Viceregal Lodge Summer Hill visit in Dec 2012

A visit to Viceregal Lodge, Sunmer Hill was a peep into the Partition history of British India turning into India and Pakistan today.

It is really painful to know how the first draft of partition was discussed between Nehru and Jinah among others here. The two were responsible for the millions of deaths and millions others uprooted for good. Even after six decades I am still waiting to go back and visit my birth place. The table used to discuss the draft of Partition is kept for display.

You may like to look at the mansion constructed in 1984-88 with lot of wood work in Burmese Teak and Deodar. Even today it has the same concealed wiring with same old switches, the ceiling continue to be supported by sprinklers of yesteryears, same furniture with changed upholstery though. Beautiful unpolished Walnut wood ceiling, still in excellent condition.

The Ball room has been converted into Liabrary which has millions of books for the scholars.

Some rare pictures with naughty Nehru winking at his supposedly Lady love Mountbatten. Same Dutch Grandmother's clock,wound up once in a week, is still functioning showing moon status and the day of the week. There is also a big chair which was once used by the Viceroy.

Since 1965, the building is being used Indian Institute of Advanced Studies.

The building is presently used as Indian Institute for Advanced Studies

Still the same old switches are in use.

The table used to discuss the draft of Partition.

Viceregal Lodge Summer Hill, 2012

A visit to Viceregal Lodge, Sunmer Hill was a peep into the Partition history of British India turning into India and Pakistan today.

“The Viceregal Lodge was designed by British architect Henry Irwin and built in the Jacobethanstyle during Lord Dufferin’s tenure as Viceroy. Its construction started in 1880 and was completed in 1888. Lord Dufferin occupied the lodge on 23 July 1888.^[1] The final cost of project was around 38 lakh (3,800,000) rupees with the annual upkeep cost being around 1.5 lakh (150,000) rupees in the 1880s. At that time the estate stood on an area of 331 acres (134 ha), but today is reduced to 110 acres (45 ha). The structure draws inspiration from the architectural style of the English Renaissance, and also reflects elements of the castles of the Scottish Highlands. The building is of light blue-grey stone masonry with tiled pitch roofing. The interior of the main building is noted for elaborate woodwork which has stood the test of time. Teak was brought from Burma, and was supplemented by local cedar wood and walnut.”

It is really painful to know how the first draft of partition was discussed between Nehru and Jinah among others here. The two were responsible for the millions of deaths and millions others uprooted for good. Even after six decades I am still waiting to go back and visit my birth place. The table used to discuss the draft of Partition is kept for display.

You may like to look at the mansion constructed in 188

4-88 with lot of wood work in Burmese Teak and Deodar. Even today it has the same concealed wiring with same old switches, the ceiling continue to be supported by sprinklers of yesteryears, same furniture with changed upholstery though. Beautiful unpolished Walnut wood ceiling, still in excellent condition.

The Ball room has been converted into Liabrary which has millions of books for the scholars.

Some rare pictures with naughty Nehru winking at his supposedly Lady love Mountbatten. Same Dutch Grandmother's clock,wound up once in a week, is still functioning showing moon status and the day of the week. There is also a big chair which was once used by the Viceroy.

Since 1965, the building is being used Indian Institute of Advanced Studies.

White Flower Hall, Shimla

Day 5 at Whispering Pines, Mashobra.

President of India visits and resides this place for one week at this estate at about 8500 ft. There is a helipad with 360 degree view for only the VVIP use. The view was serene and picturesque with Sun shining all around gave us a feeling that we were swinging in a big green bowl. 

The lunch at White Flower Hall was out of this world and amazingly at competitive prices. Located at an altitude of 8,250 feet, Wildflower Hall was a picturesque 20-minute drive over a 6 km distance through forested hills of Shimla from Whispering Pines.

 The grand entrance and lobby was set in Colonial style with extra smart staff. The tables laid out at a vantage point offered a serene and relaxed getaway feeling and thrilling experience of nature on a grand scale. it had a magnificent view of rugged mountains, snow-clad peaks, meadows and cedar forests.

