Maurice and Glenna James in 1976

 

Glenna and Maurice James 

Maurice James moved to the UK in 1959 with wife Glenna (nee Nestor) and their five children - Lesley, Allan, Christine and twins Maureen and Denise (?). Maurice worked as the labour officer of a sugar factory chain in Uttar Pradesh being posted at Gauri Bazar not far from Gorakhpur. Maurice, the son of Thomas  and  Elsie Katherine  (nee Shepherd) James had four siblings all of whom have predeceased him - Freddy, a paratrooper during WWII was in the police at Lahore before he moved to the UK in 1947 (?) or around the time India got independence. The others were Dennis James who settled in Perth, Australia in the 1970's followed by Noreen Vincent. Dorothy James who remained unmarried passed away in Bangalore in the 1980's where she had spent much of her life.

 The picture was taken by John Cline when he met them in 1976 in the UK.

Squirrels feed!

On Friday morning I was lucky to get close enough to take these pics with my camera phone. Often one might see pigeons and parrots feed along with the squirrels. The Residency and the Botanical Gardens are the only peaceful places because the zoo remains too crowded.

Nancy J Powell

Audrey (my wife) and I visited the Residency Friday (Aug 31) morning for a walk.  We do this two or three times a week. This time, however,  it was to be different from the instructions being given at the entrance gate to spruce up the place because of an important visitor. We wondered who could it be!

The place has two main gates, one which is always in use and the other that allows VIP motorcars in. Near the VIP side we found about a dozen cops in riot gear. The path was being swept and lined with lime (chuna) with arrows pointing out the way - no room was being left for error. Obviously this was a very special guest but I couldn't even start guessing who was visiting. It would have been different had I glanced at the newspaper before coming out. We returned to our walk for health and returned to the other side to wait. Finally, the visitors came along led by a lady in slacks with a long-lens camera in her hand. Walking past us she said 'morning' and we replied and the tall guy with the West Point hairstyle said "Namash-kaar!'

Only when I checked the newspapers I came to know that we had met the US Ambassador, Ms Nancy J Powell. I regretted not asking her if I could take a pic. The top one was taken from too far when she looking down. The lady in front is a member of her staff whose name I learnt later is Anna Martz. Ms Powell on Thursday had attended a party thrown in her honour by Mr Ammar Rizvi while earlier in the day she had met the CM Akhlesh Yadav and other state officials.

Martiniere Staff 1966 - John Cline

I don't remember using this picture before still I'd rather use it twice than omit it. (From top left) Jim Shepherd, Mr Ruck, Oscar Henderson, Marris Bell, Mr Agnihotri, Major H Towning. (Top 2nd row left) Mr Azeem, Charlie Gardner, Nelson Gardner, Mr Roy, Hugh Dignum, Hugh Homan, Henry Rodrigues, Dr Shukla, Sidney Lewis. (3rd row) Mr Goswami, Mr Sinha, Mrs Barrett, Mrs Herford Ally, Miss ?, Mrs N. Gardner, Ms ? (is it Henderson), John Chand Das, Edgar Tuck. (Sitting left) Winnie McKenzie, Mrs Lorna Towning, Arthur Flynn, Frank D'Souza, Col HRH Daniell, Trevor A Penn-Barkeley, Victor Rainer, Mrs Betty Dignum, Mrs Phyllis Tuck.

Peter Colin Shepherd

Peter Shepherd and his wife Barbara at the grave of his grandmother, Agnes Louisa Shepherd (nee Bonnar) in Bareilly, when he visited India in 1988. Peter, as a teenager went to Australia with his family in 1948. In the picture above is Barbara at the grave of Peter's grandfather, Edward Thomas Shepherd, Agnes' husband, who died and was buried in Naini Tal in 1936, twelve years earlier.

The Bull's Ring

Vinod Mehta - Lucknow Boy

Feb 1, 2012

Hi John,
I was also disturbed with what Vinod Mehta supposed to have written in
his book Lucknow Boy, as described in Khushwant Singh's column.
Vinod has a readable style and though I'm no fan of his I thought,
when the book was published, that I'd like to get it. That thought has
changed!
Vinod Mehta became the editor of The Pioneer for a short while and
his 'just-missed' success in turning around its fortunes is mentioned
in the book. He had given an interview when the book was published and
mentioned that he was removed as editor just as the paper was showing
positive results.
Just as only Vinod knows about the Martiniere's Anglo-Indians of his
time, only he knows about pulling the newspaper out of its dive.
Kushwant says that Vinod wrote about AIs sodomising boys; so it would
be better to leave it at that as he must have good reason to put it in
a book. He also wrote that boys were still in school in their '30s'.
All I can say here is that AIs never bluffed their ages! No more
comment is required here as I don't want to alienate any Martinian
just because of Mehta.
The joke, bitter as it was for all those who were going to be jobless
at The Pioneer, was that Vinod had been know for closing down
newspapers and magazines. Let's say Vinod's luck changed with his
'Outlook'. The recent scourge of scams that hit India helped him when
he 'exposed' two very popular journalists, Barkha Dutt of NDTV and
Vir Sanghvi of the Hindustan Times, of being in cahoots with some of
the crooks. This went down well with the public and his popularity
soared because in India journalists of some standing are celebrities
themselves.
Barkha, I think has been rehabilitated while Vir Sanghvi, whom I
admired at one time for his balanced views, keeps a low profile. When
the Cal Mart was being pilloried after the death of a student Vir
threw a couple of stones himself and, if I remember correctly, said
the Martinieres are poor copies of the British public school. I then
felt his thinking isn't all that good! (following added on March 27,2013) Vir Sanghvi shouldn't forget that he studied in Mayo College,also founded on the British pattern but, as he has honestly admitted from time to time in his writings, came from a privileged background, so did his higher studies in the UK. This put him above the 'fake' public school image that he himself had shrugged off!
By the way, Vinod's pic is in today's 'i next' (Lucknow) along with
the Naqvi brothers, Saeed and Shane. Saeed is also a well-known
journalist.
May continue this later...
George Shepherd
I have the (dubious) distinction of working under two Martinians who were appointed editor of The Pioneer
whom I never met - Chandan Mitra is the other.