Review in DGB Life Magazine

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Personally, I always find interviewing a writer a little daunting especially faced with one such as Aline Dobbie who is a real authority on her subject.  However, despite these initial fears, these interviews can often be the most rewarding especially when the interviewee is willing to share her passion.

Words: Nichola Hunter

When one thinks of India, the first thing that springs to mind would not be an elegant, well spoken lady living in a pretty house in the countryside.  There are a few clues to Aline’s Indian connections – the Buddha on the floor in the sitting room, the richly coloured wall hanging in the dining room and of course, Aline’s‘dimunitive little prince’ her cat – Raju!

Aline, who lives with her husband Graham on the outskirts of Biggar, are huge animal lovers and indeed her second book India: The Tiger’s Roar highlights the plight of the tigers in India, but I digress.  After the Dobbie’s cat had to be put to sleep, Aline and Graham decided they needed another pet to fill the void as Aline recalls: “I had resolved to find a little cat or kitten to which I could give a loving home. My prayers were answered when I read the local paper that afternoon and found an article about a beautiful little black kitten that had been found deserted wandering on the M74 motorway.  He had been given temporary shelter at the Peebles & Biggar Cats' Protection Society's kennels nearby and was being advertised as in need of a home.”  That was in 1998 and Raju now enjoys a very pampered existence, indeed I’m sure the M74 is now a very distant memory for him!

I had read the story about Raju on Aline’s website before I met the author of India: The Peacock’s Call, India: The Tiger’s Roar and India: The Elephant’s Blessing and I was intrigued to find out more about the lady behind these books and of course to meet the infamous Raju.

Compassionate, warm, friendly but with a hint of feistiness lurking beneath the surface we took tea and perused Aline’s photo albums (of which there are many) before we touched properly on the topic of India and once we started, the floodgates were opened.  I think I could now write three books about Aline’s studies of India, there’s just so much to cover and we barely scratched the surface during our chat.  Now when I see Aline’s name I find it difficult to disassociate Aline from India.

Which is in some respects how Aline came to the subject of India herself.  Unable to forget the wonderful childhood she spent in the country up until the age of 16, she finally returned in 1997 at the age of 50 with her husband Graham, but why did it take her so long to return?

The daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Rose, a highly admired and brave, British officer in the IXth Jat Regiment of the Indian Army, Aline was born in Indian Army barracks in 1947.  Her father was quite the hero, being the only British officer to bring his Indian men back from the fall of Singapore during the war.  However, when her father retired in 1963, she returned to Scotland as she explains: “I was sad to leave India – it had been part of my life for so long. 

“If you’re a thinking, feeling person and you have an enjoyable time there, which I did, I had had a very happy childhood there, it’s bound to call you back.  It was just that life hadn’t allowed me to return sooner.  After I married Graham in Edinburgh we went out to South Africa where Graham set up a veterinary practice.  We eventually left South Africa because we found the situation abhorrent but we didn’t have the money to go swanning off to India.  I wanted to bring up my children and I didn’t want to work and India is not the sort of place you visit for a week – really three weeks is the minimum.  So the opportunity didn’t present itself until ten years ago.

“Graham and I decided that we would go to India for her 50th year of Nationhood.   We did this wonderful three week trip in November of 1997.  It’s always advisable to go between October and April as you don’t want to go in searing heat or monsoon season if you can help it.  I popped out again in March 1998 for two weeks to travel and then again in the May of 1998.  However, in the autumn of 1998, our eldest son, Hamish who was by then an officer in the British Army was returning to Bosnia.  We had very nearly lost him on an earlier tour and to take my mind off him going back I started to write a book about our recent visit to India.  And I just wrote it, that was it.  India: The Peacock’s Call was published in June 2002. 

“I know everyone and their dog writes a book nowadays but if you’re going to write a book about an ancient civilisation, I think you have to have some wisdom,” Aline continues.  “I couldn’t have written what I have at the age of 21.  It’s the nature of life; you can’t know at 21 what you do at 31, 41 and so on.  I think it was just the right thing to do it that way.”

