’ in Sir John Malcom's famous map of Malwa and Central India. Interesting information this. Thanks Aruna. Any more thoughts on this issue?
An interaction with Jaysinh Birjepatil the author of Chinnery’s Hotel
Technology is indeed a wonderful thing. I couldn't imagine doing this in the pre-internet era. I have been in touch through email with Jaysinh Birjepatil, the author of the novel Chinnery's Hotel which is set in a fictitious Mhow. Jay, as he is known to friends, is a retired Professor of English. Although technically retired he returns to Marlboro College, Marlboro, Vermont, U.S.A to teach one course in literature each semester. He has been associated with this college since 1987. He completed his M.A. in 1965 and his PhD from the University of Manchester (U.K.) in 1967. When I asked him to send me some biographical information about him his response was very modest. This is what he had to say: ”As for my bio may I say that I am too old to relish the thought of being written about in greater detail than is absolutely necessary.” If only some of our politicians were to think along similar lines. He sent me some information about himself from the Marlboro College Calendar. I have promised to stick to the information provided in this Calendar.
Jaysinh Birjepatil was born in India and educated in England. He is trained in theatre in which he won a Gold Medal Certificate from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Chinnery's Hotel was his first novel and he is currently at work on another. He first arrived in the United States as a post-doctoral fellow at Yale. Subsequently he served at Brown as Visiting Professor of Comparative Literature and Theatre Arts. He describes his past as "a patchwork quilt of multiculturalism," and, in his own words, "a constant search for roots across three continents." He has published poems and scholarly works in Indian, British and American journals. The courses he taught at Marlboro range from "Shakespeare and his Contemporaries" to British and American fiction, poetry and drama. According to the college calendar, and I quote verbatim: He has produced and directed more than 50 plays. As a creative writer operating primarily from a Third World perspective, He has been particularly influenced by the work of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. "My approach to literature is semiotic and dialogic," he says, "but I part company with the signifier that floats beyond the range of human intelligence." Although technically retired he returns to Marlboro to teach one course in literature each semester.
This what he had to say about why he chose Mhow as a setting for his novel: “In my book Mhow is a trope for all the Cantonment towns in undivided India and serves as a as an imaginary locale. The characters as well as incidents are invented and mostly drawn from people our family knew in Poona and Ahmednagar and other Cantonments. Chinnery's Hotel itself is based on Percy's Hotel in Secunderabad and a couple of places in Poona. I should like to add that Mhow was chosen as a locale because it still retains, albeit in a slightly tumble down form, the old world charm of a cantonment whereas Poona and Bangalore Cantonments have been superseded by highrise structures. “
Though the novel is set in a fictitious Mhow the real Mhow is not absent from it. Most booklovers from Mhow, self included, have thought of Craven’s Hotel in Mhow whenever we hear the title of Birjepatil’s novel. This is what he has to say about the real Mhow seeping into the novel: “Although largely fictional, Mhow in my book is fraught with history, with the graves of the Lilleys in the Old Cemetery making a strong appearance in the context of the famous Crawley affair.” He also gave some very interesting information about Craven’s Hotel: ”Mrs. Threlfel nee Craven was very nostalgic about Craven's Hotel when I met her just before she passed away in Basingstoke. But unlike that of the Chinnery's her life in Mhow was apparently a bed of roses. She was very helpful in evoking the social life in Mhow between the wars. Craven's was on a much smaller scale, a bungalow opposite the Bakery off Post Office Road. I met her after Chinnery's Hotel had been conceived but something of her nostalgia for Mhow must have inevitably seeped into the book.”
When he came to know that I live in Signals Vihar, a colony where retired Defence officers and their families reside, he commented “Signals Vihar in my book is called Signal Vihar.” I smiled when I read this. Signal Vihar, the corrupted form of Signals Vihar, has become institutionalized in Mhow. Even signboards on the Mall refer to it as Signal Vihar. I wrote to him that in my childhood I would often hear One Tree Hill in Mhow being referred to as One Trill. If the English in India could anglicize Indian words I am sure that non-anglicised Indians had an equal right to Indianise English words.
