Preparing for India 2019. A song.

     In my most recent version of our itinerary I’ve added back some places we might visit in Mussoorie and Jabalpur.  See the full itinerary at the end. I also suggest you listen too an Indian song, view two blue dupattas (scarves), and think about electronic devices.

     In Mussoorie we might visit A. Woodstock School and Dorms B. Mussoorie Mall and the Book shop, Quality, Gun Hill, tram, and west to George Forest house. C. top of the hill, Kellog, see the snows by telescope, if it is a clear day. D. go to Eastwood Estate, Dhobi Ghat and Hanson Field E. East - Jabarkhet Reserve, Hanafil.  I will be contacting the alumni office to see what day we might arrange a tour of the ‘campus’ and maybe even have lunch there.

      In Jabalpur, we might visit A. Marble Rocks and Madan Mahal. B. Leonard Theological College C. Sadar bazaar, City Lake, the Govind Das home D. Trains (maybe ride the chota line down to the Narbadda and get a car trip back.  E. Go to an Indian move in the evening

     The itinerary indicates places we might go in Delhi on the 4^th of August 2019

     Morning  half day sightseeing tour of Old Delhi visiting  Red Fort, built in 1648 by Mughal Emperor Shahjehan , Jama  Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India, Raj Ghat and Shanti Vana-the cremation sites of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Also drive past Chandni Chowk, shopping centre of Old Delhi.(Red Fort closed every Monday)

     Afternoon half day sightseeing tour of New Delhi visiting Qutub Minar built by Qutub-ud-Din Aibek in 1199, Humayun's  Tomb, India Gate (war memorialarch), Lakshminarayan Temple-a modern Hindu Temple. Also drive past President's House, Parliament House, Government Secretariat   Buildings and Connaught Place-shopping centre of New  Delhi.

     We have a day trip to see the Taj, but also go to the Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.

     You can check on the Internet to see more information for each of the places we might visit or topics of your interests.

     One of my close contacts in Jabalpur, Lakshmikant Sharma, is very active on Facebook.  This last week he put up photos of two girls visiting Jabalpur. One photo shows them with his book on Jabalpur and in the background are the falls at Marble Rocks, which we will be visiting.

     Another of Lakshmikant’s visitors was a singer of Bhojpuri songs.  Bhojpur is an area in western Bihar, which is very famous of its music, songs, and films.  So have a listen to Chandan Tiwari singing a love song – as a good example of popular Indian music, which you might be hearing on the radio, TV, blaring from public speakers, etc. while we are in India. -- a Bhojpur love song “Aadhi Aadhi Ratiya” by Chandan Tiwari  at

                         click here and listen   https://youtu.be/Xud7ajzC4qg

Chandan Tiwari

    I’m pleased that my doctor checked and said all my immunizations were good (typhoid, hepatitis, rabies) and he prescribed antibiotic and malaria medicine which I picked up this week. How are all of you with your immunizations and medications?

    I’m thinking of buying us all sky blue colored baseball caps to easily keep track of ourselves in a crowd.  Maybe Julie and Rachel would rather wear a blue dupatta or scarf over their heads so as not to make it too obvious they are foreign women. What do you think of these two blue scarves I bought yesterday?  If they don’t like them, they could easily buy ones in Delhi on that first day.

     I’m also washing my India old filthy neck pouch but may get another one since this one’s a little worn.

     Sometime we also should talk about day bags, and what electronic devices each of us is taking, and if we need to carry them around always or if we can leave them at the hotel desk safely.There are our cell phones, and maybe laptops or iPads, external drives, jump drives, etc. Would Echo Dots work in India?

    Here’s the latest version of the itinerary -    

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Our trip to India, travel in India, and back July – August 2019

 Flying to India, via United Flights.

July 21 2019 Sunday. Travel to Richmond in two cars, leaving Charlottesville at 7 am,  arrive by 8:30 am, check in for the flight to Neward on UA 4184 Leaves 10:00 am arrives 11:22 am.

    Afternoon and evening in the airport (lunch, supper), get to gate by 8:30 for 9:55 pm departure on UA 82 Arriving in Delhi at 9:30 pm on July 22^nd Monday.  One or two hours to go through customs and another hour trip from Delhi airport to YWCA. Arrive? around midnight.                                

