Navigating In Nagpur

Navigating In Nagpur:

/p>As Llew and I had a late evening flight back to Bombay, we spent the last day of our Tadoba National Park Tiger Safari sightseeing in Nagpur with the Nasrullahs joining us. The long drive back to the city after a heavy lunch (which, at my request, included my favorite Indian dessert—vermicelli seviyan) lulled us all to sleep.

First Stop—Zero Milestone:

/p>When we surfaced, we were at Zero Milestone, the first stop in our sightseeing agenda. It was the spot that the British colonizers—compulsive surveyors that they were—identified in 1907, as the absolute center of their Indian colony. There is an actual milestone at the spot and a monument that measures distance from this point to other parts of India, including the southernmost tip (Kanya Kumari) which is 1600 miles away. There is an obelisk and also a terracotta monument featuring four horses that make the spot a notable one.

/p> Second Stop—St. Francis de Sales (SFS) School and Church:

/p>Our next stop was the Gothic-style Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales which was built in the early 1800s and which is renowned for its Jesuit-run school (known locally as SFS). As this was the boarding school in which my cousins, Brian and Bruno Alexander, had studied, I was keen to survey it. Sadly, we could not enter the church as it was locked.

/p> Third Stop—Tea at a Friend’s Home:

/p> third stop was the home of Husefa’s college classmate, Saifuddin (whom he was meeting after more than forty years) and his wife, Lamia, who treated us to tea at their place where we took a break and said our final goodbyes to our traveling companions.

/p>b>Fourth Stop—University of Nagpur Campus:

/p>Left on our own, Llew and I then made our way to the University of Nagpur as I was keen to show Llew a large marble plaque set in the wall of the English Department Building where it had been installed four years ago when I was a US Fulbright Fellow in Bombay. I had been instrumental in initiating a Humanities program called ‘Visions’ on the campus together with collaborating colleagues from the University of Nagpur and from Nottingham Trent University in the UK. I am always tickled at the fact that my presence as a Fulbright Fellow in India is actually carved in stone in India and that it will always remain (as long as the building stands) of my academic contribution to interdisciplinary studies in India.

/p>With this last stop under our belts, we were dropped speedily to Nagpur airport in time for our late evening Air-India flight to Bombay. By the time we reached our flat, it was just past 1.00 am. We were tired and sleepy, but profoundly happy and satisfied at the success of our efforts to follow in the paw-steps of the elusive Bengal tiger.