Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, on Friday began daily direct state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 flights from Colombo to Delhi and Mumbai.

Jet Airways will provide a convenient early morning service to India’s national capital Delhi and a late night departure to the financial capital Mumbai. With this, the airline will offer seamless connectivity through the two strategic hubs to key Indian cities, as well as to several destinations across North America, Europe, as well as destinations across the Gulf, Middle East and Far East on the airline network.

On the Colombo-Delhi sector, flight 9W 257 will depart Colombo at 0750 hours and reach Delhi at 1130 hours while on the return leg, 9W 258 will depart Delhi at 1305 hours and arrive Colombo at 1640 hours. Flight 9W 255 will depart Colombo at 2045 hours and reach Mumbai at 2320 hours while flight 9W 256 will depart Mumbai at 0210 hours and reach Colombo at 0445 hours.

The commencement of these two new flights between Sri Lanka and India, are in addition to the existing double daily Colombo – Chennai – Colombo services. The Airline launched International operations to Colombo – Chennai – Colombo in 2004.

Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan said: “Jet Airways is delighted to provide direct links from the financial and the national capital to the Emerald Isle, which is fast emerging as a highly rated global tourism destination. We are happy to offer seamless connections to several destinations to our guests from Colombo across our Global network through our two important gateways of Delhi and Mumbai.

We are also happy at the same time to strengthen air connectivity to destinations within the SAARC region with convenient connections to both Kathmandu and Dhaka via Delhi.”

The airline will deploy the state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft, offering 8 Premiere and 162 economy class seats. Guests will also be treated to the airline’s award-winning in-flight product that is among the best in its class.

Sri Lanka is fast becoming the tourism destination for holiday and leisure traveller across the globe, known for its beaches, magnificent landscapes, ecologically-wondrous forests and abundance of wildlife.

Jet Airways is offering attractive inaugural fares as part of this launch, for which guests may get in touch with their nearest travel agent or the airline office 0112475375 or log on to www.jetairways.com

Jet Airways currently operates a fleet of 91 aircraft, which includes 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 12 Airbus A330-200 aircraft, 55 next generation Boeing 737-700/800/900 aircraft and 14 modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. With an average fleet age of 5.10 years, the airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleets in the world. Flights to 65 destinations span the length and breadth of India and beyond, including New York (both JFK and Newark), Toronto, Brussels, London (Heathrow), Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jeddah, Sharjah, Riyadh and Dammam.

Jet Airways Konnect is Jet Airways’ all-economy service on key domestic routes, designed to meet the needs of the low-fare segment with value-for-money fares. Jet Airways Konnect links seven major metros – Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata – with several destinations across India, operating over 200 flights daily.

Konnect Select’ is a premium economy product introduced on certain Jet Airways Konnect flights. This new front cabin class features wider and more comfortable seats, with a 40 inch seat pitch. The services include complimentary in-flight reading material, a welcome drink, and complimentary hot meals on-board.

JetLite is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jet Airways India Ltd. and was acquired by Jet Airways in April 2007. Positioned as an all-economy, no-frills airline, JetLite operates a fleet of 22 aircraft, which includes 16 Boeing 737 series and 2 Canadian Regional Jets 200 Series, aircraft. The airline flies to 25 domestic destinations and 2 international destinations (Kathmandu and Colombo), operating over 110 flights a day, on average. Jet Airways, Jet Airways Konnect, its all-economy, no-frills service, and JetLite have a combined fleet strength of 112 aircraft and operate over 500 flights daily.

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After a recent tour of Incredible India we would like to introduce you to eight of the best hotels which we had the pleasure of staying at during our recent trip. We have hand picked these hotels because of several factors that we thought were important to the first-time visitor to India. If you have had any bad experiences at these wonderful hotels, then please feel free to leave your comments below – which may also help us review our picks in an effort to help other travellers avoid any bad experiences.

Our Top Hotel Picks

The Mercure, Hyderabad

Mercure belongs to a network of distinctive hotels that share the same characteristics, staffed by hospitality professionals who are attentive and passionate about their work, its atmosphere is warm and friendly marked by a bold and a classic style and all areas are designed for guest comfort. Located only minutes away from “Charminar” and in the buzzing area of Abids in Hyderabad, Mercure Abids is a boutique hotel that is ideal for business or leisure. Having around 640 hotels across the world, it is the second Mercure hotel in India managed by Accor Hospitality. The International Mercure hotel offers 82 large and well equipped large and spacious rooms, including 8 suites. We at Mercure Hyderabad Abids also provide you with a memorable and exhilarating experience, with our best service standards and mouth watering succulent Indian and International vegetarian delicacies. Additionally, the fully stocked “Scotchman bar” will feature international selection of spirits and a wide variety of fine local wines at affordable prices differentiating itself from the competition. For business travellers the hotel features a dedicated lounge for internet access and state-of-the-art facilities for meetings and conferences. The meeting rooms at the lobby level and the top floor all pillar less banquet venues also provide excellent options for private parties and themed events for up to 800 guests. Mercure Hyderabad Abids nurtures the personality that resonates with its local environment offering the guest the pleasure of discovering authentic products and services. This description is based on information provided by the hotel.

