November 2009

Dr Bashabi Fraser

In an interview, the late Pakistani leader, Benazir Bhutto said there is a bit of India in every Pakistani. One can substitute ‘Pakistani’ with ‘Scot’ and the statement can then resonate with the experience of Scots in relation to India about a different but significant reality. Scots have travelled to, worked, lived, been born, married and died in India over a period of 200 years. Like many a Scot who can trace an ancestor who was in India, Aline Dobbie’s ‘paternal grandparents were married in the Roman Catholic chapel of Fort William…; [her] maternal grandparents were married in the Scots Kirk of St Andrew in Dalhousie Square….[Her] own parents were also married in St Andrew’s….[Her] own confirmation took place in Cathedral of St Paul by the Metropolitan Bishop of India, Burma and Ceylon in April 1961.’ (p. 98)

Her recent book, India: The Peacock’s Call, is a revised edition of her first book on India. It has the modest claim of a travel book, but in actuality, it is much more than that as it is a memoir, which moves back in time while it records several journeys back to what once was ‘home’ for the author. In India, Aline is not a ‘transient or a sojourner,’ as for her it is a return to the familiar and a revival and renewal of old ties which have never quite been snapped.

‘Paul Gilroy once suggested diaspora as an alternative to ‘the stern discipline of kinship and rooted belonging’ (Gilroy 2000: 123) – it delinks location and identity and it disrupts bounded notions of culture and racialized bodily attribution (Kalra et al, 2005). The book reaffirms the sense of continuity that has existed in the Scottish relation with and response to India. In fact, as part of the Scottish diaspora in India, Aline Dobbie endorses a much neglected and often unrecognised reality of the scattering of a nation that has had generational links with India:

At India Gate, which she calls ‘India’s answer to Arc de Triomphe,’ Dobbie says ‘For me, a daughter of the army, and very proudly the Indian army…it was a natural act of homage to all those who had given their lives this century for King, Emperor and Country and then India Their Country.’ (p. 4)

Dobbie herself was born in the north Indian city of Bareilly, the regimental centre of the Jat Regiment. Charles McGregor, a military theorist in India has, in his proposals on the subject of defence in India, advocated ‘an Indian nation-in-arms as the sole way to maintain its own security, a sort of military Orientalism. That seemed to imply, somewhere along the road, national autonomy.’ (Fry, 2001) Though McGregor’s proposals were ignored as he was held suspect, the role of Scots in the Indian army and its continuing sense of discipline and responsible position as a defender of Indian identity rather than a contender for political power, remains a legacy along McGregor’s almost prescient line of thought, exemplified in Aline Dobbie’s ancestral legacy in India and encountered by her in the traditions she sees maintained as she is hosted and shown round military cantonments in India. Significantly, though the book starts in the capital Delhi after touchdown, the actual journey begins with a return to foetal beginnings in Bareilly as the author is feted and feasted as the daughter of the Jat Regiment, very much confirming the thread of continuity that the book celebrates of the story of Scots in India.

The book is in two parts: Part 1 has fifteen and Part II five chapters, the first part beginning with the flight in on 1 November 1997 and ending with a family Christmas in 2001, and the succeeding part bringing the journeys up-to-date, with a visit to India in 2008. This is the second revised edition of what is a trilogy (The Tiger’s Roar, 2004 and The Elephant’s Blessing,) The account is accompanied by photographs which bring alive the places that are mentioned, and the fact that they are in black and white, lends them an appeal which justifies this journey to a past that has remained part of cherished, unforgettable memories for the author who left India in 1963. For me Dobbie’s experience has a particular resonance, as I too left Britain in the same year, at a similar age to the author’s, going the other way, to India. Probably our boats crossed in the dark, signalling to each other, as each of us returned to the land of our ancestors. Maybe this is why I feel drawn to Aline Dobbie’s story.

The memoir is exhaustive in its detail without the cloying heaviness of nostalgia that journeys to one’s past can trigger. The main reason behind this is Aline Dobbie’s ease in being in India where she is visibly ‘at home’, as she can recover her rusty Urdu effectively to disarm or challenge her Indian shopkeeper, taxi driver or officious official and pick up from where she left off, years ago. It has the curious perspective of the insider-outsider who relaxes in the five star luxury of Indian hotels, grading their service with an eye to minutiae.

