SRN is an East Londoner and another high quality friend of mine - indeed i am blessed with several! No really … this guy is a top gadgey! I met him during our undergraduate days in Bristol, a fantastic small city in the west of England.
He was also my travelling companion on my first trip to India in May ´89. Whilst I was on the road in Spiti, SRN sent me a 20th Anniversary email which I have inserted below.
Twenty years ago today I was stranded at (until now) an unknown Indian railway station after getting off the train to buy a cold drink.
I think we were travelling between Mount Abu and Udaipur?? I'm guessing as I can't really remember. I got back on the train and found a much more comfortable carriage, than the third class one we were on. However I did not realise that the train would split, so that you went (I think) to Udaipur and I went somewhere else.
Whilst waiting about ten hours for a train to get back to you, I bought with the limited money I had an English language paper which showed two significant headlines - the Ayotollah dying and Tiannamann Square massacre.
I've attached the only photo I took whilst there -I've just noticed the
sign saying Chittaurgarh - I've looked this up on Google Earth, so I know
after 20 years know exactly how lost I was!!
I remember this event well, although i´m pretty sure we were travelling from Ajmer to Mount Abu. Both young and naive, I was somewhat concerned for his well-being. We were meant to be travelling together for a few months, and in the days of pre-email and mobile phones thought I´d lost him for good after just a week. I studied the rail map and presumed that he had got waylaid in Chittaurgarh. Checking out the city in Lonely Planet it noted that there is a stunning five hundred year old fort, and a protest outside a factory where there was one disgruntled worker who had been standing on one leg for over 20 years. I had strong visions SRN would be offering his support to the sole protester – maybe acting as a human crutch?
We did successfully meet up again at the railway station in Mt Abu where shortly after I contracted my first dose of amoebic dysentery (now an old friend) from the first “decent” restaurant we ate in. As the only “foreigners” in town we were mobbed by holidaying and honeymooning Indian tourists – it was totally horrendous.
As you can tell from his photo, SRN is a natural photographer and his photos he took on his Olympus was the inspiration for me to use an SLR camera. When we were squatting in Leytonstone, East London we even managed to set up a small dark room where we would many an enjoyable weekend in front of the enlarger and chemicals.
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