A Beach Symphony, Kerala

A Beach Symphony is a languid getaway on the silvery sands of Marari Beach. Located in Alleppey in Kerala on the west coast of southern India, the 2-star hotel is a beach paradise which offers cottages with huge verandas and private gardens. The warm and homely ambience of the hotel has been created and conceived with the guest in mind. All rooms come with air-conditioning, 24-hour room service and wake up call. Essential services include doctor on call, private dining services, laundry and car parking. Guests can simply enjoy the stunning sunset on the beach or watch the dolphins play near the sea shore. Our aim is to offer impeccable privacy and efficient service, and for guests to sit back and feel time unravel during their holiday.

The Manor Hotel, New Delhi

Situated in within a mile of many major attractions, Manor Hotel New Delhi is one of the more convenient hotels of New Delhi. The National Museum, the famous India Gate, the Presidential Palace and the extremely popular Connaught Place market are all within five miles of the grounds. Manor Hotel New Delhi is located at 77 Friends Colony (West) and is 8.2 miles from the Indira Gandhi Airport.

All of the guest bedrooms in Manor Hotel New Delhi will come furnished with an entertainment centre, luxury bedding and linens, a private balcony, climate controls, direct dial phone service, bottled water, a minibar, a full-sized bathroom with tub, signature toiletries, a personal safe, satellite TV, high-speed Internet access, and views.

Guests of Manor Hotel New Delhi will greatly appreciate the fine facilities and services, including the 24-hour front desk service, banqueting facilities, a lounge with bar service, a business service centre, a news stand, free daily breakfast service, a concierge desk, laundry and dry cleaning services, banqueting facilities, a spa with massage and beauty treatments, a tour desk, a car hire service, meeting and conference rooms, free parking on the premises, private gardens and grounds, an in-house restaurant, and room service.

Ginger Hotel, New Delhi

Located just outside the city centre, the Ginger Hotel New Delhi offers affordable accommodation and is an ideal base for holiday makers and business travellers alike. Amenities offered include a fitness centre and meeting rooms.

Tea and coffee making facilities, cable / satellite channels and a tv are included in the room. A mini bar is included in every room.

Bengali Market, Connaught Place and Mahatma Gandhi Park are a short drive from the Ginger Hotel New Delhi. Jama Masjid and Sadar Bazaar are within a 20-minute walk from the hotel. Jantar Mantar (Delhi) is 5 minutes away by car.

Amanbagh Rajasthan Resort, Alwar

The Amanbagh Palace Hotel is located in Alwar making it one of the best hotels to stay at while in town. All hotel’s guestrooms have all the conveniences expected in a hotel in its class to suit guests’ utmost comforts. Each guestroom has non smoking rooms, air conditioning, mini bar, balcony/terrace. Guests staying at this Alwar accommodation can enjoy a wide range of hotel facilities such as shops, bar/pub, laundry service/dry cleaning, restaurant, room service. Hotel’s guests can experience on-site latest leisure and sports facilities such as massage, spa, outdoor pool , garden. These top-class facilities are complemented to excellent services to meet the needs of visitors to Alwar.

The Lalit Grand Palace Hotel, Srinagar

Formerly the palace residence of the Maharajas,The LaLiT Grand Palace Srinagar is a twin storey heritage property.located on the foothills of Zabarwan mountain range. The palace has been carefully restored with meticulous reformation and is today a full facility destination. Adjoining the palace are two international standard golf courses including the 18-hole Royal Springs Golf course designed by the world-renowned Golf course architect Robert Jones Jr.

With a total of 112 guest rooms spread over 2 residential floors, The LaLiT Grand Palace Srinagar provides guests with an option to choose from Palace Deluxe room, Palace Suites, Maharani Suites or the Presidential Suites, which are known as the Maharaja Suite. The LaLiT Grand Palace Srinagar offers guest a host of dining options with its multi-cuisine restaurant The Chinar and the specialty dining restaurant The Chinar Gardens serving continental food. Guests can also enjoy their favorite drink or a cocktail at The Dal Bar or The Underworld

The LaLiT Grand Palace Srinagar is located at a distance of 17 Kms from the Srinagar International Airport and is just 4 Kms from the city center. The hotel is close to major tourist attractions of the city and the world famous Mughal gardens are situated at just 15 minutes drive from the hotel

The House of MG Hotel, Ahmedabad

Discover all that Ahmedabad has to offer with The House Of MG Hotel as a base.
The The House Of MG Hotel boasts a convenient location with modern amenities in every guestroom and superb service. Each guestroom features amenities such as air conditioning, in room safe, internet access – LAN.

Guests staying at this Ahmedabad accommodation can enjoy a wide range of hotel facilities such as shops, executive floor, meeting facilities. Leisure and sports facilities available on the hotel’s property comprise spa, gym. This hotel is characterized by a combination of modern comfort and traditional element of Ahmedabad, making it a distinct accommodation.