The journey is epic in scope as Dobbie travels through Rajasthan and provides a meticulous study of many historic cities like Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Jaipur and Bharatpur. The word pictures are evocative, take for example the description of Jaisalmer, ‘As one approaches by car, there it is, a magnificent citadel rising from the Tricuta Hill like a golden coronet from the desert plain’ (p. 35). There is the romantic paean to the symbol of love in a trip to the Taj Mahal in Agra. Here, the defender of Indian heritage makes a plea to ‘clean, restore and maintain all of India’s architectural history,’ and not just the Taj Mahal. The book abounds in practical yet sensitively thought through suggestions, ‘the fee should be structured to allow Indians to see their national treasure at a realistic figure relevant to their incomes…(but) all foreign tourists should be required to pay a figure that is double that paid by the country’s inhabitants.’ (p. 71). The orientalist view of the intricate carvings of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh is revised in Dobbie’s account, ‘With a good guide you will see the carvings as a celebration of all aspects of life, not simply erotica.’ (p. 82). There are multiple visits to some places like Delhi and Jaipur and the Part II records ‘Regal Rajasthan Revisited.’

The book has many poetic flourishes as the alliterative title just quoted testifies, as do titles like ‘Aakash Ganga,’ a chapter which follows the epic route to where Ganga leaps from the Himalayan peaks. This is not a eulogy of India, though there are personal tributes to old friends, to good food, excellent service in many hotels, friendly guides and India’s numerous arts and crafts which the writer seems to gather in bountiful armfuls with a collector’s enthusiasm and eye for beauty. The book is honest in its balance of praise with condemnation, as the author dismisses Mumbai, ‘an unlovely city’ while reluctantly accepting the fact that it is ‘generally acknowledged to be India’s most energetic and successful metropolis.’ (p. 104) Dobbie notes how Calcutta has moved on since her childhood there, ‘[T]here is now a metro and a second Howrah Bridge to complement the original built in 1941 by the British…’ while she picks up from where she left off, enjoying a swim or a game of tennis at the Tollygunge Club. She goes on to state that ‘Calcutta needs these distractions as it is a cultural city but with little opportunity for rural leisure… (and) is a shabby, decrepit, overpopulated city but there are still some rare instances of great beauty and special experiences.’ (pp. 99-100) This juxtaposition of the old and the new, of culture and decay, of warmth and inefficiency, of the flashy rich and neglected poor, capture the paradox of India time and again in Dobbie’s detailed account.

The affection for India is apparent in a book which is, as said earlier, much more than a travel book, being a crowded travel diary, a personal history and a historical study. However, the scholarly details of a history narrative do not intrude, but connect the present with the past in a continuous stream that seems inevitable. Dobbie’s book problematizes the binaries of ‘home’ and ‘away’ in any study of diaspora as she seems to flit contentedly between her two, ‘homes’ – the land of her birth and the land of her ancestors. In fact, the farewell coming at the end of Part I, where she says, ‘Beloved Bharat, land of my birth, there is so much to explore and experience…, the chapter heading is ‘A Fond Farewell ‘Phir Milenge,’ – we will meet again. Here the finality of the English leave-taking is belied by the Hindi/Urdu message, and it is the latter that remains the underlying message of the book - that this is neither the final journey nor the final book, as the author will return/re-return to India, revisiting the ‘land of her birth’ in physical, mental and imaginative journeys to the generous expanse of a sub-continent as there will always be a bit of India in almost every Scot who has been there.

The final chapter is an overview of the experience of travelling to and writing about travel in India, and at the end there is a helpful list of charities and a guest house in Delhi and website details for those interested in travelling to India and learning more about the author and her work. The ‘Final Word’ that intervenes between Chapter 21 and the list, records the author’s concerns about the terrorist attacks in Bangalore and Ahmedabad and the reality of India’s largely secular Muslim community and its loyalty to India. The references to India’s nuclear power deals and India’s economic position will undoubtedly be revisited and revised by Aline Dobbie as her socio-historical alertness will take into account the significance of current developments in Obama’s plea for non-proliferation in her later writing, with the G20 taking stock of a world staggering under Recession, where the conservative Reserve Bank of India has proved that caution is the best way forward in Aline Dobbie’s ‘Beloved Bharat.’ The Peacock’s Call (2008) remains a raucous call from a beautiful bird to be read for its historical narrative, its travel tips and above all, its personal story of a Scot in India.