This unique colonial style property is with Oberoi's now.

Life time of an experience!

Day 5 at Whispering Pines, Mashobra.

President of India visits and resides this place for one week at this estate at about 8500 ft. There is a helipad with 360 degree view for only the VVIP use. The view was serene and picturesque with Sun shining all around gave us a feeling that we were swinging in a big green bowl. 

The lunch at White Flower Hall was out of this world and amazingly at competitive prices. Located at an altitude of 8,250 feet, Wildflower Hall was a picturesque 20-minute drive over a 6 km distance through forested hills of Shimla from Whispering Pines.

 The grand entrance and lobby was set in Colonial style with extra smart staff. The tables laid out at a vantage point offered a serene and relaxed getaway feeling and thrilling experience of nature on a grand scale. it had a magnificent view of rugged mountains, snow-clad peaks, meadows and cedar forests.

This unique colonial style property is with Oberoi's now.

Life time of an experience!

Visit to Whispering Pines, Mashobra 2012

Whispering Pines, Mashobra.

President of India visits and resides this place for one week at this estate at about 8500 ft. There is a helipad with 360 degree view for only the VVIP use. The view was serene and picturesque with Sun shining all around gave us a feeling that we were swinging in a big green bowl. 

The lunch at White Flower Hall was out of this world and amazingly at competitive prices. Located at an altitude of 8,250 feet, Wildflower Hall was a picturesque 20-minute drive over a 6 km distance through forested hills of Shimla from Whispering Pines.

 The grand entrance and lobby was set in Colonial style with extra smart staff. The tables laid out at a vantage point offered a serene and relaxed getaway feeling and thrilling experience of nature on a grand scale. it had a magnificent view of rugged mountains, snow-clad peaks, meadows and cedar forests.

This unique colonial style property is with Oberoi's now.

Life time of an experience!

The interior decorations of colonial period still maintained well.

A grand view of valleys of Himalayas at 8500 ft

Harvi swore that She never tasted such a marinated grilled cheese served by this gentleman waiting on us

The shoe man who glued a torn Lady’s hand bag


The President Resort in the background.

The VIP Helipad with 360 degree view

Baby Bird by Jania 2012

Baby bird in pink is flanked by Mom and Dad!

 

Happy Diwali 2012

Halloween 2012

Trick or Treat!

An Interview with 1947 Partion Arcive

http://1947partitionarchive.blogspot.com/2011/08/unusual-origins-sikh-from-multan.html

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Unusual origins – A Sikh from Multan
Interview on Aug 05 2011

By Reena Kapoor

Camera, Lighting by Iram Nawaz

We interviewed Mr. Preet Mohan Singh Kapoor on August 5th 2011 in his San Ramon, CA home. Mr. Kapoor had graciously agreed to give us his time and share his family’s experiences and story. Iram Nawaz and I arrived a few minutes early to set up and get started. Pretty soon we were listening to Mr. Kapoor’s vivid descriptions of pre-partition life in the Lyallpur, Multan (now in Pakistan); and then he recounted how his family moved, just before partition, to Faridkot and Delhi and finally settled in Panipat after partition was announced.

Mr. Kapoor relied on his own remarkable young memory, as well as on accounts from family members that he had heard repeated over the years. All of us with parents or other older family members who encountered partition know exactly what this means – you grow up hearing the stories of partition over and over again and pretty soon they are ingrained in your psyche as if you had been there.

Mr. Kapoor was only three years old when his entire extended family decided to leave their ancestral home in the Multan region and move initially to Faridkot (India). They were unusual in that there were very few Sikhs in Multan; in fact Mr. Kapoor is still unique as a Sikh in that he speaks a little Multani (language). In the summer of 1947, partition had not yet been announced but the air was rife with talk of trouble. Many people like Mr. Kapoor's family left their homes thinking that once political negotiations were settled and communal tensions calmed, they would be able to return home. But that was not to be. Partition was announced only a few months later and in August 1947 all hell broke loose. Mr. Kapoor never went back.