Barwara Kothi Guest House, Jaipur

The Barwara Kothi is perfectly located for both business and leisure guests to Jaipur. All hotel’s guestrooms have all the conveniences expected in a hotel in its class to suit guests’ utmost comforts. Each guestroom is tastefully appointed with non smoking rooms, air conditioning, hair dryer, internet access, ironing board, television. This Jaipur accommodation contains all of the facilities and conveniences you would expect from a hotel in its class. Leisure and sports facilities available on the hotel’s property comprise garden. Along with its convenient location in Jaipur, the hotel also offers a wide range of services and facilities to the guests. The hotel creates a balance of rich culture and modern convenience to ensure you a memorable stay.

Scotia Prince, the super luxury ferry service provided by Flamingo Liners between India and Sri Lanka has decided to reduce the charges with immediate effect.

The move is aimed at attracting more passengers during the upcoming festive and tourist seasons.

The ferry service currently runs between the Colombo Harbour and the Indian port of Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, also known as Thoothukudi, twice a week. Currently the ferry leaves Tuticorin on Mondays and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. and arrives in Colombo following day 8:00 a.m. It leaves Colombo port on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6:00 p.m.

Economy class single berth one way ticket between the two destinations is US$ 78.00 at present. Economy cabin passengers are allowed to carry 100 kgs of baggage.

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Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, will introduce daily direct state of the art Boeing 737-800 flights to Colombo from Mumbai and Delhi, effective tomorrow – November 5, 2010.

Flight 9W 256 will depart Mumbai daily at 0210 hours reaching Colombo at 0445 hours. On the return sector, flight 9W 255 will depart Colombo at 2045 hours and reach Mumbai at 2320 hours.

On the Colombo- Delhi sector, 9W 258 will depart Colombo at 0750 hours and reach Delhi at 1130 hours. On the return, flight 9W 257 will depart Delhi at 1305 hours and arrive at Colombo at 1640 hours.

The commencement of these two new flights between India and Sri Lanka , are in addition to the existing double daily Chennai- Colombo – Chennai services. The Airline launched International operations to Chennai- Colombo – Chennai in 2004.

With this enhanced connectivity, Colombo will now be connected to Jet Airways’ two strategic hubs – Delhi and Mumbai, thus offering its guests seamless connectivity through the two key Indian cities onto several destinations across North America, Europe, as well as destinations across the Gulf, Middle East and Far East on the Jet Airways network.

According to Mr. Sudheer Raghavan, CCO, Jet Airways, “Jet Airways is delighted to provide direct links from the financial and the national capital to the Emerald Isle, which is fast emerging as a highly rated global tourism destination. We are happy to offer seamless connections to several destinations to our guests from Colombo across our Global network through our two important gateways of Delhi and Mumbai. We are also happy at the same time to strengthen air connectivity to destinations within the SAARC region with convenient connections to both Kathmandu and Dhaka via Delhi.”

The airline will deploy the state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft, offering 8 Premiere and 162 economy class seats. Guests will also be treated to the airline’s award-winning in-flight product that is among the best in its class.

Sri Lanka is fast becoming the tourism destination for holiday and leisure traveler across the globe, known for its beaches, magnificent landscapes, ecologically-wondrous forests and abundance of wildlife.

Jet Airways is offering attractive inaugural fares as part of this launch, for which guests may get in touch with their nearest travel agent or the airline office.

*Subject to receipt of requisite approvals

Source – Jet Airways

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Two new international airlines have announced that they will commence services to Colombo from next month.

SpiceJet, a low-cost airline based in Chennai, announced that it will operate flights from Colombo to Chennai and Chennai to Colombo from 9th October this year.

Jet Airways India, one of the fastest growing airlines too announced earlier of its plans to launch charter flights to Sri Lanka from Brussels, from October.

Four new international airlines have already started operations to Sri Lanka since the end of war. They are Air Asia, Fly Dubai, Oman Air and Indian Express.

Jet Airways has so far not got official permission to launch additional flights to Colombo, Sri Lanka, four months after it applied, an airline official said.

“We submitted a proposal to the Government seeking permission to fly to Colombo from more Indian destinations. But even after four months, we are still awaiting Government’s response,” the official said here.

The airline presently operates one daily flight between Chennai and Colombo but it plans to fly to the Sri Lankan capital from New Delhi and Mumbai, besides a few other destinations.

A code-share agreement between state-run Air India and Sri Lankan Airlines is understood to be coming in the way of Jet Airways proposal, the official indicated.

The premier private carrier is understood to be eyeing the traffic to Europe and the Middle-east through its proposed Mumbai-Colombo service.

The Civil Aviation Ministry generally seeks flight plans from the national carrier when a new market is opened or seat entitlements on a particular international or domestic sector are increased.

With Jet Airways posting Rs 58 crore net profit in last quarter of 2010 financial year on the back of economic recovery and pick up in demand, the airlines is mulling some new routes which it may propose to launch in the winter schedule, the official said yesterday.

READ REVIEWS AND BOOK HOTELS IN SRI LANKA – HERE!