References:-

1) Trevor Royle, The Last Days of the Raj (London: John Murray, 1989)
2) Virinder S Kalra, Raminder Kaur and John Hutnyk, Diaspora and Identity (London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2005)
3) Michael Fry, The Scottish Empire (East Lothian and Edinburgh: Tuckwell Press and Birlinn Ltd., 2001)

Volume XXXVIII Number III Review

November 2007

by John Harrison

This book will be of particular interest to those contemplating the temple trail and visits to the historical and cultural sites of southern India. But it is much more than a travelogue since the author, Aline Dobbie, draws richly from her wide experience and love of India, stemming from happy childhood memories. It would be rewarding just to dip into it for perceptive insights into specific places, but it should preferably be read as a seamless whole. Only then can one gain the full flavour of the author’s commentary on the contradictions, realities and potential of a significant area of India emerging somewhat breathless into the 21st century from a past steeped in traditional customs and attitudes.

Aline Dobbie, accompanied by her husband Graham, covered similar ground in her travels to that traversed by the Society’s tour of southern India in January/February 2006 (on which I reported in the July 2006 issue of Asian Affairs). She visits all the major tourist sites but follows a slightly different itinerary taking in various additional places of interest, including Mysore, and has more focus on wildlife. Her enthusiasm can be infectious but she has the priceless benefit of perspective from her earlier visits to the region and a broader experience of India as a whole. This book is, in fact, the third part of a trilogy of travel books on India which have been appropriately recognised through her reception last year of the prestigious Pride of India Gold Award.

Although invited by the Indian government’s Ministry of Tourism and also the Tamil Nadu government following the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004, Aline Dobbie is by no means in thrall to her hosts.   Generous praise is given where it is due, either to individuals or specific establishments and authorities, but she is not afraid to criticise.  Indeed she found that even in planning the trip she had become a victim of “the infamous Indian inertia and inefficiency”. Many visitors will also relate to her comments on the contrast between the official glossy brochures and some of the less comfortable realities in the form of poor hotels, inadequate infrastructure and unimaginative management of cultural sites and wildlife conservation areas.

The Malligi Hotel in Hospet comes in for particular censure – and indeed it was not our favourite resting place on the Society’s tour, especially after a bumpy 12 hour coach journey from Hyderabad. The fascinating World heritage site at nearby Hampi, the imperial city of the Hindu Vijaynagar dynasty, deserves better. It was, after all, visited and praised by ambassadors and rich merchants from foreign lands in the 16th century. It could be a huge asset to India’s burgeoning tourist industry with improved access and appropriate tourist services.

The author is also justifiably saddened by what she sees and hears of the social and economic after-effects of the tsunami. But she had more encouraging experiences elsewhere, particularly around Mamallapuram and in Kerala. Indeed she finds much to appreciate and savour in southern India’s many cultural, religious and scenic splendours.  As a Scot, her advice on improving facilities and practices, where appropriate, is down-to-earth and certainly well-intentioned, springing from a sincere desire to see India prosper.

The book is very much a personal odyssey and, as such, has considerable charm, but her excursions into history, culture and local customs are always well-balanced and informative. It would have provided a valuable extra dimension had it been available before the Society’s tour.  It is also well illustrated with an excellent set of colour as well as black and white photographs. A DVD (not seen) is included in the package.

INSIDER’S INDIA

April 2008

EASTBOUND? – Some titles to add to your reading list

Author of a remarkable and intimately narrated trilogy, Aline Dobbie was born and spent her childhood in India where her father, Colonel Frank Rose, was an officer in the Indian Army. Now settled in her ancestral home of Scotland, she has returned to India on numerous occasions, writing prolifically on the country and its people – from the sublime to the uncomfortable, from the quiet beauty of the wildlife parks to the battle to protect their creatures, from the humbling grace of its ancient temples to caste discrimination and self-immolation. Dobbie is a speaker of Hindi, and this, along with her Indian heritage, affords her a rare level of insight into this fascinating and complex country.

South India: the land of temples and tourists

By Premen Addy

Referring to the complexities of the historic relationship between India and Britain, Geoffrey Moorhouse in his book, India Britannica remarked "that Indians must speak for themselves about the relationship today, but they should know that their country haunts the British still, as nowhere else ever did, as no other place in the future possibly can".