                   

  ITINERARY SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR

                                                                 MR. PHILIP MCELDOWNEY X 06 PAX

                                                                 

22 July 2019            Arr. Delhi                      Meeting and assistance on arrival and transfer to hotel YWCA International                                                 Guest House

Monday                                                         Overnight at the Guest House.

23 July 2029            Delhi                            Full day free for independent activities. No transport involved.

Tuesday                                                      Maybe Craft and/or train museums. Overnight at the hotel.

                                                                 

24 July 2019            Delhi/ Dehradun/            On time transfer to railway station to connect train for Dehradun.

Wednesday             Mussoorie                     Dep: Delhi  By: 12017 Dehradun Shatabdi     At: 0645 hrs.

                              ( 38 Kms 1 ½ hrs)          Arr: Dehradun   At: 1250 hrs

                                                                 . Meeting and assistance on arrival and transfer to Mussoorie. On                             

                                                                 Arrival. Check into hotel Rokeby Manor. Overnight at the hotel.

                                                                 

 25 July 2019            Mussoorie             1. Full day transport available for local running. Overnight at the hotel

Thursday  Mussorie tours. See A. Woodstock School and Dorms B. Mussoorie Mall, Book shop, Quality, Gun Hill, tram, George Forest house. C.top of the hill, Kellog, snows. D. Dhobi Ghat E. East - Jabarkhet Reserve, Hanafil

26 July 2019      Mussoorie                 2. Full day transport available for local running. Overnight at the hotel

Friday

                                                                 

27 July 2019            Mussoorie             3. Full day transport available for local running. Overnight at the hotel

Saturday

                                                                 

28 July 2019            Mussoorie             4. Full day transport available for local running. Overnight at the hotel

Sunday

                             

29 July 2019            Mussoorie/         Morning leave by surface for Dehradun airport to connect flight for Delhi.

Monday                   Dehradun/          Flight 1. Dep: Dehradun       By: 6E 679                          At: 1220 hrs.

                               (38 kms 1 ½ hrs)

                            Travel to Jab.      Delhi/Jabalpur Delhi  Arr.  At: 1315 hrs.                                                                         

                            Meeting and assistance on arrival and transfer to other terminal to connect

                             Flight 2. to Jabalpur.  Dep: Delhi  By: AI 9617  At: 1615 hrs.

                               Arr: Jabalpur   At: 1815 hrs.

           Meeting and assistance on arrival and transfer to hotel Narmada Jackson.  Overnight at the hotel.

30 July 2019            Jabalpur    1. Full day transport available for local running. Overnight at the hotel.

Tuesday        Day trips to A. Marble Rocks, Madan Mahal. B. Leonard Theological College

                      C. Sadar bazaar, City Lake, Das home D. Trains E. Evening Movie Theatre

31 July 2019            Jabalpur        2. Full day transport available for local running. Overnight at the hotel.

Wednesday

01 Aug 2019            Jabalpur        3. Full day transport available for local running. Overnight at the hotel.

Thursday

02 Aug 2019            Jabalpur        4. Full day transport available for local running. Overnight at the hotel.

Friday

03 Aug 2019            Jabalpur / Delhi             On time transfer to airport to connect flight for Delhi.

Saturday

Travel to Delhi.                                            Dep Jabalpur              By: AI 9618                         At: 1845 hrs.

                                                                  Arr: Delhi                                                            At: 2045 hrs.

                                                                  Meeting and assistance on arrival and transfer to hotel The Park.

                                                                  Overnight at the hotel.

04 Aug 2019            Delhi                             1. Morning half day sightseeing tour of Old Delhi visiting  Red                    

Sunday                                                      Fort, built in 1648 by Mughal Emperor Shahjehan, Jama Masjid,

                                                                  one of the largest mosques in India, Raj Ghat and Shanti Vana-  the  cremation sites of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Also drive past Chandni Chowk, shopping centre of Old Delhi.(Red Fort closed every Monday)

                                                                   Afternoon half day sightseeing tour of New Delhi visiting Qutub Minar built by Qutub-ud-Din Aibek in 1199, Humayun's Tomb, India Gate (war memorial

arch), Lakshminarayan Temple-a modern Hindu Temple. Also drive past

President's House, Parliament House, Government Secretariat   Buildings and

Connaught Place-shopping centre of New Delhi.