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Sri Lanka has become the new location for the Bollywood film ‘Ready’ staring Salman Khan and Asin in lead roles. “The film industry is large and this is only the start”, said line producer, CEO Film Location Services Ltd Chandran Rutnam.

Previously the Indian film industry shunned Sri Lanka as a film location due to the long running internal conflict in the island nation. But with the separatist fight coming to an end in May 2009, the Indian film industry has quickly capitalised on the beautiful scenery, lush jungles, stunning beaches and the indisputable charm Sri Lanka has to offer.

Actor Salman Khan said he was happy that he was able to convince the producers to shift the location from Mauritius to Sri Lanka where we can get everything necessary to shoot a film within two hours from India. It is easy on production as well. A lot of film shoots should happen here.

Khan said Sri Lankan technicians are great and he never saw a difference between them and the Indians.

The main actress in the film Asin said that this partnership will create positive responses. “As we are neighbouring countries and don’t feel that I am away from home”.

Director Wizcraft, Sabbas Joseph said that he was happy that IIFA has built bridges and opened opportunities for Sri Lanka and India to become closer.

Films always bond people. The beautiful locations and hospitable people will ensure that Sri Lanka is a much sort after film location in the future.

Chairman, Ceylon Film Corporation Kumar Abeysinghe said that they will spend over US$ 1/2 million. He said that all support will be given for foreign producers to shoot their films in Sri Lanka.

Rutnam said that 80 Sri Lankans are involved in the film. Though they are spending US$ 1/2 million, the benefits will be much bigger as locations will attract more tourists to the country in addition to promoting Sri Lanka as a location for films.

The movie will be filmed over a 30 day period in major locations in and around Colombo. 50 – 60% of the movie will showcase Sri Lanka.

The first day of shooting was celebrated with the blessings of Sri Lanka’s miracle doctor, Eliyantha White. In a move endorsed by the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa Dr. White will now treat all visiting Bolywood celebrities free of charge.

Producers of the movie Rajat Rawail and Kishan Kumar said: “Sri Lanka as a destination offers so much scope for film makers.

The locations are breathtaking, food exquisite, the people incredibly warm and hospitable.

It’s an exciting period in the cinematic history of Sri Lanka and we are happy to be pioneering this movement in partnership with Sri Lanka Tourism”.

Approximately 140 Indian film crew members arrived in Sri Lanka for the shoot.

However a local line producer has also come on board Rutnam to assist in the project and will provide the necessary equipment and support in addition to help identifying local skills and talent to be used in the movie.

The Director of the movie is veteran film maker Anees Bazmee who has spent a lifetime on the creative side of film making in Bollywood. He is also the main writer amongst Rajeev Kaul, Ikram Akhtar and Nisar Akhtar.

Anees has risen to be one of the most sought after writers for more than 15 years. Films directed by him have invariably been the biggest hits in which they were released – Singh is King, Benaam, Welcome, Sandwich, No Entry, Dewangee, Pyaartoh Hona He Tha, Hulchul.

As per FICCI’s survey 2.8 billion people watch a Hindi Movie in the first week of its release while 4.8 billion people worldwide watch the film in the first 15 days of its release.

The movie will be released with 2000 prints, which will be distributed in India and worldwide. It will reach out to more than 50-60 countries simultaneously. The movie will be released in July 2011 and will be premiered in Sri Lanka as well as India.

READ REVIEWS AND BOOK HOTEL IN SRI LANKA – HERE!

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On the 40th death anniversary of the English novelist E. M. Forster, Russell Bowden recalls his Colombo production, four decades ago, of a dramatisation of the writer’s most famous novel. Stephen Prins reports

FORTY-EIGHT years ago, in the early Sixties, two Englishmen (actually, one was Welsh) crossed paths in India in the

Russell Bowden takes out a poster of his 1968 production at the Lionel Wendt Theatre of “A Passage To India”. Pic by Sanka Vidanagama

course of their separate lines of duty and became close friends. They worked for the same widespread and influential British organisation – one as a librarian, the other as an English teacher.

The librarian was based in Delhi, and the teacher had come out to India to get over a traumatic experience in Myanmar (then Burma) – the notorious July 7, 1962 incident, in which the military broke up a peaceful student protest on the campus of Rangoon University and killed more than 100 young people. Among the dead were students and friends of the teacher. India was a healing ground, and the teacher would later teach others, as he did his librarian friend, to appreciate the wonders of India.

They were not your typical Englishmen in India, which was perhaps the main binding factor between them. Both shared a mixture of pride and embarrassment about the story of Empire. Theirs was an apologetic, post-colonial awkwardness, an overall uncertainty about the ultimate benefits of the great imperial experience and the confusing sum of its contradictory parts. This was some two decades after India had gained Independence.

The other binding factor in the relationship was a profound love of books, and of literature. The Welshman had left behind a job as professor of English literature at Rangoon University, and the Englishman was overseeing the movement of thousands of books between some 18 libraries scattered across the subcontinent. Both were attached to the British Council. After some months of teaching English at an Army outpost on the edge of a jungle in Panchmahri, in Madhya Pradesh, the Welshman came down to Delhi to take up a teaching job at St. Stephen’s College, a constituent college of Delhi University.

