Saturday 30 November 2013

India Nov 2013: Leprosy and architecture in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai

An early morning walk opened up the history and architecture of Kolkata and was followed by the challenge of taking Yusuf Hamied, one of India’s richest men, to the leprosy project in Mumbai.

This visit started in Hyderabad where I attended the Blue Peter Research Advisory Committee; the research effort is dominated by work on TB and genetics and there is little clinical leprosy expertise in the organization. However a new bright keen young woman has been appointed, who I enjoyed talking to and whom I hope will stay. She and the physio have already collected some data on patients with ENL which was presented at the ILC meeting in Brussels in Sept. Dr Sundar Rao (age 76) is also now on his fifth post-retirement job and is advising Lepra-India on clinical research. We worked together on the Azalep study in the TLM hospitals so it was a pleasure to be planning research with him again. The Lepra India Board has recruited interesting women such as Geeta Thopal, who managed the building of Kolkata ‘s metro system, and Rukmini Rao a doctor working with tribal people and dalits in Rajasthan. I enjoy catching up with my old friends Sujai, Lavanya and Suman; they have daughters at university finishing degrees in dentistry and engineering respectively and so the next generation of Indian women are professionalizing. Suman gave me an Indian mobile, which made me feel very local, too local in fact because my answer-phone is in Telegu.


My next stop was Kolkata where I worked with my TLM team members Annamma John (research coordinator) and Pitchimani (research physio) on Azalep study report. I had an afternoon exploring Kolkata and visited the Victoria Museum, which I had previously avoided because it appears so colonial, with a High Victorian look that appeared to be exported straight from South Kensington. However inside is an anti colonial history of Kolkata from an Indian perspective and highlighting the negative impact of the division of Bengal in 1910 and important Bengali thinkers and activists.


We all explored the old city on an early morning walk with city guide Anup Saha who took us around temples, along lanes and into old buildings with an informed commentary. We admired the closed sewers that predated London’s sewers. We explored a Jain temple decorated with every type of tile across the centuries including a blue and white one of 17 century Dutch windmills, proof of the active trading from Europe through to China and showing how fashion can be seen even in temple tiles. The narrow lanes of the old residential area were quiet with few cars. I appreciated the elegant fronts of the 19 century houses with metal balconies where women were up their hanging out the washing and chatting. Shiva temples are popular here, because people can pray there without needing a priest, making life simpler and cheaper. Another old palace had mutated from being an audience hall into a ballroom with chandeliers and now had a small temple there. Kolkatan women were passing by in traditional white and pink saris. We had tea on the street in clay cups sold to us by a strong looking woman stall holder who was reading the newspaper very closely. Walking round is a refreshing contrast to sitting in the dense traffic jams that engulf Kolkata from mid morning. Tagore’s house is another oasis of calm and I imagined his life in the simply furnished rooms with his poems on the walls. The Chinese and Japanese governments had refurbished a suite of rooms apiece to commemorate his links with their countries, these rooms felt Japanese and Chinese and were air-conditioned and contrasted with the dusty rooms showing his Indian life where fans creaked away over poorly displayed items. Indian school children were visiting and seemed to be enthused by his life.


Kolkata feels gentler than other big cities but is a poor advertisement for prolonged socialist rule. Public services are poor, the trams are the oldest I’ve seen and the pavements are piled high with rubbish and goods. The taxis are also ancient Ambassador models and the internet seems undeveloped in comparison with Delhi and Hyderabad. I had been busy reading before my visit and Amit Chaudhuri’s book “Two Years in Kolkata” describes the city and its residents in over lengthy detail whilst from Jhumpa Lahiri’s book “The Lowland” I could easily imagine the city in the 1960s and the parents home in Tollygunge. Since my visit I have read Shanker’s novel Chowringhee and then imagined hotel life in Kolkatans in the 1970s.


In Mumbai I stayed in the upmarket Four Seasons Hotel, courtesy of Cipla and enjoyed the 27th floor roof top bar with breathtaking views of the city. I balanced myself with swims and yoga sessions. I took Yusuf Hamied, the last CEO of Cipla the Indian drugs manufacturer and one of India’s richest men to visit the Bombay Leprosy Project. We went first to a slum are where the leprosy workers were doing case finding, Yusuf was horrified by the standing water and the roaming dogs in the slum and was surprised that people could be so passive about their situation. We then took him to the project headquarters in Dharavi (Asia’s biggest slum) here he met patients and Drs Pai and Hawal talked about the challenges of doing leprosy work in India, the perception that elimination of leprosy as a public health problem has ended the leprosy problem, the management of reactions. He stayed 4 hours and I think that we captured his attention. I met him again before I left and he has offered Cipla support for some aspects of leprosy work, including providing some of the drugs needed for leprosy work, and supporting meetings in India. Whilst we were in the slum he asked me if I got depressed by seeing this situation. I counter that feeling by working in leprosy.


Whilst in Mumbai I also walked out to the Haji Ali mosque, a tiny mosque on a spit of land projecting out into the bay. This has been on my “to do list in Mumbai” for 25 years. Formerly one need a stack of one paisa coins to give the beggars who line the causeway but they are now outnumbered by the opportunities for shopping; I bought some flowers that I put down at the mosque in memory of my sister Laura. The mosque is a lovely small building with arches and a dome and surrounded by sea and I watched the sunset there.


On my last evening in Mumbai Jehanghir Sorabjhee and I had supper with a literary couple, Kabir and his wife Tulsi. They were entertaining Ian Jack who was promoting his book Mossufil Junction at Indian literary festivals. We had a fine evening talking about books and Indian culture. Sachin Tendulkar had played in his last test match whilst we were there. The Indian crowd poured out their adulation. Ian later described these Indian emotions as “India’s Diana moment” when a country is gripped by a collective emotion.


These two weeks were full of new work experiences; I enjoyed Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai in different ways and my friends showed me different aspects of each city.

References
Ian Jack. Mossufil Junction Indian Encounters 1977-2012. Penguin India 2013
Sankar. Chowringhee. Dey’s Publishig Kokata 1962, translated From Bengali Arunava Sinha. Published Penguin India 2007
Amit Chaudhuri..Two Years in Calcutta
Jhumpa Lahiri. The Lowland 2013

Monday 21 October 2013

Wales through African eyes

I took my two African students to experience Wales and meet my mother. They were amazed by the greenness of Wales and surprised that the sheep were safe out overnight without boy shepherds to guard them.

My African PhD students, Edessa and Omer responded warmly to the invitation to visit Wales when I next visited my mother. Omer is from Sudan, Edessa from Ethiopia and Edessa has not been outside London during his nine months in the UK. The train journey from Paddington to Abergavenny gives fine views of the English countryside with views of the river Thames, small farms and villages. They were surprised by the sixe of the trees, Edessa surmised that we did not cut down so many of our trees. They brought gifts for my mother including soft dates.


