Finally ! I am in India, my ancestral home. My knowledge about India is, well, from the books I have read and the stories my father told me. There’s a vibrant Indian community back in the States which I was part of growing up. I’ve been warned that no level of familiarity with the culture will prepare me for the assault on the senses that India is going to throw at first time visitors. But, for me, it’s only been great so far. I had a comfortable flight via Dubai. The GNU folks gave me a warm welcome at Delhi airport and checked me into this swanky hotel. After all, Delhi doesn’t seem different than the Central Asian cities I had been to. Shared Persianate culture, cuisine and similar architecture. But India is not just Delhi. I wonder what more this country is going to tell me about herself.
The next morning, I got up, did my yoga and took a cab to GNU to meet the great historian Sharmila Thapar. I have read all her works and have idolised her growing up. To meet her in flesh and blood is to meet the Mother of the God of history. She is fond of my father, Sebastian James, who was her student at GNU. My father went on to become a world renowned epigraphist, specialising in Dravidian scripts.
Delhi is just as I imagined. People …. lots of them …. traffic, honking, chaos. But one cannot miss the colonial era charm as one drives towards GNU. Wide roads, broad pavements, even as they are occupied by hawkers. What’s different is the urban fauna. It is quite telling of the monsooned climate of the city that’s fed by the waters of Yamuna. Tall, big trees line up along the side walks, most certainly wild and native to the habitat in which the city was built.
As my cab entered GNU from Gate no. 5, opposite Sanskrit University, I felt the same sense of immensity that I felt when I first visited Harvard. With a research grant in hand, I chose GNU as the base camp for my work. It’s a sprawling campus with open areas littered with giant trees. I see no signs of tension that GNU is portrayed as gripped with in the news channels. Peace is in the air. Just the peace that’s conducive of research in a contentious field like Indian history. I’m off to a good start.
lakshmiprasadj 