The present title by Aline Dobbie is surely its living proof. This is her third book of travel in India. Her first two titles, India: The Peacock’s Call and India: The Tiger’s Roar were ample testimony of her love for the country. Born in India, she grew up there in the aftermath of Indian independence. Her father, a colonel in the Indian Army became what was commonly known affectionately as a ‘boxwallah’ in the world of Indian business.

Life was to take Aline Dobbie to South Africa, from where she and her vet husband Graham returned to settle in the sylvan setting of the Scottish countryside. But the call of India was never far from heart and mind, and she has become a frequent traveller to the land she once knew as a young girl. I have had the pleasure and privilege of reviewing Aline Dobbie before and it is with great enjoyment that I did a turn in South India in her company. Her eye and touch have lost none of their cunning. From booming high-tech Hyderabad, known also as Cyberabad, which she rightly perceives as India’s city of the future, she travels southward through Karnataka, taking in Bangalore, of which she is not terribly enthused, Mysore, and the noble ruins of Hampi, whose past she describes with great feeling.

Mrs Dobbie moves on to the magnificent sights of Tamil Nadu’s temple cities of Thanjavur and Madurai and the amazing Kannyakumari where the three waters meet. Thence they travelled to Kerala and its picturesque inland waterways, the superb beaches of Goa and the architectural glories of New Delhi.

The author’s introductory and concluding chapters broaden the canvas; India is very much a transitional society in which the past and present exist cheek by jowl with the future. Aline Dobbie’s book is one to treasure. www.thepeacockscall.co.uk is the author’s own non commercial website.

Review of INDIA: The Elephant’s Blessing by Aline Dobbie

Whether you have been to India or not, this is a gem of a book about a vast and successful country, the third by this author completing a trilogy on India. Vivid memories of her early years enliven the travel stories and give a picture of rapid modernisation as India this year celebrates her 60 years of nationhood.

Aline Dobbie was born in India and still speaks Hindi; what makes her journeys authentic, and what shines through every page is her love of the subcontinent and its people. She is not blind to the country’s shortcomings and she has strong words about failings like the neglect of the tiger, child brides, female foeticide or trafficking in children and young women.

A map of India showing the routes taken by her and husband Graham together with many photographs help the reader to follow from a report on the Tsunami in 2004 her two long journeys throughout southern India in 2005 and again in 2006 and her return to Scotland. The DVD set to evocative Indian music included with this book gives the reader a huge visual feast. Hampi-Vijaynagar is a place that relatively few travellers have visited and she describes the whole area and its history and importance with awe and delight. Aline Dobbie suggests that in the coming years this will become a popular destination rivalling Angkor in Cambodia. Hampi was the seat of the last great Vijaynagara Kingdom that dominated peninsular India during the Middle Ages of the 10th to 16th centuries and was as important to that area of the world as was Rome in Europe.

Young backpackers will enjoy the picture of the Aurobindo Ashram, a peaceful retreat with open courtyards and lovely gardens at Pondicherry. She gives a fascinating history of this poet and philosopher, his friendship with Gandhi and the work with Mirra Alfassa, ‘The Mother’, who founded an international centre of education. To quote about the character of the ashram: "The way of yoga followed here has a purpose different from others, for the aim is not only to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down in to the ignorance of life, mind and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter." Mature travellers will find a huge choice of wonderful things to experience and in luxury should their budgets allow.

Music in India is played on instruments like the sitar and she praises young players, who keep traditions alive; Carnatic music is famous in southern India and unique to western ears. Local craftsmen still begin their work with prayers, and the thousands of temples show beautiful carvings of gods like Vishnu and Shiva. We are given a glimpse of the ancient wax method still used for casting bronze sculpture.

Aline Dobbie loves Libraries and Museums which she enters with reverence for India’s cultural past. Equally lively is her concern for wildlife and we are given pictures of national parks, the wealth of birds and animals, specially the elephants, be they wild or domesticated or temple animals that have been trained to give blessings with their trunks. Wildlife viewing is a major delight for both Aline and her husband Graham and the descriptions of India’s wild places are beautiful and timely when conservation is becoming a vital factor of all responsible tourism.