Brecon is an ideal city for showing visitors, it is small, lively on Saturdays and one can walk everywhere. I took them to the city centre where we looked at the old Georgian house and inns. The Town Hall is a fine Victorian building. We also saw the City Hall, a Victorian building with cast iron interior, here the farmers market was just finishing with farmers from all over Wales selling their produce and interesting cheeses. We walked up to the cathedral through the cool green woods. Omer had not been in a cathedral before. Here a mixed voice choir was practising and we walked around looking at the memorials to soldiers and the local great and good. Brecon does have some modern architecture, a fine public library made of grey stone with long thin windows. One can see different ages in Brecon, the cathedral feels medieval but the city centre feels Georgian with town house where visiting lawyers stayed, and now there is a modern retail square and a huge Morrisons.


We all went up to the viewpoint Epint, here one is deep in the Beacons up on the peaty grassy treeless moorland and where one has contrasting views of the mountains with views down towards the green valleys and small scale farms.


We meandered back along tiny roads with high hedgerows and trees, green vistas everywhere. We stopped at St Cynog’s church, Merthyr Cynog. This is a 14th century church with a stout tower. Once it was a place for pilgrimage, then fell into disrepair. Now it has been restored but with an admirable plainness. There are no memorials on the walls and the space feels far more spiritual to me than the cathedral.


Brecon is a party place on a Saturday night., filling up with young farmers enjoying themselves boisterously.. We had supper in a beer garden drinking welsh Red Dragon beer en plein air with swallows swooping overhead and left before the party got rowdy.


We rose early on Sunday and Omer and I climbed up Peny Fan (890 m) It was a lovely walk, we did it early because we knew it would be hot and Omer was fasting for Ramadan. I was worried about having a fasting companion on the Beacons on almost the hottest day of the year. But we ascended easily and enjoyed the fantastic views. One looks down onto the farms and villages around Brecon. The beacons themselves have craggy tops and high lakes. The views down to south Wales are splendid with lakes and mountains, all glinting in the summer sun.. Back in Brecon Edessa enjoyed the Sunday roast Welsh beef in the cathedral café, a new experience for him. Omer sat in the cathedral to cool off.


We also squeezed in a stop at Llangorse lake, Wales’ shallowest lake and with a recreated ancient reed hut. The lake is now full of boaters, pedalos and windsurfers. The slow Sunday train services were a low point with a long hot trying bus and train ride back to Paddington. Omer could not drink until 9.20 and I was keeping an eye on him in case he dehydrated. If urgent he could have broken his fast. When we got back we also realized that this was the day that one of the TA soldiers died in the Beacons.


It was lovely seeing Wales through their eyes. They were amazed by the sheep, Edessa especially that the sheep stayed out over night and did not have little boys guarding them, fortunately we do not have hyenas in Wales. They were also surprised at how few people there were and the absence of buses. It is difficult imagining African style buses in Wales.


They loved meeting my mother although they were sad to see her living alone, and she warmed to them. When I went to work on Monday they were telling my research group what a beautiful old lady my mother is.


I had not anticipated how varied the rewards would be from taking Edessa and Omer to Wales.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Sri Lanka: Beautiful island in need of democracy.

The contradictions of Sri Lanka are a beautiful country with warm friendly people, a good health service but human rights problems caused by lack of democracy. 

Two weeks biking around Sri Lanka gives one a year’s worth of beautiful views and experiences. By the end of the holiday I was also aware of the darker side of Sri Lanka which relates to its political history and way the government has evaded questions about the military end to the civil war. I wrote about the journey every day on my blog and this is a post travel reflection.

I was on a biking holiday organized by Exodus and we had a lovely route that took us over the central and western part of the island. There were 14 of us from Australia (6), Ireland (4), UK(3) and one Canadian. We biked around 70 km a day, doing 102 km on one day. Being a cyclist really opens up a country, everywhere children shouted out to us. Our tea stops were in small cafes where they rarely see white people. Bananas fuelled my cycling, bought in the small shops with at least seven different varieties. I feasted on the ripe pineapples and water melons.

Sri Lankans are warm, open people, very welcoming. They also eat wonderful food.  Their main dish is so- called “rice and curry”, this dull name does not capture the feast one has of rice and about six other dishes of spiced spinach,  dahl, beetroot,  jackfruit, aubergine, ladies fingers, fish.  Every cook prepares the dishes in their own way and for me the spices were a treat.

Buddhism is very visible, we saw the ancient vast white stupas at Polonnaruwa, exuding a quietude that I appreciated. As we biked towards the south we saw many small temples beside the road with a seated Buddha. We often saw monks walking along with their begging bowls; many Sri Lankan families send a son to be a monk, and they they are celibate and study the scriptures. But we also saw the Buddhists enjoying a Hindu festival and worshipping Hindu gods enthusiastically. The festival had an Indian exuberance with crowds pressing forward to have their offerings blessed under garish pictures of the Hindu gods. huge Temple elephants, devotees carrying fire, colourful dancers and drummers were all part of the festival . Sri Lanka has a 10% Muslim population and I saw mosques in the commercial areas such as Colombo and Galle. People spoke disparagingly about the Muslims saying that Sri Lanka would have 100% literacy rates if it were not for the Muslims. They apparently drop out of school early to help in the family business. Nobody seemed to be asking what should we do to keep these kids in education. Christianity is a minority religion and I saw only few churches, in Colombo and Galle. However the Dutch reformed church in Galle was a vast building with a huge pulpit and organ, clearly built by colonists who thought they were in for a long stay but they only lasted for about 100 years before being displaced by the Brits.

I enjoyed comparing India and Sri Lanka, having visited India regularly over the last 38 years and Sri Lanka twice about 30 years ago. Sri Lanka is visibly better off and appears to have less inequality. The absence of beggars in Sri Lanka is very noticeable. The Sri Lankans have a health and social security system.  The health service is free to everyone at the point of care, there are small divisional hospitals in villages which are staffed by two doctors, patients needing operations are transferred in ambulances and do not have to pay for their treatment or drugs.  Another important difference is that this system works, India has a free government health service but is often non-functional. I also experienced the health service myself, I was bitten by a dog in a temple in Kandy and needed rabies booster jabs.  I had immediate helpful advice from my doctor friend Indira so I attended the base hospital in Nuwara Eliya for a rabies booster jab. It was a Saturday night, quiet in the casualty and I was quickly seen by a young doctor, bobble hatted because of the cool temperatures in Nuwara Eliya. who put me on the rabies injection protocol., I was given my rabies card with clear instructions about when I needed my next injection. The base hospitals are giving 250 courses of rabies injections per month. The vaccine was Indian made, in an Indian hospital the protocol might have been available but the vaccine would not be stocked and would have to purchased outside. The success of the Sri Lankan system are also visible in the statistics, Sri Lankans are more likely than Indians to survive childhood, their women are less likely to die giving birth and they live longer( 71 vs 64) , Sri Lankan also ranks above India in the world hunger rankings.

