A website is a virtual home, and it is the Indian tradition to treat the unexpected visitor like an honoured guest. In fact, it is the Canadian tradition too, and that of all the countries and nations I have visited! It was travel that first made me realize how kind and wonderful most people are – one does meet the occasional curmudgeon just to remind oneself how not to be!
So, do travel – just as you have traveled to this website. There are all kinds of journeys one can undertake – through ideas, philosophical and scientific. One can also journey inside through one’s spirit… or one can journey through history – metaphorically through books and films and by visiting museums and sites of importance – or even in real time when one visits societies living in another cultural time-space. You will find a bit of all that if you come to India. Our first great Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, once told the renowned poet Dom Moraes that there were only two places worth visiting in India: Kerala and Kashmir. But for once, he was wrong. I grew up amidst the jungles and wild animals of central India, and I thought no place could be more enchanting – of course much of the jungle, and almost all the animals are now gone, but times have changed everywhere, haven’t they? Once the beaches of Goa were white and empty; and the high Himalayas between Darjeeling and Kalimpong were a lovely shimmering stretch of silver oak and tea plantations; once Delhi was safe for women; and Hyderabadis known for their old-world politeness… but still, do visit India sometime, even as you are now visiting this website.
Here on this website you will find my stories, some of which you may even like. Do let me know if you do.
Of far greater importance are the links to several exciting civil society organizations I work with, each and every one an enchanting path down which friends have traveled together, to undertake a great enterprise for new social beginnings, and spread an umbrella of compassion over their neighbourhood. If you and yours will join them it could come to cover the greater part of the planet.
Vithal Rajan
Buy Books Online
Holmes of the raj An ‘Orientalist’ piece of fiction...
Sharmaji Padmashree Short ironic sketches of the life...
The Legend of Ramulamma A middle-aged, widowed, Dalit midwife...