Eventually the whole family resettled in Panipat and started a new life there. Mr. Kapoor recounted many incredible challenges they faced in their efforts to restart their lives; there was no running water or even electricity for many years in their home. It was inspiring to hear these stories and appreciate – as I have come to over the years – the strength and resilience of dislocated survivors to rebuild their lives from scratch. I thank Mr. Kapoor for welcoming us into his home, taking time out of his schedule and sharing these stories with us.

It is inspiring, enlightening – and sometimes incredibly saddening – to conduct these interviews and listen to these extraordinary stories. All in all I feel lucky to have this opportunity. But sometimes during these serious encounters there are also moments of hilarity and lightness. In an effort to capture these accounts with excellent quality audio and video we insist that we find a quiet room where we can interview our subjects uninterrupted. This was the case with Mr. Kapoor as well, which he and his wife fully accommodated. However during the interview we did have some close calls, which in retrospect were quite funny. At one point their son entered the home singing loudly, but quickly caught himself and we were able to recover and go on. And then right smack in the middle of the interview we heard loud cackling from the next room followed by high pitched “Hello, hello, hello” like someone was making prank phone call. Iram and I both looked at each other in horror. I continued the interview but Iram, my intrepid and smart partner, walked over to the next room and then came back apparently having quieted things down. We did not hear these sounds again and I continued on wondering what had happened. Once the interview ended Iram said with a twinkle, “Mr. Kapoor your parrot was quite a challenge…”, which is when I realized it was the talking bird that had interrupted us. Mr. Kapoor said, “Yes he loves to talk to anyone walking by the window!”. We could not help but burst out laughing.

Note: Mr. Preet Mohan Singh Kapoor is not related to Reena Kapoor.
1947PartitionArchive at 7:27 PM
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2 comments:

ChintanAugust 23, 2011 8:15 AM
first time on your blog, very niche theme. keep it up...

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ChintanAugust 23, 2011 10:08 AM
tagged you here http://chintangupta.blogspot.com/2011/08/notions.html :)

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These Grapes are Sweet 2012

These grapes are injected with concentrated sugar syrup from our apartment in San Jose

Ram Lubhaya Talwar meets me again in 2012

A friend of 51 years Mr R L Talwar and his wife visited us all the way from Chandigarh. As I searched randomly for him on FB, he just happened to be only  35 miles from my place.

Now I wonder why did I not ask for him in last 25 years when I could not meet him at all.

Flowers And Cards On our 40th Anniversary

Thank you near & dear for all your flowers, cards and well wishes on our Anniversary.

What A Day to Start

We continue to live jointly even after more than two decades after immigration to USA. Shiv, our son who is presently heading Strategy and Investment Relations of a Nasdaq listed Biotech company, reminded me about my late Dad's decision. My Dad had decided that he will only stay with his son where ever he was. So he applied the same principle on me, now I have to stay where ever Shiv was.

This means I have to stay with his kids too. These two little Gobind and Jania are with us round the clock except when they are away to School.

As the morning starts, they come running to our bed room. I take this opportunity to lay a fundamental rule. As they come in front of us, they must make an eye to eye contact, fold their hands together in front of their chests, give a smile and then utter SSA to us one by one. At this point, Dada Ji will bless them with a loved and revered kiss on their foreheads. Gobind and Jania are religiously following this routine.

What a day to start!

Finally they are rewarded with a morning cup of milk, Jania one minute warm and Gobind normally refrigerated.

Jania's Wish

The Akhand Path is happening in our house. I asked Jania if she was enjoying the Gurdwara at home and she responded in affirmative. I felt elated

When asked to make a wish to Baba Ji, she immediately wished to get her ten bucks back which she had presented to Baba Ji yesterday.
"No Beta, no! Baba Ji has given to us so much and everything, and your contribution is very trifle", I tried to explain. To this she comes closer to me and whispers in my ear that all others offer only one dollar, while I had offered Ten. I tried to explain that Baba ji will fulfill her wish and most certainly she would get back in many folds. She remained bewildered.

Now I know what she was staring at Baba Ji, while still in her pajamas and clinging on the hand railing of our stair case. I am sure she will learn to understand the offering phenomena as She grows.