I was invited to Sri Lanka to speak at a dermatology conference , Sri Lanka still has a significant leprosy problem with over 2000 new cases being diagnosed each year, despite its better health system.  The new cases rates have been stable for the last 20 years leprosy will be a problem in Sri Lanka for a long time yet.

Surprisingly, Sri Lanka’s IT  is not as advanced as India’s, mobile phones arrived later on the island and through Indian technology. There are no call centres yet.;although they could do very well in this sector because many people are well educated and speak English.

We also experienced the plight of the tea pickers through the personal story of the bright intelligent young woman who was showing us around tea factory. She had hoped to go to university but had not got good enough grades in her A levels, retaking was not an option. Her mother was sick and she had younger siblings, so at 18 she had to start as a tea picker and pick 16 kg of tea leaves a day. It is a precarious life, they are only paid for what they pick and are permanent labourers employed on casual conditions. It seemed very difficult to escape being a tea picker. I also suspect that many of the families are in debt. It felt a very Asian scenario of limited opportunity and the needs of the family trumping everything.

I read Gordon Weiss's book “The Cage” about the civil war and the last days of the Tamil fight when the Tigers and thousands of civilians were stranded in the Nandikadal lagoon with the Sri Lankan army bombarding them.  This was a war crime but the current government has avoided censure. Both Canada and UK had questioned whether Sri Lanka should host the commonwealth Heads of government meeting (COHOGM) in Nov 2013 because of the genocide in 2009, but the meeting is going ahead. Weiss notes the absence of journalistic freedom in Sri Lanka., this is a striking contrast with India with its  lively opposition and a active media.  I could see this, few people read newspapers despite the high literacy rate, the news papers that are available all support the government.

In Sri Lanka the absence of concern for human rights has also mirrors the absence of democracy. There is no effective opposition so the president and his family rule and enrich themselves. In the presidents home area there were huge billboards with his portrait and that of his son and brother celebrating his achievements and reminding us of the ability running in the family.  When someone in power demands a place for a party it has to be surrendered.

I was sorry that I did not go up to Jaffna, the capital of the Tamil area, especially as I had discovered a tomb-stone there with my Dutch family name “Mom” in 1982. Stacey, a Canadian girl in our group had been there and had seen both the war destruction and the active rebuilding programme. She visited a hospital filled with people with post traumatic stress disorder. Because the government has not acknowledged the tragedies that occurred recently and because journalism is so weak there I fear that the resentments of the Tamils and others will grow and that there will again be racial strife.  There seemed to be no equivalent of the South African Peace and Reconciliation commission, and yet for a like that are very important for acknowledging wrongs and moving forward. The Uk Ngo Freedom from Torture have also reported that Tamils who returned after the war were being totorured even in 2012.

I also read a novel about the civil war, “Mosquito “ by Roma Tearne, it is a love story between an older writer and a young girl who has artistic talent. The war tears them apart, he is tortured by Singhalas and then Tamils,  but eventually they are reunited. The novel celebrates the power of love to overcome problems and also the importance of art. The author is also an artist and the novel is full of beautiful images. It was good to have a fictional contrast to the serious Weiss report.

The scenery in Sri Lanka is beautiful. The paddy fields were full of ripe paddy, with palm trees everywhere. The scenery also changed quite rapidly which is nice for a cyclist. On the day we biked up to NuwaraEliya we started in lush green paddy fields and half way through the morning the scenery changed to tea bushes and pine trees. On our descent from Ella we biked through the hills and then came down to the flat plains with huge lakes. The bird life is also spectacular , flashes of iridescent blue as kingfishers dived for lunch, spoonbill cranes and other waders in the paddy fields.

So I left Sri Lanka having enjoyed the holiday, I loved the scenery and the people. I would be happily return to bird-spot and snorkel and continue searching for the perfect rice and curry. But it also reminded me of how important democracy and human rights are and how important it is to protect them.



Diana Lockwood
Aug 2013

1.  India vs Sri Lanka statsDying under 5 12 versus 61/10 000; the maternal mortality rate is 35 vs 200 /10 000 compared with India.
2. The CageGordon Weiss.  Vintage 2011
3.The Mosquito Roma Tearne Harper Perennial 2007


4. http://www.freedomfromtorture.org/feature/out_of_the_silence/5980

Friday 16 August 2013

day 12 Aug 16 Galle and Colombo

Lovely waking in the beach hotel to the sound of waves and to not have a 6 am wake up call. I went back to Galle to wander the streets and walk around the bastion ramparts. Then we went back to Colombo. It is a gentler city than the other Asian cities, without the huge crush of people in Mumbai nor the traffic jams of Delhi. I wandered around Colombo, there was a huge Hindu temple with a facade packed with gods. The festival we had seen earlier in the week was also being celebrated here with dishes of fruit being offered. Just down the road was the Anglican Church. They advertise their Friday night  miracle session from 5 till 7every week, I wonder what their miracle success rate is?.  There were about 50 people there with their arms aloft singing and chanting, being lead by a smooth voiced evangelical man at the front.

This has been a great holiday. I have enjoyed the contrasts of Sri Lanka. Biking was also a great way to see the country and I enjoyed the tea stops in the villages and talking to people then. The Sri Lankans are very warm and welcoming, extraordinarily nice people. We also had a great guide, Suresh who delighted in fixing things and did everything he could to ensure that we enjoyed ourselves and appreciated his country. I was last in Sri Lanka 30 years ago and it has developed hugely with better roads and communications. It is interesting to compare Sri Lanka and India,  the former has a visibly better health and education system. But Sri Lanka suffers from having less political debate and no effective opposition.  Rajajpaksa the current president is busy trying to deify himself. I read Gordon Weiss's book “The Cage” about the civil war and the last days of the Tamil fight when thousands of civilians were stranded in the Nandikadal lagoon with the Sri Lankan army bombarding them.  This was a war crime but the current government has avoided censure. Both Canada and Australia had questioned whether Sri Lanka should host the commonwealth Heads of government meeting (COHOGM) in Nov 2013 because of the genocide in 2009, but the meeting is going ahead. Weiss notes the absence of journalistic freedom in Sri Lanka., this is a huge contrast with India with its  lively opposition and a active media.

I was sorry that I did not go up to Jaffna, the capital of the Tamil area, especially as I had discovered a tomb-stone there with my Dutch family name “Mom” in 1982. Stacey, a Canadian girl in our group had been there and had seen both the war destruction and the active rebuilding programme. She visited a hospital filled with people with post traumatic stress disorder. The effects of 30 years of civil war will take many years to ameliorate.

On my last morning I met my Sri Lankan friend Indira Kahawita for breakfast. she has lived most of her adult life through a  civil war, the first serious Tamil riots were in 1977 when she was at school. She was relieved to see the end of the war. She lamented the absence of an effective opposition. She also commented on how well Sri Lankans do when they are abroad and hoped that this could be replicated back in Sri Lanka. Many people are learning Tamil as part of the peace process and her daughter speaks it easily. Maybe these measures will help.