When I wrote to him quoting Khushwant Singh that it was a pity the book did not get the readership it deserved, Birjepatil wrote: “My book has not done so badly in the West. If you let me have your postal address I'd be happy to ask Amazon.com to mail you the new edition with strong endorsements from distinguished British and American critics.“ Needless to say I have jumped at the offer. There is nothing a booklover would love more.
Tailpiece:Aruna Rodrigues, who belongs to the first Goan family which arrived in Mhow in the mid-nineteenth century, writes to me: "Perhaps the best claim to the name 'Mhow' is that it was derived from the word ‘Mowasee’. This was an area inhabited by them, i.e. the 'Mowasee', (tribals) and the word appropriately means "stronghold". It is also where Holkar's troops were cantoned before 1818.” According to her Mhow has been spelt as ‘MOW’ in Sir John Malcom's famous map of Malwa and Central India. Interesting information this. Thanks Aruna. Any more thoughts on this issue?
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Mhow Diary - Thoughts on Mhow
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As it appeared in the Free Press (Indore edition) on March 10 2007
The Name ‘Mhow’
Mhow Cantonment came into existence in 1818 as a result of the Treaty of Mandsaur when the Holkars ceded this area to the British after their defeat in the Battle of Mahidpur. How this small town in Indore district got its name is often the subject of heated debate. There are various theories which one keeps hearing. Some people claim that Mhow is an abbreviation of Military Headquarters of War while others claim that Mhow is short for Military Headquarters of Western India. According to old timers in Mhow it is fairly certain that Mhow Gaon, the village near Mhow existed before the Treaty of Mandsaur. Thus it is highly unlikely that any of the above two reasons are correct. Another theory is that the name Mhow comes from the Mahua (Bassia latifolia) tree. Considering the fact that this tree grows in abundance in the forests around Mhow this could very well be the true reason. Many others have also told me that as Mhow is between the two pilgrim towns Maheshwar and Omkareshwar it got its name from the first syllable of each name. This could also be true. Any other theories? Readers could send in any other possible origins that they know of.
Mhow in the printed form.
Rudyard Kipling (1865- 1936) has mentioned Mhow in some of his works. A google search while writing the Wikipedia entry on Mhow gave me three such instances. These include his poem "The Ladies", a reference to the train from Ajmer to Mhow in Chapter 1 of The Man Who would be King and a reference to Mhow in chapter 11 of Kim. Some other books written by westerners include Diaries and letters from India, 1895-1900 by Violet Jacob and Last Post At Mhow by Arthur Hawkey. Violet Jacob was a British memsahib whose husband was posted in Mhow and her detailed writings on Mhow make interesting reading. They also show how the British kept away from the Indians and made no effort at all to befriend them. It was an abusive relationship of the ruler and the ruled. The Last Post At Mhow is about a scandal in Mhow which occurred when the 6th battalion of the Inniskilling Dragoons was posted here in 1860. The Commanding Officer was accused of extreme cruelty to his subordinates after the death of a Regimental Sergeant Major John Lilley and his wife.
The latest book set in Mhow is a fictional work Chinnery's Hotel by Jaysinh Birjepatil (Publishers:Ravi Dayal; Pages: 261; Rs 275).It could well qualify as the only work of fiction written by an Indian and set in Mhow. This is another addition to the genre of fiction about the Raj. The book is set in a fictional Mhow. The Raj atmosphere has been brought out quiet effectively in books like 'A Passage to India' by E.M. Forster, The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott and 'Heat and Dust' by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Writer, scholar and senior journalist Khushwant Singh has been quiet effusive in his praise for Chinnery's Hotel. He writes about how the publishers of the book had sent him the manuscript for his opinion and he had marked it 'first rate'. As he had found the novel to be free of Indian cliches he had assumed that the writer must be an Englishman or an Anglo Indian. He realised later that he was wrong on both counts. Jaysinh Birjepatil is a Baroda born professor of English who is presently teaching at Marlboro College, Vermont (US). Educated in England, Birjepatil has also taught at Baroda University, and Brown University (US).
