Amitav Ghosh's Blog, page 6

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 8

        The camp was always full, often with a sizable overflow which had to be accommodated in the open. With the monsoon fast approaching and rumours of the Japanese consolidating their position around Mandalay I was anxious to see the marching columns into Manipur without dawdling too long in Tamu. At times […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 7

    It took me 10 days to reach Tamu, the last camp on the Burmese side of the Indo-Burma border. It was a huge sprawling affair with ‘basha’ accommodation for around 30,000             all sited under thick forest cover which provided some security from Japanese reconnaissance planes operating in […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 6

  Mandalay, April 1942.   One blistering afternoon, about the beginning of April 1942, Mandalay was devastated by a massive bombing raid on the Town, which killed 20,000 and left almost 60,000 wounded – Indians, Chinese and Burmese. Many of the refugee camps were subjected to bombing and machine-gun and cannon attacks which added to […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 5

  Mandalay, March 1942           As the days went by, almost all my time began to be devoted to Air Evacuation problems which forced me to shift into Mandalay Town itself from the comfortable little cottage in Sagaing some 8 miles away. An old friend placed a suite of rooms conveniently […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 4

­­­­­­­­­­­ February 1942   Mandalay was already chock-a-block with refugees who had turned the city into a public health time bomb. Cholera had started taking hold and our total indent for anti-cholera vaccine on the Government of India reached 20 lakh injections for the Mandalay area alone. The news from the south was increasingly disturbing […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 3

    January 2, 1942   Started back for Rangoon 2nd afternoon & drove straight up to the Agent’s House-cum-office       situated in Windermere Park – thickly wooded & lush green. He agreed with my assessment of the situation and was on the phone immediately to inform the Chief Secretary       […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 2

  [December 25- 26, 1941 Rangoon]   By the time I started back for home it was late afternoon and what I saw started raising butterflies in my stomach. I stepped on the pedals of my Sunbeam racer and as I reached the house – a typical wooden 2-storeyed dwelling within its own grounds – […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 1

      On the 15th of November, 2013, I received a letter from a boyhood acquaintance.                   Hi Amitav, I have been a great fan ever since In An Antique Land but for reasons of personal connection The Glass Palace is the book that my mother […]

Flood of Fire cover

. . It is 1839 and tension has been rapidly mounting between China and British India following the crackdown on opium smuggling by Beijing. With no resolution in sight, the colonial government declares war.  One of the vessels requisitioned for the attack, the Hind, travels eastwards from Bengal to China, sailing into the midst of […]

Two responses to ‘Parallel Journeys’

    I received many interesting responses to my post on Turkey’s experience of AKP rule and its portents for India under the BJP. Of these two were particularly instructive. The first was  from Vedica Kant [@vedicakant]:   Dear Amitav, I read the piece with a lot of interest and enjoyed it very much. The […]