Emperor Humayan’s tomb, Delhi.
Aerial View of New Delhi. Containing President’s House, Central Secretariates and Parliament House
Elephant Ride, Amber Palace, Jaipur
Postcards from India
india
Books Books Books
Lives and the Courage to Live Them: Thoughts of a Third Culture Kid Therapist by Dr Rachel Cason
Dr Cason is a British therapist who is also a Third Culture Kid (TCK) and caters to TCKs. In this book she touches on all the things TCKs celebrate and struggle with. Trauma, change, moving the furniture, resilience, loss, boarding school, language, relationship, balance. It is a very real and helpful book that is easy to read without a lot of professional mumbo jumbo. I highly recommend it to anybody with a nomadic childhood.
Africa in my Soul, Memoir of a Childhood Interrupted by Cheryl King Duvall, PhD
Cheryl moves to Nigeria with her family when she is eight. Her parents joined a Christian Mission and are sent to Lagos. Soon she is sent off to boarding school at the missionary school in Miango northeast of Lagos. The school is very strict and confining with no privacy and even her letters are censored. She has a difficult time adjusting. But when not at school, she takes every opportunity to soak up the sights and culture of this African country. She falls in love with it. She also lives through the start of the Biafran war and sees people gunned down in the streets. She struggles to come to terms with her family’s decision to move there, her difficult time at boarding school, and her return to the US. Even through all the heartache, I came away with a positive feeling.
The Black Attaché, Vignettes from a Life by JK Cheema
JK Cheema was born in northern India when India and Pakistan were still one country. She shares her loving memories of visiting her grandparents in a small village when she was a child. And the confusion when her mother managed to get them on the last train out before the border was closed on the newly formed Pakistan. As an adult she is accepted into a PhD program at the University of Michigan in International Development. From there she joins USAID and works in Burkina Faso, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Eritrea. She shares memories of each country along with visits to her own India. This book is a lovely stroll through JK’s life.
An English Woman in India
An Englishwoman in India, The Memoirs of Harriet Tytler 1828-1858
Edited by Anthony Sattin
Harriet wrote her memoirs when she was in her late 70’s. She was a Victorian woman and represented her class and period well.
Her grandfather and uncle were prisoner’s of war in France under Napoleon. Her grandmother and mother lived nearby for 15 years so the family could be together. After the battle of Waterloo, they were released and returned to England. That is where her mother met her father while he was on furlough from India.
Harriet was born in 1828 to a British military family in India. At 11 years old, as was common practice at the time, she was shipped off to England with two younger siblings to continue her education. When they landing in England, their clothes were so outdated everybody laughed at them. Her brother was immediately sent on to boarding school where two older brothers were waiting for him. She and her sister lived with a family they had never met before for about a year, until her aunt came to collect them. Her aunt was strict and cruel and Harriet hated every minute of her time there.
At seventeen she started her journey back to India to be reunited with her parents who she had not seen for 6 years. She traveled by steamer and by land until she reached Aden just off the Red Sea. The group traveling with her were friendly and she had a happy time. At Aden she received a letter from her brother-in-law in India and feared her sister was sick. It was worse, her father was dead. When she finally reached Calcutta, there was nobody to meet her. She saw her mother two weeks later only to discover that she was on her way back to England with the younger children. Harriet was to stay with another aunt and uncle who was serving the in Punjab Campaign.
At 19, she met and married Robert Tytler, a Captain in the British Army who was also a widower with two children.
This woman did not have an easy life.
On May 11, 1857, she was living in Delhi, eight months pregnant with two small children at home. That was the day of the Great Sepoy Mutiny. The “Sepoy” was the Indian soldier serving in the British Army.
Harriet writes:
“It is wonderful to think how unanimous they were, Hindus and Mohammedans, in the one object of exterminating the hateful Christian in India. On this occasion the Mohammedans and Hindus were one, their bitter antagonism to each other, which had always been our safeguard so far, was for the time overcome. The gullible Hindus, two to one in each regiment, firmly believed Prithee Rai’s raj would return and then they would be masters of India. The wily Mohammedans, who were using these poor deluded men as a cat’s paw, encouraged the belief, knowing all along that they would soon find their mistake, for the Mohammedan meant to reign by the edge of his sword, which would also be used to proselytize the poor idol worshippers.”
However Philip Mason notes in the Introduction: “Harriet, of course, like everyone else, has heard of the cartridges (smeared with pork and beef fat) but does not seem to have known that the original offensive cartridges were withdrawn (therefore confirming that the rumor was true). Like every other young wife in India at the time, she thinks that the Mutiny was a deep-laid plot, instigated by the sons of the king and spread by wicked Muslims who played on the fears of the simple gullible Hindus.”