Aline’s first book was well received and as result she decided to write another two as she recalls: “After the feedback Graham asked: ‘what do you want to do now’ and I said as people like it, I’d like to write three books.  The logical thing was that essentially the first book was about Northern India so the second would be about central India and the third about southern India.”

India: The Tiger’s Roar followed in 2003 and India: The Elephant’s Blessing in 2006 after which Aline was awarded the Pride of India Gold Award by the NRI Institute.  All three books have been well received, both here and in India and looking through Aline’s photo albums and reviews; one gets the impression that Aline is regarded as something of a national treasure in India.

This comes as no surprise as Aline’s attitude to the country is empathising yet practical and fond yet realistic.  “It’s now India’s 60th anniversary of Nationhood and she has so much of which to be proud,” says Aline.  “She’s had her challenges and God knows they haven’t gone, there’s huge poverty still but in this last decade she’s surged ahead and what’s interesting is 50% of the population is under 30.  They have enormous aspirations to achieve things and I hope that the present government will direct that wealth to the poor.

“I’ve travelled all over India and the people in the heartland are very kind, very sweet and if they can, they always give you some kind of hospitality.  They all want to touch you and talk to you.  They always want to ask if your rings are gold – that’s very important to them – silver doesn’t cut it!  Then they want to know your name, are you married, do you have children, how many of them are sons?  I’m very lucky as I have two boys which they love to hear.  They’re just very sweet people even though their lives are so hard.”

Things are getting better however, as Aline has observed: “In the decade that I’ve been travelling in India, the sanitation has improved and you can see all the water pumps now.  The technology is there too and Indians definitely have an affinity with computers.  You’re still likely to come across a boy with a stick bringing the cattle home and carts with wooden wheels and it looks just like 50 years ago but now if you look closer you’ll see that the boy is talking on a mobile phone!”

The political arena is changing too.  “People are now talking about corruption and they are really cross about it,” says Aline.  “In the past, this would have been swept under the carpet but nepotism and corruption are no longer being tolerated.  Unfortunately, the caste system is still in operation but that is something that is not going to change.  It is the average person and how he conducts himself that will make the difference – whether it is social apartheid or racial apartheid.

“India is going to be one of the great economies of this century which I said in my second book in 2003 and now everyone is saying it.  The Indian Diaspora is taking their knowledge around the world.  It’s terribly important that these huge countries and us little countries understand that we can help each other.  India and Scotland already have a history doing that and we should continue this sharing of knowledge and helping each other.”

If you’ve never visited India before, a good place to start your understanding of this complex and fascinating country is to read Aline’s books.  They’re not an autobiography but they are incredibly personal and they’re not just travel tomes either.  They’re more like having a very knowledgeable guide who will take you through the country step by step but who will let you in on some great local secrets if you behave nicely and ask politely!

60 Years of India's Nationhood

Standing on the broad sweep of the grand steps at Rashtrapati Bhawan and looking down Rajpath on 10 March this year I felt a huge surge of satisfaction and reflected on the state ceremonial exactly a week before with which the President of the United States was greeted. It is universally acknowledged that India has arrived as a major player on the world's stage, and that significant status has been achieved within her 60th anniversary of her Nationhood.

Nationhood is the term I want to use - not that old cliché 'anniversary of independence'! This ancient great country which through past centuries gave so much to the world through early science, mathematics, engineering, arts, music and above all spirituality was only colonised for a mere two centuries by Europeans and in particular the British. The over riding result of those two centuries was to meld the subcontinent into the world's largest multi faith democracy encompassing its diverse peoples. That is a great achievement, and for me a child of that 'independence' all be it a British child I would ask all Indians and those who love the country to be immensely proud.

However, with achievement and pride comes collective responsibility. We all know that when one reaches the top the rest of one's energies invariably have to be deployed in staying at the top. Now young Indians - the next generation have the torch of achievement metaphorically passed to them - please I ask do not squander that precious flame on just seeking shallow material individual wealth and self aggrandisement; look at yourselves and your country, indeed if you are non resident then also look at your country of residence and say "What can I do to enhance and give back?"