The experience of Ayurvedic healing has not changed in hundreds of years but is now also practised in modern recognised medical centres. In some hotels a foot massage is part of the friendly welcome for tired travellers upon arrival. Some patients travel far distances from other parts of the world to have consultations and treatment for chronic ailments at renowned Ayurvedic centres in southern India (see page 116)

Each reader will find different highlights; helpful for all travellers is the detailed assessment of hotels from delightful home-from-home comfort, to the serene splendour of five-star and heritage hotels down to those suffering shabby neglect. Some strong language is reserved for a party of Russian travellers because of their noise and vulgarity, but the patience and kindness of Indians is praised throughout. People who wish to follow the trail are advised to bring enough money as one needs adequate places to rest in this hot subcontinent and there is also wise advice for everyone to ensure their safety and comfort and enjoyment of this vast and beautiful land.

BOOK REVIEW by Krishan Ralleigh

I N D I A The Peacock's Call Aline Dobbie

Born in India in the dying days of the British Empire, Aline's father Colonel Frank Rose was a British officer in the IX Jat Regiment of the Indian Army, at Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. Aline left India at the age of 16 and went back to her ancestral land Scotland. After 35 long years in Britain, accompanied by her husband, Graham, a veterinary surgeon in Scotland, she returned to the land of her birth. In her book 'India: The Peacock's Call' Aline chronicles her experiences, emotions, frustrations, romance and vision of the land she has always loved, even in absentia. Her yearnings of a life time could not be satiated by one visit, a pilgrimage. This is how she described her visit to Uttar Pradesh: "Crossing the Ganges and Jamuna was for me almost spiritual. Those two rivers had been part of my life for the first sixteen years and I still catch my breath when I see the Ganges. There is something timeless about great rivers in all continents, but for me this time it was a feeling Land of my Birth, lifeforce, Mother Ganga". Aline's book may be read as a travelogue or autobiographical diary of a highly sensitive person. In fact, it is difficult to categorise the book in any section. The author has great empathy for India which perhaps is natural as she lived the first sixteen years of her life in that land. But the India of the '90s is much different from the India of the '50s and '60s, as any NRI (non-resident Indian) will grumblingly tell you. To Aline, India has changed, but in essence it is still the same. Hospitality and the affection of the people have not changed. The ethos of the Indian army, one of the most professional armies of the world, is engrained in the young officers and soldiers of today's India.

The book takes the reader on an adventurous tour of North West India, Central India and also provides a glimpse of the 'City of Joy' Kolkata. It is not as much a sight-seeing tour but rather a reminiscence of one's long-lost lover to a stranger. The reader gets a three-dimensional picture of the different tourist attractions of India. The beauty of the ancient land of Rajasthan, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner, are described within the context of their glorious past, the present independent India and the prosperity that the future is going to, or ought to bring. The depth of the author's love for India can be gauged from the fact that even when she criticises India, as she often does, it is more like the laments of the long lost daughter of the family who has been away for so long in her prosperous in-law's house (Scotland);

and is now back at her old mother's home meeting again her cousins and relations after decades. Aline's love of nature, her description of the flora and fauna of India and her sensitive approach to the religions of India enhances the reader's interest in the book. Peacock, the national bird of India, is ubiquitous in India. After the hot summer, the Monsoon clouds bring the temperature down and nature awakens to the 'peehoo, peehoo' of the peacock. The blissful rainy season is not far. The author successfully gives a graphic description of the changing season in India. A poet at heart, Aline pines for many more holidays in India, "Beloved Bharat, land of my birth, there is so much yet to explore and experience": Indeed! Her book conveys to the potential tourist the most appropriate months in the year to visit different parts of the country. The book can be recommended to any European who is planning a long holiday in India. I only wish the book is made a required reading for the employees of the Tourist Board of India, so that they feel proud of the product they are marketing all over the world. The book can be ordered through India Link International. It is also available from www.amazon.co.uk Price £5.95 + £1.50 postage, aline.dobbie@thepeacockscall.com Publishers: Serendipity First Floor, 37/39 Victoria road, Darlington, County Durham DL1 5SF Email: serendipity530@tiscali.co.uk Telephone/fax: +44 (0)845 130 2434