The two Delhi-based friends could now spend more time together. They went out of their way to befriend Indians, and travelled widely in order to understand the country better. Three years later, in 1966, it was time for them to move on to their next British Council postings, and they parted ways ahead of taking up their subsequent overseas assignments. As it turned out, they did not have a lot of sea to cross. Serendipitously (how that radiant, Serendib-begotten word keeps coming back), they found themselves stationed right next door – in Ceylon, formerly known as Serendib.

An ornamental elephant in his home reminds Russell Bowden of his years in India.

One turned up in Colombo some months after the other. The teacher, not knowing what the British Council had in store for him, had gone back to England for a break, while the librarian flew directly from Mumbai (then Bombay) to Colombo. Coincidentally, the British Council had put Russell Bowden and Raymond Adlam together again, unaware that they had been confreres back in India.

Russell Bowden took up the job of British Council Librarian, at Stuart House, Kollupitiya, while Raymond Adlam was assigned to the Ministry of Education to advise on the teaching of English as a second language.

Needless to say, the friends were delighted to be on the same turf, once again, and immediately picked up their literary conversation from where they had left off. They had many shared interests – music, opera, literature and the theatre. Both had been amateur thespians back in England. Mr. Bowden had trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, while Mr. Adlam had been involved in drama societies in Cambridge, where he was a student; at one point he had worked in the same theatre company as fellow Welshman, the film and Shakespearean actor, Richard Burton.

Theatre and books consumed their conversation, but there was one book in particular that held a strongly personal resonance for them. It became a reference, something to repeatedly turn to for illumination of the Englishman’s predicament in India. The book mirrored the complexities and frustrations of the Anglo-Indian experience, of which they were a part.

E. M. Forster’s A Passage To India, the great 1924 novel of the British Raj, was a classic study of the social and psychological tensions between the assertive English and the proud but largely passive Indians, two ultimately irreconcilable entities.

The bare bones of the story concern four people – Dr. Aziz, a young Muslim Indian physician; Cyril Fielding, the middle-aged headmaster of a state school for Indians; Adela Quested, a young English school teacher who is visiting India, and Mrs. Moore, mother of the young man Adela Quested is to marry.

The plot is built around the incident of the Marabar Caves, which the two English women visit in the company of Dr. Aziz. Miss Quested has a mysterious, overwhelming psychological experience, alone, inside the caves, and blames Dr. Aziz for it, falsely accusing him of molestation. Scandal, a trial, and a series of personal tragedies in the form of ruined friendships follow, leaving the big open question of whether the British and the Indians – the rulers and the ruled – can ever be true friends.

Russell Bowden had seen a powerful dramatisation of the book done by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in Stratford-on-Avon, and that had started him dreaming of producing the play himself, somewhere, some day.

“It was marvellous, and after seeing it I sent for the play, by Santha Rama Rao, and read it, and it seemed to capture the essence of the novel,” said Russell Bowden, relaxing in his Kottawa, Piliyandala home, surrounded by his beloved books and mementoes of his travels, including an ornamental wood sculpture from India of an elephant carrying passengers on its back – a very cinematic British Raj image.

“That was the inspiration for my wanting to do the play – and also the fact that I am anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, in my politics,” Mr. Bowden said. “E. M. Forster was not overtly anti-colonialist, but it is there in the book and the play, and that attracted me to the work.

“And it seemed sensible to do the play here in Ceylon, where you didn’t have to have Alec Guinness blacked up to be an Indian. You could take Winston Serasinghe as he was. Also, I was very friendly with Ernest McIntyre, who had his own Sinhala theatre group, Stage & Set. Ernest had done the first Sinhala production of Bertolt Brecht, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, in 1966. And that set me thinking I ought to do the play of Forster’s novel.”

Mr. Bowden’s intellectual partner in his performing arts dreams, Raymond Adlam, played a crucial role throughout. “Raymond was a creative amanuensis. Before we even decided to do the play, we went up to some remote tea estate where a planter had said we could use his bungalow. And we took with us piles of books, and we read and read, and talked and talked. And we went for walks. The deep insights that were needed to do A Passage To India came from Raymond’s intellect and creativity.”

Resolved to do the play, Mr. Bowden now had to think about the casting. This should have been a natural process, with available expatriates easily slipping into the British roles and locals playing the Indian characters, but it was not to be as easy as that.

The roles of the English characters had their ready takers, with British teacher Raymond Adlam fitting into the part of English teacher Cyril Fielding like a hand in a tennis glove. But what about the other, complex Indian characters? Who could play them?

East is East, West is West: Dhamma Jagoda as Dr. Aziz and Sally James as Adela Quested.