Harriet ran for her life that day. She, pregnant, with her two children, 2 and 4 years old, eventually loaded themselves onto an already overloaded carriage and rode hard out of town. Her husband riding back and forth checking on other people. The carriage broke to pieces. They found another one, it also broke down. They ended up walking to the next outpost where luckily there was no uprising.
Eventually the British took back Delhi. Harriet bore 10 children, 8 of whom lived, and spent the rest of her life and expat in India.
What a great story!
My Burma memories in photos
I am re-posting from Eclectic Global Nomad
I was wandering around the National Gallery of Art the other day and stumbled across the exhibit “Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860.” Since I was born in Burma was immediately interested. I walked right in without reading any of the preamble and just started looking around. Many of the photographs were from Amarapura, the capital from 1842 to 1859 under King Tharrawaddy which is now part of Mandalay.
After the Anglo-Burmese war of 1852, the British annexed a part of Burma. This was the second of three wars. The third war in 1885 resulted in the British taking over the entire country. In 1855 Lord Dalhausie, the governor general of India, went on a political visit to Burma.
– See more at: http://baltimorepostexaminer.com/burma-memories-photos/2014/10/14#sthash.1VzbRUPr.dpuf
Food Friday: Dahl Soup
When I was little I lived in Burma and had an Indian nanny. She was a Catholic and her name was Mary. She spoiled me. One of my favorite foods was dahl soup. I could eat it every day. When the rest of the family was eating something I didn’t like, she make me dahl soup. I have no idea what her recipe was but here is mine.
Dahl Soup
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
Put a tablespoon of oil into a pot and add onion and garlic
Cut up half a potato, skinned and add to the pot (or you can use a carrot)
Once the onion is soft add
4 cups broth
1.5 cups dahl (lentils)
Add 1 tsp diced fresh ginger
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes
Allow to cool a bit and pour soup into a blender or use a hand blender until smooth
Return to the pot and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste
If it is too thick, add some water
Add some chicken if you like
Enjoy!
TCK/Expat Film
I have updated my TCK/Expat page to include films as well as some additional books. Check it out.
I recently watched The Road Home. It is a short film – 24 minutes. I watched it twice. It is about a boy with Indian roots who has lived around the world. His father sends him to boarding school in India and everybody thinks he is Indian but he only speaks English and says he is English. So, confused about who he is, where he is from, not feeling Indian but looking Indian. Sound familiar to anybody?
The director is currently working on expanding the film into a longer version with plot twists and adventure. I think it might lose some of its intimate charm, but we will have to see. In the meantime, have a look. You can rent this film and watch it on-line here.
Another one that is currently airing at Film Festivals around the country is Shanghai Calling. I have watched the trailer and it looks like a good comedy. A man with Chinese roots who grew up in New York City finds himself sent to live in China for work. He knows nothing about Chinese culture or language but people think he does because he looks Chinese. I look forward to seeing it. You can see the trailer here.
An Englishwoman in India
An Englishwoman in India
The Memoirs of Harriet Tytler
1828-1858
Edited by Anthony Sattin
Harriet wrote her memoirs when she was in her late 70’s. She was a Victorian woman and represented her class and period well.
Her grandfather and uncle were prisoner’s of war in France under Napoleon. Her grandmother and mother lived nearby for 15 years so the family could be together. After the battle of Waterloo, they were released and returned to England. That is where her mother met her father while he was on furlough from India.
Harriet was born in 1828 to a British military family in India. At 11 years old, as was common practice at the time, she was shipped off to England with two younger siblings to continue her education. When they landing in England their clothes were so outdated everybody laughed at them. Her brother was immediately sent on to boarding school where two older brothers were waiting for him. She and her sister lived with a family they had never met before for about a year, until her aunt came to collect them. Her aunt was strict and cruel and Harriet hated every minute of her time there.
At seventeen she started her journey back to India to be reunited with her parents who she had not seen for 6 years. She traveled by steamer and by land until she reached Aden just off the Red Sea. The group traveling with her were friendly and she had a happy time. At Aden she received a letter from her brother-in-law in India and feared her sister was sick. It was worse, her father was dead. When she finally reached Calcutta, there was nobody to meet her. She saw her mother two weeks later only to discover that she was on her way back to England with the younger children. Harriet was to stay with another aunt and uncle who was serving the in Punjab Campaign.
At 19, she met and married Robert Tytler, a Captain in the British Army who was also a widower with two children.