We were a companionable group, we gelled and everybody talked easily and supported each other in different ways. The Ozzies were fit and good at enjoying themselves. There was a group of fast cyclists who raced ahead. I was happy in the slow group, savouring the landscape and taking photos. 

This holiday has been interesting, challenging and refreshing and I have returned with a love of beetroot curry a Sri Lankan specialty.

Thursday 15 August 2013

day 11 Aug 15 Old Dutch fort, Galle and Sri Lankan dogs

Another morning of fine biking along small roads and through the forest and besides fields. We stopped for tea next to a school where a huge mural had been made of the Bhuddist way of life including touching one's parents' feet. The teachers in the group were envious of this example of discipline.

We spent the rest of the day in Galle where  one can still fell the Portuguese , Dutch and British colonial influences with Dutch street names such as Leyn Baan (Line Street) and there is a huge sea wall bastion now 600 yrs old and withstood the tsunami in 2002 unlike the new town.   The town is an enjoyable eccentric mix of old and new with trendy art galleries alongside red tiled houses and vast maritime warehouses.  I went into the  Dutch reform church  and the pastor must have felt very important preaching from his vast pulpit but there are but no Dutch gravestones after 1720. On the central square was  a delapidated magistatrates court which looked like a museum but is still in use and 300 cases had been heard there  3 days ago. Next door a lawyer sat in her office typing on an old type writer. The  town museum was ancient and filled with antique junk and  had a new jewelry store at the back for shopping deprived museum goers tired of the old stuff .  We also stopped at a quaint reading room  which had 150 paying members and English books and magazines run by a very elderly man and a young girl reading Harry Potter.  We escaped from the afternoon heat with excellent coffee in a trendy cafe. The coffee in Sri Lanka has been execrable, clearly quality only counts if tea is being drunk. We then took a local bus back to our hotel. The driver behaved as though training for Grand Prix and needed all the help he could from the the flashing Bhuddist and three Hindu gods above the dashboard. I hope they are keeping his next reincarnation away.

Since my encounter with the dog I have been following news stories about dogs. Sri Lanka has 2.2 million dogs and there is awareness of the rabies problem with an article in todays paper. The minster of health has promised  the eradicate rabies by 2015. This will be impossible since many of the dogs are strays and in dreadful condition. There is also a Bhuddist reluctance to cull dogs. The campaign will run into similar problems as other eradication campaigns such as leprosy. Leprosy has been eliminated as a public health problem here which mean that they have over 2000 news cases annually and have done so for the last 20 years.

Better just enjoy my last night on the beach and stop worrying about rabies

Wednesday 14 August 2013

day 10 Aug 14 Elephants and riding to the south coast

Beautiful,early morning daylight on the paddy field at the hotel. We then biked down to the south coast. After going through a very lush arĂŞte the landscape changed to be dry and dusty with trees bent over by the wind and huge cacti beside the road. We stopped for tea at a roadside stall, the owner has to re-roof the palm leaves very two years. I asked him what he would like most and his wish was for the elephants to stop trampling on his crops. The area is a reserve for elephants and the elephants and humans do not coexist happily. We also passed through another village which was the district centre for curd making and there were stacks of earthen ware bowls with curd outside each house. It is striking how the villages specialise in different products.

Our day ended at a beach hotel with swimming in the sea and seeing the fishermen pull their boats up the beach. Eleven men per boat and singing as they heaved the boats up.

Sri Lanka takes ribbon development to new heights. The houses are alongside every road and obscure the villages. This suggest that people feel quite safe in their houses and do not need the protection of a village. There is a vast amount of trade occurring along the roads, with stalls selling local produce every 100 yards, the goods range from tamarind to cotton wool and are region specific. The houses on the south coast are a step up in size and design and the nearest town, Mataram, even has a multi-storey bank. It feels very different to the small houses we have seen out in the rural areas.

The president is from this area and his image is everywhere, in one cafe he gazed down from the wall together with pictures of his son and brother, just to emphasise the family abilities.

The press is also very regulated and criticism of the government is not permitted. I have seen very few newspapers anyway , only in the big cities and on the south coast.

Tuesday 13 August 2013

day 9 Aug 13 Tissa Temples and Lagoons

We biked back to the temple along sandy roads, stopping for a breakfast snack at a tiny roadside cafe run by two women who cooked hoppers (dosa-like bowls made from baked rice flour) which are delicious with some sambal. Cooked these on an earthensove which must be difficult to use when it is raining. The two year old daughter was terrified of our white skins and clung to her mother's skirts.

I then had my second vist to the hospital for my rabies jab. It was midday and the hospital had long queues of patiently waiting people. We managed to see the receiving doctor quickly and where then directed to the outpatient nurse who approved my rabies jab, then to the injection area, again not a separate room. The nurse spoke little English but had an anti rabies vaccine (Arvada) register and said that they gave 250 courses per month. The vaccine comes from India and I came away with the package insert to study.


I had a quiet afternoon swimming and reading by the pool. The hotel has created its own rice paddy as part of its garden. And it attracted Herons, waders and ducks.


The Sri Lankan roads are reasonable for biking, in quite good condition, better than the Indian or Nepali roads. The buses are kings of the road in the smaller areas with frequent bus stops. When the bus comes past the cyclist just has to jump into the gutter. There are also lots of tuk tuks, many bright red. One had its cloth roof labelled "bullet proof" another "Mission possible". Maybe they could feature in the next James Bond film.

Monday 12 August 2013

Day 8 aug 12 hills to coast 102 km

Another day of dramatic changes in the scenery. We started in the hills and pine trees and biked down past a huge waterfall attributed to Ravanna. Then down to the plain. Here the cicadeas started up again and paddy fields replaced the tea bushes. We then came to a much drier scrub-like area but then came to lagoons as we approached the coast. At the end of our ride we had a long detour though villages on a sandy road. But this attractive detour was at 95 km and my appreciation of village life was being set against the pleasure of getting into a swimming pool. I was biking with the Irish girl and it was the first time she had done 100 km.

The countryside was also far more Buddhist with white diagonals and saffron clad monks with their begging bowls on the road , some only about 10 yrs old.


We went to a Hindu Pooja that is held for a fortnight every year at a Buddhist temple close by. It was a magical event. We bought a plate of fruit on our way in, with eight different fruits nicely arranged. We mingled with the crowds end went to a Hindu temple where the priest received the fruit and then handed half of it back to be shared. Then we had wrist threads tied on by a Shiite priest . The dancing girls were starting, and everyone was watching the temple elephants plod around . There were thousands of people there and it had a very festive, lighthearted air. It was an amazing mix of Buddhism and Hinduism. This needs to be promoted because ther are a new group of Buddhist fundamentalists who want everyone to be Bhuddist and they were responsible for the sacking of the mosque in Colombo last week. I have also noticed how people speak very dismissively about the Muslims. The taxi drivers claim that Sri Lnak would have a 100% literacy rate were it not for the Muslims pulling them down. At least the Buddhists and Hindus mingle.

