LIFE IN INDIA

Waipa Post, Volume 36, Issue 2148, 24 April 1928, Page 5

LIFE IN INDIA

HOLIDAY TRIP TO THE SEASIDE. A YOUNG LADY’S ACCOUNT. Travel in other lands is always of interest, and though most of us are unable to participate in the actual travel there is interest in reading of the experiences and observations of others. We have been privileged to make extracts from the letter received by a district resident from his granddaughter in South-western India, and feel confident it will interest our readers. The letter describes a three hours’ motor journey from Belgaum to Vengurla, thence by a small coastal, steamer which plies between the Portuguese town of Goa and Bombay, to the small seaside resort called Rat* nagiri. The writer joined at Vengurla, and she mentions that the firstclass fare for the six hours’ journey taken is £1 ss, whereas the secondclass fee is, only 2g 6d. The writer says:—

We planned to leave at 6 a.m. on 6th January, but of course, according to the custom of India, the driver was forty minutes late; but we were soon off on our long drive of 71 miles to the coast. Up to the ,gl}at, or mountain, the scenery was pretty much the same as. what we have lifere, namely, lowlying fields, hill forts, and several little creeks. The country farmer in India has a wooden plough which is dragged by two lazy bulls, or perhaps weak ones. The surface’ of the ground is just scratched, about 6 inches of soil is disturbed, and often whole feet of ground are not touched. Into this scratching seed is thrown. Can you wonder at the result? This is the country of the Mahrattas, and as they wore a warlike people in bygone years forts appear on nearly every hill. When we reached Amboli, the top of the ghat, we had a wonderful view of the valley in front, and away in the, distance the blue outline of the sea. At Ambuli the ghats are only 3500 feet high, but there is a tremendous drop down to the foot of the ghats, just a few hundred feet higher than sea level.

The road wound in and out beside the mountains; here the rocks seem to havei been cut, they looked so flat and straight. Tremendous trees were on each side, and a thick jungle of trees and creepers’ made the road-side very pretty indeed. As we neared the sea the vegetation became more and more luxuriant, and the cocoanut palm was in evidence.

We broke our journey at Vengurla, a seaside place about 300 miles south of Bombay. Here the; missionaries have a big hospital, a, leper asylum, and a sanatorium for consumptives. One of the nurses told us that in America half the time is taken in soothing the patients and telling them not to be afraid, while in India all they have to do is to tell the patient to get on to the operating table, and they get on; and to take the anaesthetic, and they take it; and so save all concerned any amout of time. We had to join the coasting steamer at Venghrla, and in order to do so we had to get into little flat-bottomed boats with about six oars. The heat was terrific, for there was no shade; whatever on the little boats. The steamer hugged the coast all the way along; the only diversion was at a port when a whole crowd of Indians tried to scramble up the gangway together. The sailors, we noticed, were generally very good in helping the people across the boat and up the gangway. At one port, a big, fat Hindu got on board, and before he did anything he stood with his hands on his hips regarding us for quite ten minutes. He then surveyed everyone else on deck, and finally, satisfied with his observations, he spread out his bed and lay down.

Every port was very pretty; each had coacoanut palms all round the beach—they do look lovely and cool. One port—l have forgotten the name of it—had a big fort made of stone. There one could see the big holes which General Clive’s cannon made when he fought in Western India—the only place he did. fight in in Western India, I believe. Our destination was R.atnagiri, a town of about 15,000 inhabitants. The language they spoke there was Marathi, a thing we were glad of, for it is so interesting to be able to ask questions and receive answers without an interpreter. Every evening we were taken down to a special bathing place, and how we did enjoy the hours spent in the cool water ! -

Ratnagiri is historical in that the ex-king of Burma was exiled there. Apparently in Burma things were pretty much in the hand's of his wife. She had thousands of people done away with for the slightest provocation, so it was thought advisable to exile King Thibau and all his family. Here, he was given a big bungalow to live in and about £2OO a month to live on. He had a retinue of about 200 servants, and consequently got into debt. Later he was built a pretty place called the palace, and he. was given a bigger income—but all the same he went into debt. The Government paid his debts, and then told all the merchants that in future no debts would be paid. Some time after this he died, and when the body had to be removed the old queen said she would commit suicide in front of the tomb. A Buddhist priest was sent lor, and then the body was interred. The Government now wanted to send back the family to Burma in order to get husbands for the princesses. The youngest of the princesses evidently ruled the family, and said they would not go without the body of their father. This the Government would not allow, as probably it would cause trouble in Burma. Finally the resident missionary got the royal family to agree that " they would go. When they went the people, or, rather, the English people there, were greatly relieved, for the Burmese wera always giving trouble. Thus the royal family of Burma became extinct.

We returned from our very interesting visit after a week, back to our own home in Belgaum.