The book is about an Englishwoman who returns to Mhow with the daughter of her dead sister, four decades after she had left for England. They visit Chinnery's Hotel which was built by her parents during the Raj and the protagonist realises that along with the Mhow of today she has to also face the Mhow of yesterday. The novel is an interplay of past and present. That was a technique that Jhabvala too used in 'Heat and Dust'. The British played one community against another by appealing to their chauvinism and by attacking their self-esteem. The underlying theme in most Raj novels is abuse, violence and the condescension and contempt with which the English treated Indians and Anglo Indians. Anyone who has read any books pertaining to this period will agree with this. Birjepatil's book also explores these issues in an extremely well written and competent manner.
According to Mark Tully, an Englishman who was born in India during the days of the Raj, this is a typical Raj novel, with all the attendant scandals and wining and dining and socialising which is so typical of cantonment towns. Tully feels that things are slightly overdone in this book. He wonders whether the last days of the Raj were as awful as described in this novel. I personally feel that no book can capture the mental bankruptcy of the English in India - something which cost them the Empire. But the book evokes enough memories of (and revulsion towards) the Raj to make Tully feel that he is lucky to have grown up in post-independence India. I must agree with him as, thanks to my birth in an Army family, I have seen cantonment towns of India (including Mhow) all my life and have got a good glimpse of what the Raj stood for. As Khushwant Singh wrote it is a pity that this good book did not get the readership it deserved.
[Note: Mark Tully had reviewed Chinnery's Hotel in the Indian newsmagazine Outlook
Tailpiece According to a wag it is good that the air chief designate Air Marshal Fali H Major did not join the army. If he had done so some of the names he would have been known as during his rise through the ranks would have been: Lieutenant Major, Captain Major, Major Major, and so on till he became General Major!
---------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
As it appeared in the Free Press (Indore edition) on March 10 2007
The Name ‘Mhow’
Mhow Cantonment came into existence in 1818 as a result of the Treaty of Mandsaur when the Holkars ceded this area to the British after their defeat in the Battle of Mahidpur. How this small town in Indore district got its name is often the subject of heated debate. There are various theories which one keeps hearing. Some people claim that Mhow is an abbreviation of Military Headquarters of War while others claim that Mhow is short for Military Headquarters of Western India. According to old timers in Mhow it is fairly certain that Mhow Gaon, the village near Mhow existed before the Treaty of Mandsaur. Thus it is highly unlikely that any of the above two reasons are correct. Another theory is that the name Mhow comes from the Mahua (Bassia latifolia) tree. Considering the fact that this tree grows in abundance in the forests around Mhow this could very well be the true reason. Many others have also told me that as Mhow is between the two pilgrim towns Maheshwar and Omkareshwar it got its name from the first syllable of each name. This could also be true. Any other theories? Readers could send in any other possible origins that they know of.
Mhow in the printed form.
Rudyard Kipling (1865- 1936) has mentioned Mhow in some of his works. A google search while writing the Wikipedia entry on Mhow gave me three such instances. These include his poem "The Ladies", a reference to the train from Ajmer to Mhow in Chapter 1 of The Man Who would be King and a reference to Mhow in chapter 11 of Kim. Some other books written by westerners include Diaries and letters from India, 1895-1900 by Violet Jacob and Last Post At Mhow by Arthur Hawkey. Violet Jacob was a British memsahib whose husband was posted in Mhow and her detailed writings on Mhow make interesting reading. They also show how the British kept away from the Indians and made no effort at all to befriend them. It was an abusive relationship of the ruler and the ruled. The Last Post At Mhow is about a scandal in Mhow which occurred when the 6th battalion of the Inniskilling Dragoons was posted here in 1860. The Commanding Officer was accused of extreme cruelty to his subordinates after the death of a Regimental Sergeant Major John Lilley and his wife.