It was so good to be back in Delhi and the first few days on a return to India is spent enjoying old haunts and playing out old rituals - such as tea at The Imperial Hotel on the terrace - with the solicitous waiters and anticipation of fresh gulab jamuns and ras malai! Graham my husband always looks so happy that inevitably the waiter even becomes enthused with our evident enjoyment.

As ever, we are gluttons for the tastes of very fine Indian cuisine and after a quick change we went to The Maurya Sheraton, where HM The Queen of Jordan was fulfilling an engagement. Even if you have to wait the Bukhara's wonderful lamb kebabs are so excellent that the time spent in anticipation is well spent! Goodness, is that a busy restaurant open till late into the night full of Delhi's movers and shakers.

We had arrived by Air Sahara from London; the service was excellent in the Business Class, but Oh! did we experience a 'tamasha' for the return flight which was cancelled. The untruths and ineptitude of the airline's ground staff was a demonstration of why the airline is now not that well regarded within India; it was thought that it would be subsumed by Jet Airways but apparently this huge merger has faltered at the last minute. I personally highly recommend British Midland whose excellent services we used as nearly all of us passengers on our return flight had to fly down to Mumbai and return with BMI nearly two days later. Graham and I were the only Europeans on the flight and I was so disappointed to see how many British Indians became very negative - in fact they said they would never again trust an Indian airline. For us British it was an interesting study of people under pressure. Moreover, what really distressed us was that we witnessed a huge level of ignorance about India in our fellow passengers. Whilst travelling by coach from the airport to the very excellent Oberoi Hotel I gave them a running commentary on the important sights of Delhi. I further recommended that they spend this enforced leisure time visiting some of its historic places and then our temporary predicament would be seen in perspective.

We had been invited on our arrival earlier in the month to visit the new Library for the Indian Parliament. This is a truly wonderful carefully planned building which will stand the test of time - something sadly unlikely to happen for our own controversial Scottish Parliament!

We had also visited Teen Murti Bhawan and found the museum to the late Jawarharlal Nehru very moving. I had been born just before independence and grew up in India during his years of premiership so I found it very interesting to look at all the material through mature eyes. As I looked out on the peacocks strutting on the well kept lawns I fancied he would be proud of where India now stands amongst nations.

Then we drove round to Gandhiji's Smriti. I had visited here in 1998 but Graham had never been and last year was the commemoration of the Dandi Salt March of 1930; the place is well maintained and the Martyr's Memorial now has an elegant stone canopy which enhances it. Yet again, standing in the evening light as the sun set I felt desolate that evil men sought to ruin the fledgling nation by assassinating a vulnerable peace loving, but intensely courageous old man. His words ring true today as they did all those years ago in my infancy:

I was in India yet again to go and research for the last few chapters of my third book on southern India. It was a most enjoyable but lengthy journey and encompassed such delights as seeing wild dog - the dhole at Bandipur a truly rare sight, wild elephants in Nagarahole at Kabini, fabulous hospitality at Orange County Resort in Coorg and, the cherry on the top, experiencing two days at Hampi - Vijaynagar.

Especially comforting in all the long journeys we did on Karnataka's uncomfortable roads was the evidence of rural India really showing signs of prosperity with tractors in many fields, house building in the villages, children looking healthy and enjoying school and diverse crops flourishing throughout the countryside. The infrastructure in Karnataka still requires a massive building programme but at least it is now happening and in a year or two travellers will be able to really appreciate all that the state has in terms of historic old cities, temples, wildlife parks and amusements and the sheer beauty of its countryside and beaches.

There is no profit however for a great country if its rural heartland is still destitute and people lounge around the five star hotels in air-conditioned splendour in the capital and other great cities seemingly careless of the dire poverty in the villages; India's prosperity must trickle down to the rural poor and the simple villager so that we all can reflect with pride on Gandhiji's aspiration "I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country….".

That too is my dream for the beloved Land of my birth.

Aline Dobbie
www.thepeacockscall.co.uk
July 2006
This article is the copyright of Aline Dobbie