Saturday 10 August 2013

day 6 Aug 10 Kandy to Nuwara Eliya

Another beautiful ride starting at the lakeside in Kandy. The university buildings are on the edge of Kandy in spacious grounds. We climbed up through rolling countryside. After we had climbed above 100m the vegetation changed quite abruptly and tea bushes replaced paddy fields and deodar pine trees stood in lines beside the road. Nuwayar Eliya is at 1800m and feels cool and damp. At the hotel we were welcomed with hot soup and we huddled round the log fire. Mist hangs around the mountain tops.

I had my own drama that day. I had been attacked by a dog in a monastery in Kandy. I was left with deep grazes and three large bruises. So I called my friend Inita in Colombo and she advised me to go to the government hospital in Nura Eliya. I went to the casualty and was seen by an SHO . He had clearly seen many dog bites and put me on the rabies protocol. I was given my injections by the nurse and a card for my next dose of vaccine. It was all very efficient and clean. I did notice the lack of privacy. I did tell my story and show my bites to an open room . But I was impressed by the efficiency and it was free. Pictures of common snakes adorned the walls of the casualty. I suspect that dog and snake bites are as common as fractured hips in the UK. I had not expected to experience the Sri Lankan health system myself. Fortunately the damage is quite superficial and now I look as though I am modelling bruises and am biking along happily. The mosque in Nuwar Eliya was also covered in green and blues LEDs to celebrate Eid.

I have been surprised at the number of dogs in Sri Lanka. Every home seems to have one. They are not the best kept creatures and I am keeping well clear of them.

Friday 9 August 2013

Day 5 Aug 9 Kandy

A rest day in Kandy and Buddhism dominates here. I went to the world museum of Buddhism and put the Sri Lankan monuments I had seen into a larger context. There were also excellent displays about Buddhism in other countries and I have seen the different forms in Nepal, Indian, China, Indonesia  and S Korea. They are all influenced strongly by local customs. In the evening I went to the ceremony of the opening of the Buddha's tooth. The temple was packed with devotees. I carried a flower offering to remember Laura and was barely able to put it at the front . There was also excellent Kandyan drumming. In the morning I had visited the British cemetery which has just been restored. It has about 120 graves of colonists who died in the 19 century in Kandy from fever, cholera, snake bite, elephant crushing. There were so many who died young.

I have been comparing Sri Lanka and India it is strikingly cleaner, richer and better organised than India. There are no beggars, our guides advised us that here the beggars were genuine unlike India! The children look well fed and one does not experience starving children being thrust at one. The caste system does not operate amongst the Singhalese and I wonder whether this makes them feel that their country belongs to them. I also sense that there is less inequality here. The effects of the universal health care system are visible. Sri Lankans stay in school until they are 18 years old and many people speak good English. However IT technology and services seems far less developed here, although mobile phones are ubiquitous  since Tata from India provided a sea cable. Sri Lanka does not seem to have taken the opportunities for developing the It sector. Here are also few newspapers being read. So now I am aware of the plus points of Sri Lanka. I have seen only a few references to the Tamil conflict. 

Thursday 8 August 2013

Day 4 aug 8 to Kandy

I was woken by the rustling of the leaves around the ecolodge. We then had a fine morning ride. The countryside was lusher and richer than before. The houses in the trees were larger and the bright pink paint salesman had been very successful recently. At small town there was a commemorative clock tower opened to celebrate the opening of a garment factory 20 years ago. In another town we saw an extraordinary road widening scheme, the front 10 feet of the shops had just been bulldozed away leaving bare walls. The shopkeepers were restating their shops further back. I have seen this 15 years ago in Hyderabad and it amazed me then.

In the evening we heard the Kandyian drummers beating away complex rhythms and then fire swallowing. I wandered the town with an Ozzie couple, Helen and William  farmers from WA. They had never been in a mosque so we went into the main red and white one. The Muslims were just breaking their Ramadan fast so we were plied the dates and rice pudding. The Imman spoke excellent English and was so welcoming and explaining how Allah was everywhere. We found a point of contact because the Ozzies  supplied meat to the middle east. We then went on to a Hindu temple and saw incarnations of Shiva, Vishnu and Ganesh. Here the fat priest was taking coconuts from the devotees. There was also a Buddhist temple there with a Buddha statue and bodhi tree. Here the priest blessed us and tied white threads round our wrists. It was amazing to have such direct experience of all three major religions . The Muslims were the most cerebral and giving.

More Buddhism tomorrow. 

Wednesday 7 August 2013

Sri lanka day 3: aug 7 to Nalanda

This holiday is not for lie-a-beds...

We are called at 6 and are on our bikes by 7. It is the best way to cope with the heat. Today we had a fine 20 k morning ride alongside a canal shaded by mature trees. The green vista is punctuated with irridescent flashes of blue as a kingfisher catches his lunch.


I passed a divisional hospital in a village. Sri Lankans have free universal health care with free drugs. The small hospitals have 2 docs and manage only simple cases. All serious cases are transferred by ambulance to the base hospitals who also treat TB! And leprosy. It seems good provision. I am sure I shall have many questions for my colleague Indira when I see her in Colombo in 10 days' time.
We had a very tough and dirty bit of biking across a new road.


We ended the day at a beautiful eco hotel (Jims farm) deep in the jungle. Fabulous wooden interior and balconies. I felt ashamed of disturbing the beauty when I hung my laundry out, including a day-glo bike shirt


We also visited a spice garden and saw pepper creepers and a cocaine tree. We also tested the ayuvedic hair removing cream on Irish Niall's hairy leg. It worked a treat so he should go even faster tomorrow.

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Sri lanka day 2: Polonnaruwa

Another morning of fine riding along small roads through the lush landscape. There are banana trees everywhere.The rice is ripe and waves in the breeze. We biked through a national reserve and saw fresh elephant dung and a dead viper. I wished Chris Ofili had been there making pictures. I also remembered what a problem snake bites are for Sri Lankan farmers.

We also biked along a main road which was hot and exhausting. I did not bike after lunch. In the afternoon when the temp had dropped to 31 we went round the 13c Polonnaruwa ruins. There is a vast stupa that exudes quietude and I walked around it. There was a beautiful evening light on the Buddha's face. At another group of buddhas one is reclining ready to depart this world.


Sri Lankan food is a veggie treat, the beetroot curries are a new delight. Suresh exhorts us to do maximum damage on the buffets.

Monday 5 August 2013

Sri Lanka Day 1: 5th August

This year's cycling holiday is around Sri Lanka, conveniently starting the day after I had spoken at a dermatology congress. There are 13 in the group, 6 Aussies, 4 Irish, 3 UK and one Canadian There are 3 farming couples and 4 teachers so I hope for expert assessment of cows. I was also pleasantly surprised to meet Niall, an Irish teacher who was on last years trip to Cuba Our Sri Lankan guide Suresh is portly but also able to bike fast. I had a fine new mountain bike which is perfect for jumping off the road away from buses.