The latest book set in Mhow is a fictional work Chinnery's Hotel by Jaysinh Birjepatil (Publishers:Ravi Dayal; Pages: 261; Rs 275).It could well qualify as the only work of fiction written by an Indian and set in Mhow. This is another addition to the genre of fiction about the Raj. The book is set in a fictional Mhow. The Raj atmosphere has been brought out quiet effectively in books like 'A Passage to India' by E.M. Forster, The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott and 'Heat and Dust' by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Writer, scholar and senior journalist Khushwant Singh has been quiet effusive in his praise for Chinnery's Hotel. He writes about how the publishers of the book had sent him the manuscript for his opinion and he had marked it 'first rate'. As he had found the novel to be free of Indian cliches he had assumed that the writer must be an Englishman or an Anglo Indian. He realised later that he was wrong on both counts. Jaysinh Birjepatil is a Baroda born professor of English who is presently teaching at Marlboro College, Vermont (US). Educated in England, Birjepatil has also taught at Baroda University, and Brown University (US).
The book is about an Englishwoman who returns to Mhow with the daughter of her dead sister, four decades after she had left for England. They visit Chinnery's Hotel which was built by her parents during the Raj and the protagonist realises that along with the Mhow of today she has to also face the Mhow of yesterday. The novel is an interplay of past and present. That was a technique that Jhabvala too used in 'Heat and Dust'. The British played one community against another by appealing to their chauvinism and by attacking their self-esteem. The underlying theme in most Raj novels is abuse, violence and the condescension and contempt with which the English treated Indians and Anglo Indians. Anyone who has read any books pertaining to this period will agree with this. Birjepatil's book also explores these issues in an extremely well written and competent manner.
According to Mark Tully, an Englishman who was born in India during the days of the Raj, this is a typical Raj novel, with all the attendant scandals and wining and dining and socialising which is so typical of cantonment towns. Tully feels that things are slightly overdone in this book. He wonders whether the last days of the Raj were as awful as described in this novel. I personally feel that no book can capture the mental bankruptcy of the English in India - something which cost them the Empire. But the book evokes enough memories of (and revulsion towards) the Raj to make Tully feel that he is lucky to have grown up in post-independence India. I must agree with him as, thanks to my birth in an Army family, I have seen cantonment towns of India (including Mhow) all my life and have got a good glimpse of what the Raj stood for. As Khushwant Singh wrote it is a pity that this good book did not get the readership it deserved.
[Note: Mark Tully had reviewed Chinnery's Hotel in the Indian newsmagazine Outlook
Tailpiece According to a wag it is good that the air chief designate Air Marshal Fali H Major did not join the army. If he had done so some of the names he would have been known as during his rise through the ranks would have been: Lieutenant Major, Captain Major, Major Major, and so on till he became General Major!
---------------------
Friday, March 09, 2007
The Tesu Tree in Mhow
"I think I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree
Poems are made by fools like me
But only God can make a tree" - American poet Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)
(Kilmer was killed in the trench warfare of World War One)
Spring is in the air. The Semul or silk cotton tree (Salmalia malabarica or Bombax malabaricum) is on flower. And so is the mango. "Aam kay ped par mor aaye hain" I overheard a young girl tell her grandfather. The flower of the mango tree is known as mor (peacock) in Hindi. And the most beautiful of all trees is the Flame of the Forest or Dhak. It is also known as Palas, Bastard Teak, Parrot Tree, Porasum (Tamil) , Khakda (Gujarati).The battle of Plassey was fought near a forest full of these trees. And I have seen villages named Palasiya in Madhya Pradesh. I recommend a google search for all those of you who are do not live in areas where this tree grows naturally. I remember boiling the flowers and making colour for Holi when I was a child and my Dad was posted in Mhow.
A naturalist from Pune had once written an essay on this tree in Bittu Sahgal's Sanctuary magazine and he had claimed to have seen more than twenty species of birds on this tree in a short time span of 3 or 4 hours. I love the feel of the trifoliate leaves when they are green, it is like touching suede. I have often seen squirrels and parrots eating the seeds from the pods. I used to collect these pods, one had to get to them when they fell down before the squirrels did so. Even succeeded in making some of them sprout but they died and I felt heartbroken.