                                                                  Overnight at the hotel.

05 Aug 2019            Delhi/ Agra/                   On time transfer to railway station to connect train for Agra.

Monday                   Delhi

Travel to Agra, back                                     Dep: Delhi By: 12050 Gatiman Exp       At: 0810 hrs.

                                                                  Arr: Agra                     At: 0950 hrs.

                                                                  Meeting and assistance on arrival and straight proceed to visit Taj Mahal. Visit the world famous TAJ MAHAL built by the Moghul Emperor Shahjehan in 1630 for his queen Mumtaz Mahal to enshrine her mortal remains.

 After lunch visit the Agra Fort containing the halls of private and public audience and other palaces.

 Later visit Fatehpur Sikri  built by emperor Akbar in 1569 &  abandoned  after 15 years due to scarcity of water. See the graceful buildings including Jama Masjid, Tomb of Salim Chishti, Panch Mahal and other palaces.

Later on time transfer to railway station to connect train for Delhi.

                                                                  Dep: Agra    By: 12001Shatabdi Exp        At: 2115 hrs.

                                                                  Arr: Delhi                                                   At: 2330 hrs.

                              Meeting and assistance on arrival and transfer to hotel The Park. Overnight at the hotel.

 06 Aug 2019      Delhi                                   Full day free for independent activities. No transport involved. Tuesday                                                     Overnight at the hotel.  Maybe shopping today or tomorrow.  

                                                                                Cottage Industries, Khadi clothing stores   

                          

07 Aug 2019            Lv. Delhi                       Hotel check out time 1800 hrs.

Wednesday                                                 Later on time transfer to airport to connect flight for onward journey    

                                                                                      

                                                 END OF OUR SERVICES

                                                  CHECK IN TIME AT ALL HOTEL IS 1400 HRS.

                                                  CHECK OUT TIME AT ALL HOTEL IS 12 NOON

Get to the Delhi airport by 10 pm, Leaving Park Hotel around 8:30 pm or eailier

Check in at 10 pm, flight leaves at 11:35 pm August 7, 2019. 3h 35 m layover (Frankfort?)

Arrive August 8^th at 4:55 am in Newark. Go to Richmond flight UA 4971 by 7:30 am for its departure at 8:30 am, arriving Richmond 10:10 am. Travel by car to Charlottesville arriving around noon on Thursday August 8, 2019.

Mist, heat, Mussoorie in 1875

Just a few words and thoughts about our upcoming trip to India, partly stimulated by two recent Facebook posts -

     A) the monsoon has arrived in Mussoorie (23rd June 2019) which means cooler weather for the coming 2-3 months compared to the recent heat wave. As reported by Stephen Alter - more on him - the writer and resident of Mussorie below.

     B) What was Mussoorie like in 1875? Very deforested, according to a Facebook post.

     And C) what were the temperatures at Mussoorie, Jabalpur, and Delhi like during the days last year - hint: highs in the 90s (but not 100s) and lows in the mid 70s.

     A) First, here's a post by Stephen Alter announcing the arrival of the monsoon and its mist in Mussoorie on June 23, 2019. 
     Stephen Alter June 23 2019·The monsoon arrives in Mussoorie as mist envelops the deodars.[pine trees]

      I added my comment to that Facebook post - Philip McEldowney "Ah the mist! does it mean there are rhino, stag, bamboo and other beatles under Tehri road's misty lights tonight?" 
     My comment is because that what I remember most about monsoon nights growing up. I was hoping our family group would be able to meet Stephen when we went to Mussoorie in July.  But he leaves (left) for the US on June 27th (2019) so we will miss seeing him while we are there.

     Stephen Alter's an interesting guy, who also went to Woodstock School, in a class some years behind me, and has lived in Mussoorie for many years. He's written over 42 books (see this link) - both non-fiction and fiction.  One of his recent books is on Jim Corbett, a British government official, who grew up in India (around Nanital) and became famous for hunting and killing man-eating tigers in the Himalayan foothills. Stephen's book is a fictionalized biography of Corbett, called "In the jungles of the night : a novel about Jim Corbett" (2016). I really that book, since the first of 3 sections is about Jim growing up in the foothills of the Himalayas. And I was really moved by some of his writing in the final third section, when he is reflecting back to his experience during the Great War (WWI). I liked that so much I made a audio recording of part of that third section. [Listen to this video of me reading 16 minutes]

     If you get a chance, read some of Alter's writings.  And, who knows, there might be a slim chance of meeting him sometime in the future.