We rode the 25 k to Sigiriya as our starter. The rock arises up out of the flat plains. Ahead of was a party of schoolgirls in pristine whit uniforms who climbed up vertiginous ladders easily and undramatically. On the top one felt like a king surveying the landscape. Later we biked to a Buddhist temple and ascended the many steps to see Buddhas reclining deep in caves. There was a soft evening light as we biked back on small roads that took us through the lush countryside. A great start to the holiday.

Monday 15 July 2013

Mount Blanc: spring flowers, cheeses and friends

A long weekend in Haute Savoie was energising with three contrasting days of walking culminating in one of the best walks I have ever done. 

I was with Les and Vera, staying in their flat in St Gervais, Haut Savooie, France. Friday was a cool cloudy day. We met up with local friends, Hubert who owns a book shop and art gallery in Sallanches, his brother in law who is a wiry long distance walker just returned from doing the Trans Europe walk to Santiago de Compostella.  and Angelika, a retired management consultant. We walked up though the forest to a refuge where we had a coffee break. We climbed up further  and could see the icy fingers of the glacier de Gowesance before having a long descent into a huge glaciated valley with a summer village on the valley floor. We then descended through the trees to the starting point. That evening we had supper with Hubert and his extended family. He lives in a chalet like home and I enjoyed the evening sun on Mt Blanc from his verandah.  The conversation was mainly in French but Angelika translated difficult bits for me.

On Saturday there was heavy, heavy rain and even the market stall- holders in Sallanches were dispirited.  I shopped for cheese, looking for my favourite local sheep cheese, which has a thick wrinkled white rind enclosing a strong cheese and a other local Beaufort type cheeses made with herbs.  We lunched in a cafĂ© and watched the opening stages of the Tour de France in Corsica where the sun was shining and the landscape was hot and dry – it felt climatically and geologically a long way from the Alps.  The rain cleared a little by the end of the afternoon and we went on another walk through forest by ski runs up to Col De Jeuillet Mist hung over the treetops so it felt an enclosed world. On our return we looked round an ancient hut and farm buildings from the forest dwellers long ago.

On Sunday we walked a circular walk. We started with a steep ascent up to a bowl carved out by glacier and water with steep sides and a refuge on the valley floor and clearly a popular weekend destination with campers.  It was north facing so it was cool and all in shades of grey. We then climbed up the side of the bowl so that we would come out on the south face. This was a steep climb and we went into the snow line. Then we came out onto a beautiful grassy south facing platform with a breathtaking view of the green valley with forest, Alpine habitation and Mount Blanc with few clouds drifting around it.  It was the most perfect place for a Sunday picnic of bread, cheese and French radishes. Angelika prepared these elegantly by scraping the red off the radish and for pudding we nibbled fresh cherries.  We then had a beautiful descent, first a long traverse across a scree slope, Here the rock was bare and one could see the ancient sediments piled up. We then walked across fields of summer flowers with alpine orchids, blue grasses, different gentians and yellow dandelions. We ended with a long walk through a forest with a cool darkness and streams. Skye, the dog even after 6 hours walking wanted sticks to be thrown for her.  I enjoyed the contrasts on the walk, the snow and rock on the shady north face and then the abundance of the summer flowers in the sunny sections.


Haut Savoie feels traditional and mountainous and I think about farmers living lives of transhumance moving up to their summer huts; I wonder how much that happens now? The buildings provide stroking contrasts. Many locals like Hubert and Angelika live in traditional chalets and these are still being built.  But the towns are dominated by modern blocks of flats built for the winter tourist influx of skiers.  The block where Les and Vera have their flat is a huge 1920 Art deco tyro building with an amazingly intricate glass porch. But it seemed sad that no modern chalets being built, iI would like to see modern chalets which could create interesting contrasts.

Geneva looked lovely in warm summer evening light and I reminisced about swimming in the lake.  My flight was delayed and I reached home well after midnight, it was a struggle to get up for work the next day.

Diana Lockwood
July 2013


Sunday 30 June 2013

Toronto- “New York on Valium”?

I visited Toronto after a gap of 21 years and enjoyed the new buildings but also enjoyed the gentle welcome of Canadians.

I was last in Toronto 21 years ago when I did an attachment at the General Hospital at the height of the HIV epidemic pre ART treatment. This time I went for an international conference on neuropathic pain, a complication that we now recognise that leprosy patients often develop after their antibiotic treatment. So I was there with friends from London but also my friends Omer and Vivek from Sudan and India respectively. This was their first visit to Toronto and it was interesting seeing Toronto through their eyes.


As well as attending the conference sessions I skipped out to wander around and look at the new architecture. There is a fine new opera house, a beautiful light glass and wood structure with world class acoustics, next time I'll get a ticket for an opera. There was also a new semi-sunken circular Glenn Gould concert hall. I also visited the textile museum, a little known Toronto gem and recommended by a local. They had a fascinating exhibition called “Shiny” about ways in which cloth could be shiny ranging from silk threads in kimonos to glittering India scarves and mirror work. This was accompanied by a piece made of cast offs such as ring pulls which itself parodied the advertisements of major food chains, Macdonalds and Herseys the sweet makers.


In the evening I took Omer and Vivek round the downtown and we experienced the visual power of the huge black Mies van der Rohe towers built in the 1970’s and now contrasted against a huge white tower from the Bank of Montreal opposite. Underneath the black towers was an exquisite collection of Inuit art and we admired whale bone vertebra carvings, igloo art and abstract sculptures. We then walked along the down town, going into the opulent 1920’s Mellon building which had gilt lifts. The city hall complex has an amazing contrast of old and new buildings;the old City Hall is high Victoria art and reminded Vivek of Victoria Terminus station in Mumbai with abundant carvings and flourishes. Nearby is the new city hall which looks like a space age edifice with two semi-circular columns rising up around a circular glass atrium. We ended up in a jazz bar listening first to a young trio in their mid twenties playing the free early evening session. Later the definitive band came on, an octet of grizzled playing blues with a sax, trumpeter, piano, bass guitar and two singers. They were all in their 60’s or 70’s and i imagined they had been playing soulful blues together for decades. Omer and Vivek were entranced by the novelty of the experience and had never heard live music like this. Maybe the young trio will be playing together in 40 years time.


The Toronto streets were empty as we walked to the conference on Saturday morning which amazed Vivek who lives in a 24 hr city Mumbai. I was impressed by the cleanliness of the streets. At lunchtime Omer and I went to a subterranean food hall where there were 20 different outlets selling take way food and one could choose almost any kid of food, one day we had Mexican tacos, another Lebanese falafels. We sat on a scrap of grass between the high-rises to eat our enormous portions.
Being up the CNN tower was more fun than I had anticipated. We gazed out over the vastness of lake Ontario but also traced our steps around the city and identified the buildings we had looked at on ground level.


Toronto feels very multicultural, our hotel was in Chinatown and we ate Chinese food adapted for Canadian palates. I was taken out to the airport by a Pakistani taxi driver who was a Muslim from a persecuted sect in Pakistan and felt he owed his life to Canada, although it is easier to work as an taxi driver than an accountant.