“Who should play Aziz? I don’t remember who suggested the late Dhamma Jagoda, but when I approached him, he was extremely nervous,” Mr. Bowden said. “He had never acted in English. He had never been part of the English theatre group. He had never spent much time among English-speaking people. His milieu had always been Sinhala. It took a lot of gentle talking by Raymond and me to persuade him that he was capable of doing it. Raymond would help him with his English, and I told him that I, as director, would be very easy on him. But that wasn’t necessary.

“Dhamma was theatre through and through. His English may in some places have been inhibited by what he understood of the text, but his ability to understand what was required of the character, and to marry the personality of Dhamma with the personality of Aziz – which is, of course, what acting is about – was absolutely first rate. He was a true man of the theatre, a very sensitive actor.

“I had left Sri Lanka when Dhamma set up his drama classes for Sinhala actors. I don’t think many people know how

Act 3: The Magistrate’s court – Aziz on trial.

much Dhamma owed to English language theatre. The British Council had arranged drama workshops in which we had people like Rukmani Devi and Douglas Ranasinghe. We ran a workshop on acting and direction with the British director Peter Potter. Dhamma learnt a great deal, and that, I think, was transferred across when he taught in the theatre school he set up. Not many people know of that link.”

A Passage To India was jointly presented, at the close of 1968, by the Ceylon Amateur Drama Club (CADC) and Stage & Set, with actors from the English language and the Sinhala language theatre coming together for only the second time in a major production (the first was The Caucasian Chalk Circle). Raymond Adlam and Dhamma Jagoda were joined by Sally James (as Adela Quested), Marjorie Jayasuriya (as Mrs. Moore), Winston Serasinghe (as Professor Godbole), Ernest McIntyre (as the lawyer, Mr. Amritrao), and Helen McAlpine and Alastair Rosmale-Cocq, among others.

“We did little direction,” Mr. Bowden recalled. “Ernest McIntyre needed little direction, and Winston Serasinghe, as Godbole, gave a much better performance, in my opinion, than Alec Guinness in the same role in David Lean’s film. Guinness was out of his depth playing Godbole, while Winston was superb.”

Mr. Bowden said a lot of thought had gone into the stage design, but even so the sets were incomplete when the curtain went up on the first night, on November 24, 1968 .

The director closely supervised the making of the sets, which were designed by Douglas Jayasinghe, the costumes, designed by Kirti Sri Karunaratne, and the lighting, executed by Herft & Sons.

“Act One shows the living room in Fielding’s home. The set and the lighting had to suggest 4 o’clock on an April afternoon in the early Twenties. Fielding’s house was set up to look like a faded Muslim upper-class residence fallen on hard times, with grand Islamic arches and so on, while Fielding’s furniture was drab government issue, contrasting oddly in a middle-class British way with the former magnificence of the house.

“The Marabar Hills of Act Two, which were to be evoked in a hilly-looking cutout running round the foot of the stage, never materialised, not even on the last day. “To catch the feel of the period, we went on a hectic search in the Pettah for a two-bladed ceiling fan for the court scene in Act Three. The scene opens with the slow movement of Edward Elgar’s Second Symphony as a prelude to Aziz’s downfall, and Fielding’s downfall, and the downfall of almost everyone, except the Raj itself.”

E. M. Forster remembered: Photo study by Jane Bown

In a way, the sets were a version of the bigger, outdoors “stage sets” the British had created to sustain their idea of themselves playing out their roles in their idea of Imperial India – an illusion that was supported by the work of the distinguished British architect Edwin Lutyens, who created “New Delhi”.

The play ran from the last week of November into the first week of December 1968, a couple of weeks before E. M. Forster’s 90th birthday, which fell on January 1, 1969. The production was offered as a “humble tribute” to the writer. E. M. Forster died 18 months later, on June 7, 1970.

Russell Bowden was reminiscing about Forster’s most famous book on the 40th anniversary, almost to the day, of Forster’s death. He is wistful about the play, 41 years later.

“This is a lost production,” he lamented. “Nobody remembers it. The book ‘Applause at the Wendt’, which sets out to list the major shows at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, fails to make any references to A Passage To India. And yet it ran for 10 performances, the longest run of shows for a Sri Lankan production at the time.

“I remember going into the auditorium one evening during one of the performances, and feeling the warmth of the audience, their concentration, and I remember thinking, yes, we have achieved something. I was trying to be realistic about the amount of work we had put in, and the results of that work.” Mr. Bowden credits the now forgotten Lionel Wendt Arts Centre Club for providing much of the motivation he needed to put on the show.

“I cannot emphasise enough the role of the club in the conceptualisation, rehearsing and production of the play. The Arts Centre was not just a drinking place. We drank, but not to excess. We talked, obsessively, about theatre. A Passage To India was a major event. My imagination was enriched by what people said over an arakku, a beer, a gin and tonic.

“It was a meeting place for theatre-holics. Reggie Siriwardene, Doric de Souza from Peradeniya, knocking down the arakkus, the De Mels of Quickshaws – they were all there. It was a place where intellectuals in the theatre could get together. Dhamma was there. Raymond was there. They were all there.