        B) my second topic is stimulated by a Facebook post and photo of Mussoorie in 1875.  It shows the hillside barren with few trees, as a result of deforestation at that time, since there was a railroad boom and trees had been cut down for railroad ties. But by the time I was a child at Woodstock School in Mussoorie (the 1940s and 1950s) there was a reforestation in the 1930s and since, so that wonderful wooded hillside I grew up in had only recently been transformed. I did not realise it had not always been that way until I read this post. Along with the photo there is a lengthy explanation of its forest history.

     From Facebook:Winterline Mussoorie added a new photo — at Mussorie Library Road.  June 13 2019 at 3:37 PM · Mussoorie, India

      "A classic 1875 view of Muss from the lens of the iconic #SamuelBourne. As seen from the Dunsvirk area, across Gun Hill towards Landour, looking ENE. Christ Church is at centre, above an eerily un-peopled Mall Road.

     "Why are the hillsides so bare? #Deforestation, of course. Practically all the precious #hardwoods, esp. #Deodar cedar and Himalayan #Oak, were clear-felled from these hillsides by paisa-minded timber contractors, egged on by the EIC and its successor, the British Raj. Moreover, all railroad ties were made, until the 1970s, of hardwoods. The first Indian railway boom had begun in the 1850s two decades prior to this image being captured. Further, there was a pseudo-scientific belief that dense forests "harbour germs", and hence clear-felled hillsides were then seen as more "salubrious".

The archives of the Imperial Forest Dept. (predecessor of today's #IndianForestService or IFS) for this area, in District Dehradun, record the rampant timber-felling in the 1800s into the 1900s. This entire region was in the Western Circle of the United Provinces, run by a Conservator of Forests (CF)-rank officer. Some local armchair 'historians' (read gasbags) claim the Muss Hills are now "over-forested", versus pix from the early-mid 1900s, which of course is total #BS. One need only look at the well-forested #PariTibba (i.e. Witches' Hill or Fairy Hill), made famous by Ruskin Bond's ghost stories, to see what the Muss Hills were like prior to the local arrival, in 1816, of the EIC.

As for the felled timber, it was delimbed and rolled down to the local rivers (incl. the Nun, Rispana, Song & Aglar), tributaries of both the Ganges and Yamuna, and floated down - in the monsoon - to huge timber yards (esp. near Haridwar & Asan), whence they were sent downriver, having been tied into rafts. These were tricky operations, and indeed the Doon had its own #Pahari #lumberjacks doing their thing. Logging work was ill-paid, risky, injury-prone and seasonal. Yet, the contractors -- both desi and British, incl. the notorious "Pahari Wilson" -- made handsome profits. (Though Wilson operated not within #BritishIndia but mainly in forests, e.g. in the Bhagirathi valley, he leased from the rulers of #TehriGarhwal, an ill-governed 'princely state' if ever there was one.)

     "Finally, the #reforestation of the Muss Hills is entirely a post-1947 phenomenon, having accelerated in the 1970s-1980s via the famed #EcoTaskForce of the Indian Army."

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     C) My third and final topic of this post is about temperatures. I looked at the dates we (the McEldowney party of 6 family members) are going to be in the three towns in India in 2019, and what was the weather like last year (2018 July August).  It doesn’t look too bad – in the upper 80s for highs and upper 70s for lows. –Philip Mc

2018 weather in India on dates we will be there in 2019

2018 July 24 Mussoorie High 90 Low 77 Precipitation 0

2018 July 25 Mussoorie High 85 Low 78 Precipitation 0.28

2018 July 31 Jabalpur High 84 Low 75

2018 August 1 Jabalpur High 86 Low 77

2018 August 4 Sat. Delhi High 95 Low 84

2018 August 5 Sun Agra High 88 Low 81

2018 August 6 Mon Delhi High 84 Low 81

Based on, for example Agra, at https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/india/agra/historic?month=8&year=2018