On my bus ride in from the airport I had chatted to David Briggs world famous organist who previously played at Hereford and we reminisced enthusing over the Welsh border country. He is now at Toronto cathedral and busy trying to raise money for a new organ there. He had enthused over the cultural life of the city but also described the city as “New York on Valium”. I now see the comparison, Toronto is a quieter gentler version of America.


On reflection i think that being in Canada is nice entry to N America. It is gentler, more welcoming to visitors and lacking the aggression of New York or Chicago. It also has architecture and culture but on a lower scale.




Monday 3 June 2013

Why read Annie Matthews?

Once you start you are hooked by this novel about a woman born in 1858 whose life encompassed  Victorian life as a governess in Holland and then an Edwardian life as a hotelier in Scarborough.   The author, David Lockwood, was deeply impressed by his grandmother’s life story which she told him when they were together in Winchester during the second world war. He grew up in the hotel in Scarborough and had observed her at her hotelier work. He also had a deep knowledge and understanding of the Victorian and Edwardian eras and so he gives her life a novel like context.  He depicts places and dresses and customs with a poets eye.  It is a compelling book to read, once started one wants to know what happens to Annie and her family.  It took David ten years to write the book, in his retirement and initially it did not find a publisher. My mother Willy Lockwood then published it in 2011.
You can buy Annie Matthews from Dr W Lockwood-Mom, 61A Camden Rd, Brecon, LD37RT

For more information about Annie Matthews  visit www.dnjtravelsblogspot.com

Annie Matthews

Annie Matthews, My remarkable grandmother.
 David Lockwood
This David Lockwood’s magnum opus.  It tells the life of his grandmother built up from the stories that she told him when they lived together in Winchester during the second world war. When the hotel business went bankrupt the family moved to Winchester to join Annie’s daughter Kit and her husband John. During the war they lived in a rented house whilst his uncle John Barlow was serving in India. David enjoyed his grandmother’s company and stored away her stories for future retelling.
The story starts in London with Annie’s mother, Marianne, going to Yorkshire to marry a school master Benton. They had a fresh, young love that Is depicted rather romantically. Annie’s mother is soon pregnant and then has three children, Annie, William and Edith.  Annie is the oldest and is shaped by the hardship that engulfs the family when her father dies of TB. She is 9. Her mother then takes jobs to provide for her family, first she works as a nurse in Stanley Royds asylum, then she takes a position as assistant matron in Wakefield prison. This job comes with a house so the children grow up next to the prison but also under the benevolent eye of the prison governor. Annie is bright and able and does well at school soon progressing to become a pupil teacher. However sacrifices are made for her brother William. He always wanted to be a sailor and rebels at school even the boarding school for Yorkshire boys that his mother found for him in London.  When he was 16 Marianne paid for him to have a commission in a ship and go to sea.  His mother was enormously proud of him and his sea chest, his sailor uniform is captured beautifully in a photo but he then never contacted her again.  Later there was news that he had deserted his ship in Australia, which would have caused Marianne shame and  embarrassment.
Annie develops her own career as a teacher. She did not have formal training but was offered a position as an English teacher in a girls school in Leiden.  She is keen to travel and moving to work in Holland seems to have been an accepted way of broadening one’s horizon   She seems to have thrived in Holland and David conjures up the Leiden canals vividly. He also captures the way in which she grew and learnt to teach whilst at the school. He also captures the constrictions that can exist in small schools. She acquired an admirer, a very eligible bachelor nobleman. He sees her at a dance and then pursues her with flowers and letters, but these are intercepted and there is an angry scene when the school heads accuse her of undignified behaviour. She in turn was furious that her letters were opened. She also builds u a deep friendship with a Dutch pastor and his family. He seems to have taken a deep like to Annie and they went on long walks and had deep philosophical discussions. She was so close to this family that when Francois Haaverschmidt  became very depressed Annie is called to talk to him and encourage him, later on when she was escaping from an unwanted courtship in Germany she fled to the sanctuary of their home.  After a few years Annie had learnt all she could from the school and had outgrown the narrow work environment so moved on to Germany to work in a very wealthy family there. With the family she went to the mountains and also travelled on the Rhine.  She again acquires an admirer, this time a senior military man, brother of her employer. He makes advances and she then flees back ti the safety of the Haaverschmidts. in Holland.  From here she goes to Den Haag where she works for the von Prens, another wealthy family with a young daughter Kitty.  Here Annie matures into a beautiful woman , as part of the family she enjoys the lifestyle of a wealthy continental with dinners and balls in Paris, Brussels and Den Haag. Here the master of the house falls in love with her and this time she reciprocates emotionally. This unattainable love produces huge tensions for them both. Von Pyrn’s love is visible when Annie developed diphtheria and almost dies and is saved by the application of a chinese herb to her throat which enables her to breathe.  However she realises that she cannot stay in Den Haag and so she joins her sister Edith in Scarborough, Yorkshire. At this point Annie is still not married and we are 450 pages into the narrative.
In Scarborough  she takes up a position as a companion to the alcoholic Mrs Matthews and meet her son Frank who is just setting up a hotel business. Annie sees a solid man in Frank and marries him. It does not have the passion of her love in Holland but it does have the steadiness of Yorkshire. She thrived developing the hotel. supervising staff. Having just the right words for guests., They also had Hds three children, Kit, Nancy and Alan. But whilst at the hotel she was encouraged by Frank to just spend as she wanted. She seems to have initially been responsible but then enjoyed spending large amounts on furnishings and clothes. She was always immaculately dressed and seems to have dwelt on the details of every dress in her descriptions to David. They became prominent members of Scarborough society, Frank becomes mayor   Frank then developed an oral cancer and after several local removals needed more extensive surgery and went to London and  died shortly after a major operation in 1926. There had been no succession planning for the hotel business  so Alan, the son,  was  called back from his engineering career to run the hotel. He had no aptitude or enthusiasm for this unwanted burden.  But even worse he failed to control the finances. Annie had always been permitted by Frank to buy what she wanted and to decorate the hotel in the latest fashion. The combination of the Depression, poor management and high expenditure e lead to the hotel failing. In 1938 the business went bankrupt and the family moved down to Winchester. Here they lived with Annie’s daughter Kit who was married to an Indian Army officer John Barlow. The families moved in together, this created disastrous tensions between john and Alan which were partly relieved when John rejoined the Army at the outbreak of war. The family stayed in Winchester during the war, Nancy worked in Winchester College as an assistant matron and David and Annie spent much time together.  In 1940 soldiers from the Dunkirk evacuation flooded into the city, Annie was as practical as ever and bought and distributed note paper to the troops so that they could write home. It was during this time that she talked to him about her life, She must have done so with a vividness that captured his imagination. She then developed heart failure and died in Feb 1948.
The book is two novels and a memoir.  David must have been entranced by his grandmother’s tale of her life which she related to him after the closure of the hotel and the move to Winchester when they became very close and supported each other during the war. The Victorian tale tells how she had to make her own way in life because of her father’s early death and she became a governess; she worked hard and rose up her professional ladder from a small ladies school in Leiden to being the governess for a very rich family in Den Haag. She was clearly very adept at learning languages, she was fluent in Dutch and German. She was also clearly very personable and in each place families took her to their heart, the Haaverschimdts in Holland and then the Van Prens in Den Haag. At the latter she enjoyed the late 19 century life of balls and dinners in The European capitals. But she was also vulnerable and in each family seems to have been too close to the man of the family and had was passionately in love with van Pren and it seems that it was reciprocated. But as a Victorian woman she would also have been very aware that even though she was a highly regarded governess she was still a servant.  This would have been one of the forces pulling her back to Yorkshire.  The Edwardian tale is of a woman who made a decided choice in her marriage and then became a successful hotelier. She was successful because of her ability to manage a large organisation which she did with charm. She had an excellent design sense and the hotel must have been a beautiful place to visit, also she made the guests feel welcomed. She and Frank were obviously stalwart members of Scarborough society. But she was excluded from the financial side of the business and also there was no succession planning , when Frank died the family were surprised although his throat cancer had been becoming more difficult to treat.  
David writes fine evocative descriptions of the places where Annie lived and he imagines conversations which must be built on what his grandmother told him. The book is strongest in the Victorian and Edwardian sections when he is describing her life as a governess and then as a hotelier. He also always has affine sense o f the clothes that she would have worn and evne how she would have moved. The bankruptcy of the hotel is glossed over and poorly described.  The book which is rich in detail in the first two thirds is much weaker in the last section and it does feel  unfinished.
Review by Diana Lockwood
April 2012