“The Arts Centre Club played a great role. It was a tragedy that the management allowed it to go broke. A great loss, particularly now that the local theatre is so rich in English language theatre. The meeting ground has gone, and that is very sad. It should be re-sponsored and re-opened. It should be there.”

By Stephen Prins
Colombo 2010

A Passage To India: Santha Rama Rao wrote the stage play based on the Forster novel.

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For centuries, only a few hardy tourists have joined the hundreds of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Tibetan Bon pilgrims who make an annual trek to Asia’s holiest peak, Mount Kailash.

Many Tibetan nomads still walk across the high plains and mountains that isolate Kailash from the rest of the world, often carrying tents, bedding and cooking pots on packhorses.

The Tibetans’ traditional pilgrimages to the 6,675-metre holy mountain can take weeks or even months, especially if they perform prostrations along the whole route, but most now reduce the journey to a few days by hiring trucks or jeeps.

Tourists usually reach the area from India or Nepal by crossing China’s nearby Himalayan borders or from Lhasa, the capital of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.

That could change dramatically next year when plane-loads of tourists are scheduled to begin arriving at a newly expanded airport in Tibet’s Ali, also known as Nagri, which administers Kailash.

The airport expansion is a key part of a government plan for development of tourism infrastructure to create a new Sacred Mountain Holy Lake Scenic Area around Kailash and the nearby Lake Mansarovar, said Li Yujian, head of the Ali tourism bureau.

“Ali airport has finished construction and will be put into trial use this year and full use next year,” Li said by telephone.

“My expectation is that at the beginning, there will be one flight to Lhasa every few days,” he said. “We will gradually adjust the flights later, according to the rise in the number of tourists.”

The state-run Tibet Tourism company has acquired the development rights to the new Kailash scenic area in cooperation with Ali’s Burang county government, Li said.

Tibet Tourism plans to invest up to 600 million yuan ($88 million) over the next few years to “make the Sacred Mountain Holy Lake Scenic Area into a national-level, and even a world-level, fine-quality tourist area”, a Tibet regional government website reported.

It plans to upgrade the main road from Lhasa and build hotels and restaurants near Kailash, where the small village of Darchen serves as the transit point and campsite for Tibetan pilgrims.

The price of a tourist ticket for the Kailash area, to which Tibetans are admitted free, has already risen to 200 yuan, Li said.

“We expect several thousand tourists this year,” he said.

“Last year, the situation was really bad,” Li said, apparently referring to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s suspension of tourism in Tibet for much of the year after widespread unrest and anti-Chinese protests.

“There will be a sharp rise in the future,” he said of the tourism development plan. “I am confident of that.”

China has already developed several Tibetan areas into major tourist destinations, such as Lhasa and the official Shangri-la tourist town in Yunnan province.

The Communist Party said it has improved the economies of some of the country’s poorest and remotest areas by attracting tourists from China’s affluent cities.

Yet supporters of Tibetan exiles argued that the development largely benefits China’s Han ethnic majority and rides roughshod over Tibetan culture and religion.

“Tibetans welcome appropriate and responsible development that respects their cultural and religious traditions but not the fast-track commercialisation that Beijing is prioritising in so many areas of Tibet including now in the sacred Mount Kailash region,” said Kate Saunders, communications director of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet.

“Claims that it will help develop the area are, essentially, bogus,” Matt Whitticase of the London-based Free Tibet Campaign said of the tourism development in Tibetan areas.

“The model is effectively based on rapidly developing infrastructure … with little or no regard to how that model of tourism is impacting on the environment,” Whitticase said.

As well as upgrading access to Kailash, local authorities have improved the pilgrims’ path, or kora, around the snow-capped peak in recent years.

Trucks and jeeps can now drive along about half the 57-km kora, raising speculation that a circular vehicle route could be completed by building a road over the steep 5,636-metre pass of Dolma-la, where Tibetan pilgrims believe they are reborn.

An official from Tibet Tourism declined to discuss its plans for Kailash, saying only that the project was “in preparation” and a senior official had discussed it with the national government in Beijing in early April.

But Li said the development would “protect normal religious activity” and the environment around Kailash. It was “impossible” to complete a road around Kailash, he said.

“It is a sacred place, and a road would kill its sacred meaning,” Li said.

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Ahead of the polls, several citizens’ groups have asked candidates of various political parties to support their demand for heritage city status to Agra visited by millions of tourists every year.

Party candidates are being asked to clarify their stand on various issues that concern the development of this historic city.

As the city celebrates World Heritage Day Friday, questions have also been raised about the poor conservation efforts and the failure of authorities to rid the three World Heritage monuments (the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri) of ugly encroachments.

Historians, conservationists and activists met at a round table conference Thursday organised by the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society. They expressed concern at the indifference shown by the city administration to check encroachments which were not only disfiguring the historical ambience but were also threatening some valuable structures that were less known but historically important.

“The Archaeological Survey of India was dragging its feet in implementing its own rules as well as the directives of the Supreme Court of India, in respect to new constructions and maintenance of the older ones,” said Surendra Sharma, president of the society.