India: The Peacock's Call Book review By Premen Addy This short book of 142 pages is a delightful read. It is an elegiac account of a journey through remembered parts of India by Aline Dobbie, the daughter of a British colonel, a member of the famed Jat Regiment centred in Bareilly. Aline Dobbie, who now lives in Edinburgh with her husband Graham, has dedicated her work to the memory of her late father Frank Rose, whose name is recalled affectionately headquarters by his Indian successors today. Old and valued traditions of honour, hospitality and chivalry are alive and well, and they blend with discipline, loyalty and the enduring courage and skills that characterise the best soldiers. The Jats belong to the top league, as this daughter of a Jat officer makes abundantly clear. India - Bharat, she calls it - was the land of her birth and much of her early life and fondest memories are entwined there. This is not simply a travelogue concerned with locations and place names. It is a seamless robe of observation, comment and memoir, skillfully embroidered with historical fact and anecdote; and always present is the warmth of human contact and the renewal of childhood friendships. While the past means much to the author, she is keenly sensitive to the present. Hers is no sentimental wallow in the history of the Raj but a sympathetic understanding, warts and all, of the complex realities of present-day India. She makes room for Sir Hugh Rose, a revered forbearer who became commander-in-chief, but also evokes the beauty and silence of Raj Ghat and the significance of Gandhiji's life and work. An encounter with Jawaharlal Nehru and his grandsons is affectionately recalled and there are numerous instances when Shared values are based on shared history less familiar names are made flesh through events of long ago. Aline Dobbie is a reminder of how deeply Britain marked India and India marked Britain, a point which Martin Bell makes in his foreword. One recalls a Geoffrey Moorhouse statement that Indians "should know that their country haunts the British still, as nowhere else ever did, as no other place in the future possibly can". The bonds of history are strong and enduring, transcending temporary irritations of political difference and much else besides. Shared values are based on shared history and a mutual affection, deeper for being often unstated. So Aline Dobbie quotes the great American writer Mark Twain's reaction to India, which clearly finds a lasting resonance in her. "...the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels.. of tigers and elephants... the country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues... cradle of the human race, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition...." India: The Peacock's Call by Aline Dobbie, Serendipity, 2002, £5.95

Interview in the Hindu India's National Newspaper Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005
taken from www.hindu.com

Aline Dobbie's anxiety about the disappearing big cat comes through vehemently in every printed word, says ROHINI MOHAN

IT'S A good one hour, and I still haven't spoken a word after "Hello". The lady sitting in front of me incessantly flings anecdotes, opinions, jokes, complaints and comments at me, one after another, bullet after whizzing bullet. An account of a peacock dance bizarrely gives way to an enraged criticism about Tony Blair. A story about a drowned hotel in the Maldives is suddenly abandoned to mention what a localite said about tigers in Madhya Pradesh, on TV. All the while, I scribble my notes furiously, trying to record every emphatic word Aline Dobbie, environmentalist writer, utters. I don't need to ask her much. The images she conjures up for me speak volumes.

Very often called "India's child of Independence", Aline is a Scottish writer of Indian birth. In India: The Peacock's Call, and India: The Tiger's Roar, Aline laces details she gathers from her travels through Indian jungles with nostalgic tales from her childhood in Bareilly. When she says: "I have a sense of belonging to India," I expect to hear what every appreciate-and-leave foreign tourist would say of this country. But she continues in an unexpected vein: "But I'll tell you something I think of Indians - there is a lot of talk, wonderful words, but actual doing? Very little. Everyone very proudly announces that they're Indians. Well then, be Indian and pick up after you."

For her book on tigers, Aline went on a mammoth journey of India's wildlife parks and tiger sanctuaries, spending days in Ranthambore, Kanha, Bandhavgarh, and Corbett Tiger Reserves, Nagarahole, Kaziranga, Bharatpur, etc. Her anxiety about the disappearing big cat is evident in every printed word.

Still, it's all wonderful to write a book, I say, but what about conservation work on the ground? "Writing is hardly actual doing," she admits, "But someone has to write about people working on the ground. It behoves a writer to use her words responsibly to show what needs to be done." Then, sitting forward: "The average Indian naturalist and localite is very enthusiastic. It is the middle tier bureaucracy's lethargy and inertia that suffocates the eager efforts. It would be heartbreaking if something as magnificent as a tiger disappeared," she says, justifiably anxious. (Tigers have been listed as endangered since 1972 in India, but their numbers have fallen from 40,000 to 3,000 in a century, primarily due to poaching even in wildlife reserves.)

