I was born and brought up near a remote and tiny “hill station” (4,500ft) which the English called Coorg district. Locals call the town Madikeri. I have no idea how they discovered this place, but it has been somewhat anglicised. I will always remember this district rather affectionately as the Amazon of southern India. It stretches majestically over the Western Ghats, overlooking the Arabian sea, and is always lush with green.
The Raj education system and western lifestyle of the British continues to be influential. Cash crops like coffee, pepper and sandalwood are the main local produce – Hindus probably were the first people in the world to have used sandalwood. The British spent their hot summer days here; the population is very diverse. Local rumour has it that the soldiers of Alexander the Great landed at this place after refusing the order to return to Greece. They are now known as Kodagas – a unique group.
My journey then started in the UK in 1970s. I was educated partly in Bombay, where I was fascinated by flying machines. At the age of 18, I met the world’s first spaceman, Yuri Gagarin, at a function hosted by Bombay University. Gagarin and his wife were state guests touring all over India. I asked him: “What did you see below from the spacecraft?” He said: “Nothing much except the clouds of injustice.”
Instead of becoming a pilot, I ended up becoming a life member of the Oxford Union and an ardent fighter against racism. Oxford was where I was first attracted to the Guardian and to this day I am virtually addicted to its fine reporting and imaginative columns. I love to read the hard Berliner, not online!
While later studying at UCL, I spent more time at LSE lectures. It was a fertile ground to put my readings in economics and political philosophy into practice.
My political views were not just shaped by one ideology but by several, including JS Mill, Rousseau, Marx and Isaiah Berlin. I am yet to see such an ideology discussed or practised in terms of solving the present global problems of social injustice, poverty, terrorism, underdevelopment, racism and other inequalities.
I’m now retired but am active in charities in the UK and in developing countries. I also attend the Guardian’s lectures occasionally.
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