Hi Guys
Just woke up to day Wednesday morning n smelled eggs down stairs. Nephew Ranjiv is an egg maniac. Still half awake I thought for a minute I was still in India.
Believe it or not over in India they have smell free eggs. Did not know untill then that eggs smelled. They have developed a system whereby hens are fed herbs n are kept in quartertine to make sure they dont gobble up worms or chicken feed. N so the eggs served at breakfast are smell free eggs.
The only problem over there as Alan/Susan found was chicken for lunch n dinner day after day. Holy cow n holy pigs are a distant dream Americans dream of. They aint on menu and are taboo. So you can have chicken cooked in 1001 ways. They vowed not to touch chicken for the next ten years once they returned back to New York.
Anyway otherwise they had a grand time gawking at mountains n more mountains n I got enthusiastic too so higher n higher we went till they started shitting. I had the best hill driver I could find to put at their disposal. In all we covered some 5 Indian States spanning some 1500 miles. It can be quite cold at these altitudes of 15000 ft or so.
No sooner they arrived back in USA I started getting emails enquiring when can they come back to see some more n I swore I aint gonna do it no more cause it created a large black hole in my bank account.
And then besides I had my own business to conduct. I took lots n lots of seeds which I sneaked thru customs as it is a small military airport n I was suitably attired. They thought n said to themselves I was General MacAurthur!
Alan/Susan are a tardy lot n have not bothered so far to send more pictures although they took more than 3000 photos. I suspect that being Rotorians they probably are showing them around as they have huge circle of ftiends black ties n all.
The ones I published here are of Royal Gardens of Tanjore which once belonged to a Maharaja but now a national garden. It is some 50 miles in extent n you can see distant hills in the back ground. They were shown n taken around Taj Mahal etc.
The one thing which I wanted to see was Indian Army's method of trench farming at high altitudes. Indian Army has and owns it own vast farms all over India n with some 2 million men in arms is the second largest after the Chinese army. They grow enough food and are self sufficient and not a drain on the country.
I have press cuttings which I will post to Daniel as it might be of interest to him. I would have dearly loved to have Christina with me to identify various plants as well look at very tall pine forests. You definitely need some body very knowledgeable on these holidays in mountains.
The mountains are teeming with wild life with millions of cheeky monkeys, chittal deer, mountain lepoards n millions of colorful humming birds n parakeets.
There is a TOTAL BAN ON HUNTING WITH VERY STIFF PRISON TERMS. Photographers are positively encouraged and there are lots of conservation projects. There are also botanical institutions and herbs are sold n free classes you can attend.
The fishing is magnificant and for a fee of 10 cents you can fish all day for trout and mahaseer, a kind of carp.
Well after coming to America I be heading back to India in January to check up on farm to see how they doing. You guys are invited to join whole heartedly.
I brought some herbs with me as well as pure silver ware to give to Rosie n I also want to see grand daughter INDIA.
Will make some packs for Jan as well as poor Christina as did not have time to send during the past cold Scottish spell. All the trout in the Indian streams were introduced by the Scottish settlers in India. Still quite a few of them living there who speak perfect Indian LOL. Dont use cuss words LOL.