Friday 31 May 2013

Delhi May 2013, life, death and the ending of links to a past age.

On this visit to India (May 2103) I experienced life and death through theatre, a service in a monastery and the passing of an old friend.

The celebrations of life started with the colourful exuberance of the Chamanlal theatre awards ceremony which I attended with Kris and Joy Michael. Joy has been a stalwart of the theatre in Delhi for decades, nurturing and promoting it. She instigated these awards for lighting and costumes so that people other than the actors would be acknowledged and was the recipient herself a few years ago. The presentation was in the modern Siri Fort theatre which has a wooden clean lined interior. People were delighted to see Joy, bowing deeply to her and ushering her to a front row seat, to her irritation. After the awards there was a Bollywood extravaganza of music, dance and film with dancers in yellow and orange costumes and loud music. The theme was “searching for meaning in life” with songs about love and loss, including Sufi songs and film clips of pilgrims at Mecca. Laser beams shone out illuminating solid blocks of blue around the audience. Indian contemporary and ancient culture was celebrated with modern tools. It was glitzy and fun.

Two nights later I joined them again to celebrate Ascension Communion at a closed monastery on in old Delhi. It had been a hot day and it was pleasant to stand on the grass in the monastery gardens and observe the monks leading the service. About 100 people there, Delhi’s Anglican congregation and the service was lead by a corpulent priest.  The monastery is a simple two storey structure with a central library filled with religious and historical books. The monk’s cells are simple rooms as is the chapel which had no decorations. The garden was glorious filled with summer flowers and surrounded by large trees. Two monks had died recently, father Amos renown for his simplicity and absence of possessions, one of his Muslim friends said ”he who filled us died empty” and thousands of people attended his funeral. The other was Ian Weathrall who had grown up in India and served with the Indian Army (1942-7). He then became a monk in a closed order in Delhi (1953). He had been an active priest doing social work with the poor and people with leprosy as well as serving on the board of St Stephens hospital and college, two premier institutions in Delhi. Mark Tully wrote in his obituary that he enjoyed a good party. After the service we ate rice standing on the lawns.  I really I was connecting with a older thread of Delhi life, there were still strong links between the church and London, the monks had the Church Times and The Spectator for reading so I wondered what their impression of life in the UK is. But the order has few new monks, there are now only seven and I wonder how long this institution can last.

I often stay with Jasjit and Mataji Mansingh, mother and daughter when I am in Delhi. Mataji was 107 and on this visit she was close to death. She had an infection and had stopped eating and drinking. Her daughter Jasjit who has looked after her for the last decade wanted to keep her at home but her son scooped his mother up and took her in hospital saying that he wanted everything done for her. When I visited she was barely conscious with drips attached and a monitor beeping her heart rate. It seemed sad to depart this life in hospital, especially for someone so religious. She had sat quietly in the garden so often. I said goodbye to her as I was departing and she died two weeks later in hospital. Over the last year Jasjit has been researching Mataji’s life and uncovered a rich history. Se was born in Lahore and after college in Delhi had gone to London on a scholarship for girls that rotated between the different religious groups and in 1926 was allocated to the Sikhs. She had studied psychology at University College London and been awarded a Ph D in 1932. It is difficult to imagine what it must have been like being a female Indian student in London In the 1920’s, was it exciting but daunting, was she lonely? Was she linked to the campaign for Indian independence movement was in full spate then and did she active for women’s emancipation. Her PhD was on “Attention span during short periods of work” even now this is topical as we acknowledge the disruptive effect of browsing on the Internet.  During her last decade she retreated into religious observation and I only ever saw her reading religious texts and I never knew about her London studentship until Jasjit unrolled her Ph D certificate last year. She rose at dawn to watch the TV broadcast from Amritsar and wore huge headphones which contrasted incongruously with her white widow’s salwar kameez.  She rested in the garden a last time for an hour on her way from the hospital to the crematorium. Jasjit aged 76 has done a magnificent job looking after her mother and I hope that she will be able to travel and enjoy her freedom from domestic responsibility.

I was in Delhi for a meeting of the Leprosy Mission (TLM) international scientific committee and to also finish the analysis on the azathioprine trial that we did to try and improve the treatment of leprosy reactions. The trial has taken up many years with the planning, execution and now analysis and write up. Colleagues from other Indian labs working on leprosy came to the meeting. It was good to see the enthusiasm there, because the elimination campaign has also frightened people away from doing leprosy research. This has created a gap in skills and knowledge, the headship of JALMA, the national Indian leprosy research institute has been taken by someone with a background in HIV and he is busy learning about leprosy. The headship of the TLM research lab in Delhi is also empty and has been filled by Sen Gupta who retired from running one of the other labs 10 years ago. Whilst it was nice to see Sen Gupta’s enthusiasm it illustrates the gap in leprosy research leadership. So there are still lots of challenges ahead.

Although it was the hot weather in Delhi with temperatures up to 40 C the trees were in full leaf still. In New Delhi so many of the streets are tree lined that the whole city feels green. 

On this visit to Delhi I experienced links with history, Mataji and Ian Wethrall were links to a recent but two very different worlds.  In the present there are the continuing challenges of leprosy work.

London June 2013


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/06/father-ian-weathrall