I remember taking some photographs of a clump of these trees from a moving train while travelling from Indore to Jabalpur almost ten years ago. I wish a serious effort is undertaken to make this tree more popular. Whenever I see the Flame of the forest on flower I remember these words of the poet Ezra Pound :"The difference between a gun and a tree is a difference of tempo. The tree explodes every spring."
On March 3 I went around town on a moped with a young man named Shyam who I borrowed from a photographer's studio and who was wielding a digital camera. We were taking pictures of a small stadium and on the way back we took a few pictures of a Flame of the Forest tree. I am including them in this post so that all of you can also enjoy this sight.
p.s. In the last picture you can see a male purple sunbird. A parakeet was also sitting on this tree but we disturbed it so it flew away. Maybe we will have better luck next time.
"I think I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree
Poems are made by fools like me
But only God can make a tree" - American poet Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)
(Kilmer was killed in the trench warfare of World War One)
Spring is in the air. The Semul or silk cotton tree (Salmalia malabarica or Bombax malabaricum) is on flower. And so is the mango. "Aam kay ped par mor aaye hain" I overheard a young girl tell her grandfather. The flower of the mango tree is known as mor (peacock) in Hindi. And the most beautiful of all trees is the Flame of the Forest or Dhak. It is also known as Palas, Bastard Teak, Parrot Tree, Porasum (Tamil) , Khakda (Gujarati).The battle of Plassey was fought near a forest full of these trees. And I have seen villages named Palasiya in Madhya Pradesh. I recommend a google search for all those of you who are do not live in areas where this tree grows naturally. I remember boiling the flowers and making colour for Holi when I was a child and my Dad was posted in Mhow.
A naturalist from Pune had once written an essay on this tree in Bittu Sahgal's Sanctuary magazine and he had claimed to have seen more than twenty species of birds on this tree in a short time span of 3 or 4 hours. I love the feel of the trifoliate leaves when they are green, it is like touching suede. I have often seen squirrels and parrots eating the seeds from the pods. I used to collect these pods, one had to get to them when they fell down before the squirrels did so. Even succeeded in making some of them sprout but they died and I felt heartbroken.
I remember taking some photographs of a clump of these trees from a moving train while travelling from Indore to Jabalpur almost ten years ago. I wish a serious effort is undertaken to make this tree more popular. Whenever I see the Flame of the forest on flower I remember these words of the poet Ezra Pound :"The difference between a gun and a tree is a difference of tempo. The tree explodes every spring."
On March 3 I went around town on a moped with a young man named Shyam who I borrowed from a photographer's studio and who was wielding a digital camera. We were taking pictures of a small stadium and on the way back we took a few pictures of a Flame of the Forest tree. I am including them in this post so that all of you can also enjoy this sight.
p.s. In the last picture you can see a male purple sunbird. A parakeet was also sitting on this tree but we disturbed it so it flew away. Maybe we will have better luck next time.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Mhow Diary in Free Press Indore edition.
The Indore Edition of Free Press will feature a fortnightly 'Mhow Diary' I will be writing it. The first episode was published on Thursday 22 Feb 2007. It was devoted to the banyan tree on Main Street Mhow which fell on a rainy day in August 2006. I based it on the following blog entry from my blog on Sulekha: http://dkvblog.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/08/the-death-of-a-200-year-old-banyan-tree-in-mhow-mp.htm
The Indore Edition of Free Press will feature a fortnightly 'Mhow Diary' I will be writing it. The first episode was published on Thursday 22 Feb 2007. It was devoted to the banyan tree on Main Street Mhow which fell on a rainy day in August 2006. I based it on the following blog entry from my blog on Sulekha: http://dkvblog.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/08/the-death-of-a-200-year-old-banyan-tree-in-mhow-mp.htm
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