With land prices sky-rocketing, and builders of all sorts making a beeline to usurp every inch of available space in the city, the survival of many of the smaller and less known structures has become uncertain, according to social activist Netra Pal Singh.

Before independence there used to be “more than 240 monuments in and around Agra but now fewer than 50 exist”, Sharma said. “Who has gobbled up all these symbols of history, the pride of India?” asked concerned members of the society.

“Conservation and preservation have to be a joint venture of government agencies and people’s organisations, as it was not always possible to police all the monuments,” Amit Mukerjea, head of the history department, St John’s College, told IANS.

A large number of monuments including Christian cemeteries have disappeared, their land acquired by colonisers and government town planners. “The Protestant cemetery in Bagh Farzana has almost disappeared with a dozen shops mushrooming around it,” said Mukerjea.

The city looked better planned and maintained in the 1960s and 70s than it does today, say the old timers, despite a plethora of development bodies and urban planning agencies which have actually made a mess of the Mughal metropolis.

Babar’s Ram Bagh across the river and Mariam’s tomb near Sikandra are just a few feeling the heat and being threatened by squatters. The Archaeological Survey of India routinely sends out notices but the district administration rarely takes any action.

Mukerjea said the open spaces around the monuments were deliberately left for gardens and green cover as these buildings were made to perfection with amazing geometrical precision.

While the local historians and voluntary groups have long been agitating for a heritage status for Agra, the governments at the state and centre have not shown any urgency in the matter. When the question was raised in the Supreme Court three years ago, the central government stated that the city did not deserve a heritage status because of its unplanned haphazard development.

This angered the urban planners and historians of the city who asked “whose fault was it that the city was not following the master plan and was growing haphazardly in all directions.”

Conservationists feel there are a “whole lot of contradictions in the government stand, because till date nobody has clarified which areas of the city come under the heritage description and which structures need conservation efforts,” historian R.C. Sharma told IANS.

“Yes, in the so called modern Agra there is evidence of haphazard planning and irrational growth, but then those are not the heritage pieces one would like preserved,” says N.R. Smith, a chronicler of Agra’s modern history.

“We have to begin by demarcating the areas as Mughal Agra, British Agra and the Agra Development Authority’s Agra. Only then can one go ahead with conserving the real heritage of the city of the Taj Mahal. And those who think people and their work places need to be demolished to make way for modern malls or parking slots are only hurting the spirit of conservation.”

Granting heritage city status to Agra, feel tourism industry leaders, will trigger a series of changes. It will ensure that foreign tourists prolong their stay in the city which abounds in monuments.

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Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India, part of the Mahindra Group, is planning major expansion in Kerala, including developing a brand new resort in Wayanad district and increasing the number of its home stays to 150 by the year-end, a top official said.

Declining to reveal the investment details of the resort project in Wayanad in northern Kerala, Mahindra Holidays managing director Ramesh Ramnathan told IANS on phone from Chennai that the project was still on the drawing board.

The company will also develop 50 cottages at their backwater retreat resort in Kollam, which was taken over from a private party 18 months back.

“The Kollam property right now has 23 cottages and we plan to invest Rs.30 crore as part of our expansion and it would be completed later this year,” Ramnathan said.

In October 2008, Mahindra Holidays took over another property, which has 34 cottages, from the Taj group in Thekkady in Idukki district and renamed it as Tusker Trail.

At present, the company’s total investment in Kerala’s tourism sector stands around Rs.150 crore.

The company has also entered into a tie-up with the Kerala Tourism Department for promoting home stays.

“By the end of this year, the total number of home stays will be 150. We will charge a nominal fee for these home stays,” Ramnathan said.

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Mahatma Gandhi’s personal time-keeper, a Zenith pocket watch, which was acquired by liquor baron Vijay Mallya at a controversial New York auction, was a traveller’s symbol of “universality, punctuality and style”, the manufacturer said Monday in a statement.

The 1910 sterling silver pocket watch, said the watch-maker Zenith-LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton Group in a statement Monday, was born out of founder Georges Favre-Jacot’s love for “sharing and togetherness” that inspired travellers across cultures and sexes to “travel together as groups”.

It represented a slice of tourism history, the manufacturer said.

The company recently released rare images of Gandhi’s watch – including the sale certificate.

The pocket watch faithfully accompanied Gandhi during his travels around the globe.

Jacot, who founded the company in 1865, believed in the “universal distribution” of his watches and cashed in on the tourism boom of the early 20th century.

With rapid success, the company, which employed more than 1,000 people by 1875, started producing pocket watches, pendulum clocks and counter instruments for the navy and travellers.

Jacot was awarded a gold medal at the Swiss National Exhibition in Geneva in 1896 and honoured at the Universal Exhibition in Paris four years later.

The early 20th century witnessed the development of travel, particularly with a view to boosting business in an era of international expansion of industry and commerce, as well as exploratory forms of tourism.

“Waking up on time and having a dependable watch were essential prerequisites…and travellers required to rely on a time measuring instrument that would accompany them by day and night,” the manufacturers said.

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