This woman did not have an easy life.
On May 11, 1857, she was living in Delhi, eight months pregnant with two small children at home. That was the day of the Great Sepoy Mutiny. The “Sepoy” was the Indian soldier serving in the British Army.
Harriet writes:
“It is wonderful to think how unanimous they were, Hindus and Mohammedans, in the one object of exterminating the hateful Christian in India. On this occasion the Mohammedans and Hindus were one, their bitter antagonism to each other, which had always been our safeguard so far, was for the time overcome. The gullible Hindus, two to one in each regiment, firmly believed Prithee Rai’s raj would return and then they would be masters of India. The wily Mohammedans, who were using these poor deluded men as a cat’s paw, encouraged the belief, knowing all along that they would soon find their mistake, for the Mohammedan meant to reign by the edge of his sword, which would also be used to proselytize the poor idol worshippers.”
However Philip Mason notes in the Introduction: “Harriet, of course, like everyone else, has heard of the cartridges (smeared with pork and beef fat) but does not seem to have known that the original offensive cartridges were withdrawn (therefore confirming that the rumor was true). Like every other young wife in India at the time, she thinks that the Mutiny was a deep-laid plot, instigated by the sons of the king and spread by wicked Muslims who played on the fears of the simple gullible Hindus.”
Harriet ran for her life that day. She, pregnant, with her two children, 2 and 4 years old, eventually loaded themselves onto an already overloaded carriage and rode hard out of town. Her husband riding back and forth checking on other people. The carriage broke to pieces. They found another one, it also broke down. They ended up walking to the next outpost where luckily there was no uprising.
Eventually the British took back Delhi. Harriet bore 10 children, 8 of whom lived, and spent the rest of her life an expat in India. She died in 1907 at the age of 79.
Photo credit: Richard Collier
Famous Expat Women
Karen Blixen’s farm in Kenya
I watched Out of Africa last night for the umpteenth time and it got me thinking about all the amazing expat women through the ages. Here are a few of my favorites.
Karen Blixen was Danish. She married Baron Bror von Blixen and they moved to Kenya in 1914. He was kind enough to give her syphilis and she returned to Denmark after one year for arsenic treatment. She lived through it and returned to Kenya for another 16 years. She ran a successful coffee farm for a while but always struggled with it and eventually was forced to sell the land. Her lover, Denys Finch Hatton, was a big game hunter who died in a plane crash just as she was dealing with the loss of her farm. She returned to Denmark and lived there for the rest of her life. She wrote under the name Isak Dineson as well as a few others and a couple of her more famous books are:
Out of Africa (1937)
Anexdotes of Destiny (1958) – includes Babette’s Feast which was made into a movie
Letters from Africa 1914-1931 (1981 – posthumous)
Beryl Markam was English. Her family moved to Kenya when she was 4 years old in 1906. She became friends with Karen Blixen even though there was an 18 year gap in age. Beryl also had a brief affair with Denys Finch Hatton and was due to fly with him the day he crashed. She had some kind of premonition and did not go. However she did go on to fly extensively in the African bush and was the first women to fly across the Atlantic from East to West. She briefly lived in California married to an avocado farmer but eventually retuned to Kenya and became a well known horse trainer. Her memoir (a very good read) is:
West with the Night (1942, re-released in 1983)
Alexandra David-Neel was French. She became an explorer at a young age running away from home at the age of 18 to ride her bicycle to Spain and back. In 1904 at the age of 36 she was traveling in Tunis and married a railway engineer. That didn’t last long since she immediately had itchy feet and set off for India. She told her husband she would be back in 18 months but did not return for 14 years. Her goal was Sikkim in the northern mountains. She spent years studying with the hermits and monks of the region and eventually, dressed as a man, snuck into the forbidden city of Lhasa. Her travels were extensive and you can read more about her here:
http://www.alexandra-david-neel.org/anglais/biog.htm
Her account of her trip to Lhasa is:
My Journey to Lhasa (1927)
Gertrude Stein was an American Jewish lesbian writer who moved to Paris in 1904. She held “Salons” promoting modern unknown artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Cezanne. During World War 1 she learned to drive a car and drove a supply truck for the American Fund for French Wounded supplying hospitals in France with her life long companion Alice B Toklas. Her writing was revolutionary and influenced many modern writers including Hemmingway. She was a strong minded woman with strong opinions and a copious writer with a great sense of humor. She was a real character as all these women were. One of the easiest books of hers to read is:
The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas (1933)
Another one I like very much is:
Ida, A Novel (1941)
Who are your favorites??