Aline's books informatively meander through history, legends, encounters, preservation attempts, and battles fought for Nature. But don't expect "where to go, and how to get there" sort of information. Aline takes you on an adventure of images, merely presenting a concept of modern India as she knows it. It is at once a well-researched factfile and a riveting storybook, not your regular Lonely Planet.

"I get very irritated when Westerners say `Oh, India? Isn't it very dirty and full of poor people?'! Hello?! No! It is dirty, but if Western villages and cities had the population that India has, things would've crumbled long ago," she says, "And as for poverty, I tell them that there are more millionaires in Mumbai than all of the USA." She squeals with laughter as she mentions how some of her friends ask her if India has hotels. "Hotels are palaces with marble floors, for god's sake!" she tells them. Not that she thinks that's the best way to save a heritage palace, but "it does ensure that the monument lives".

Preserve for posterity

In all her banishing of stereotypes about India, Aline doesn't ignore the areas that cry out for help. "The earlier generation did all the exploration and pioneering; our job is to preserve, and conserve. To help hand beauty over to the next generation." If India makes an effort even now, she says, it can preserve its heritage and forests. "Help will come from around the world."

She says that after 9/11, Iraq war, and the tsunami, people in the "once safer" West are feeling vulnerable. "The global disaster has made them empathise with these countries, at least because of the selfish reason that many people of their own nationality died too. No one dares to say `Oh Bangladesh had just another cyclone'."

Aline Dobbie is now touring South India for her third book that'll complete the trilogy on the iconic symbols of India. This one is about the elephants and temples of the Deccan area. "My grandson told me to get him a hathi," laughs Aline, still fluent in Hindi. "Let's hope they'll still be around in the jungles by the time he grows up."

I had always had a soft spot for tigers and I picked up this book initially because of the wonderful photography on the jacket. Now I have made up my mind to visit India's wildlife parks for myself to see tigers in the wild. The author, Aline Dobbie, visits many of India's well known and lesser known wildlife parks, giving the reader much practical information on where to stay, what to do and most importantly, where to see tigers. However, this is hardly a travel guide, and the information is imparted in more of a personal journey around the author's homeland (Dobbie was brought up in India). Also here are her thoughts on conservation, poverty and Indian tourism. She treats her subjects in an even-handed and sensitive manner, but by the same token does not pull her punches where criticism is due. Most refreshing! Also, the chapter dealing with the inimitable Jim Corbett is well worth the cover price alone. Overall, an inspirational read that is bound to get you packing your suitcase!

Aline Dobbie at her book launch at Neidpath Castle, Peeblesshire in Scotland Review in the weekly magazine India Today 1st December 2003 AUTHORSPEAK ALINE DOBBIE SCOTCH ZEST It was a poignant homecoming - 35 years after leaving India, Aline Dobbie heeded her heart and headed for the country of her birth in 1998. India: The Peacock's Call (Serendipity) is wrapped in the myriad emotions that the visit evoked in the Scottish woman. "It is my take on India at the turn of half a century of Independence," she says. It was also the time of her own 50th birthday and so it was rumination on two parallel lines. She received a warm welcome into the fold in which she was born - the Jat Regiment in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, where her father was a British officer. The warmth prompted 'three visits in six months". The book takes the visitor through the well-frequented tourist spots, forts and temples of north India. Yet Dobbie manages to bring to them an element of wonder that belongs to the first-time visitor. Still proficient in Urdu and Hindi that she learnt in her childhood, still nostalgic about the people and places, Dobbie comments on everything - from Delhi's disappointing international airport and the rush of traffic that one does not have to scrape through anywhere else in the world to the immense dignity and personal cleanliness of the average Indian. To those uninitiated to the Indian way of life, the book acts as a charming eye-opener that is at the same time peppered with some basic dos and don'ts - it cautions on exchanging money and the great Indian hurdles that invariably crop up at every juncture. For Dobbie, who spent 10 years in South Africa, the unaccounted riches of Asia and Africa hold abundant charm and she remains undeterred in her "determination to promote India". "I want the world to know that there is more to India than the palaces in the north," she says. And she is working on it, planning more books on her favourite land. "My second book is about wildlife parks in India," she says, excited about having roped in a well-known wildlife photographer of India to take the pictures. And her third book, she promises will be on south India. Her love story with the country continues, traversing its geography and history. By Nasima H Khan