Which Book are you reading

[pragmatic_dude]

'Belgian'? She was part Burmese and claimed that Mannerheim was an uncle of sorts. The 'main opponent' you mention was the Kazi; traditionally, in Sikkim, the Chogyal was never the supreme ruler that Hope Cooke wished him to have been, but just one of the two almost co-rulers.

You are old but goddammit your memory is better than me.I forgot half the names even though I read that part only a day back.I will respond after I consult the book...I am pretty sure they mentioned her as Belgian.Howeever they did not expand much on her so you maybe right on that.

 

[Joe Shearer]

You are old but goddammit your memory is better than me.I forgot half the names even though I read that part only a day back.I will respond after I consult the book...I am pretty sure they mentioned her as Belgian.Howeever they did not expand much on her so you maybe right on that.

We had dinner with them, and I was introduced to 'chhang', which comes in three varieties: boys' chhang, men's chhang, and heroes' chhang. That's how I remember. And yes, I'm THAT old, old enough to remember Hope Cooke and her enfuriating pretensions, leaning forward and repeating every single-word exclamation thrice: 'Really? Really? Really?' She was the Gyalmo, and played the role to the hilt.

 

[pragmatic_dude]

'Belgian'? She was part Burmese and claimed that Mannerheim was an uncle of sorts. The 'main opponent' you mention was the Kazi; traditionally, in Sikkim, the Chogyal was never the supreme ruler that Hope Cooke wished him to have been, but just one of the two almost co-rulers.

Joe, the book name is "the ambassador's club" by Shiv Shankar Menon . The Sikkim chapter is titled "Sunset for the Chogyal" a 23 pages long account by B.S Das who was appointed by then foreign secretary Keval Singh as administrator of Sikkim after the government collapse on 7th April 1973. After objection by Chogyal about his title of "administaror", he diplomatically suggested that he can take the title of "Chief Executive" which the ruler accepted without realizing the implication..

The lady that i mentioned above has two paras dedicated on her in the book , some of the quotes about her in the book :

1) "The third lady to enter the political powerplay in Sikkim was Kazini , a formidable belgian lady married to kazi Lhendup Dorji, the leader of the anti-Chogyal forces.This lady threw her weight around by claiming to have been close once to Kemal Ataruk of Turkey and then Chou Enlai of China. She married the Kazi to be the first lady as the prime minister's wife.She took charge of the anti establishment movement and adopted a Nepalese, Nar Bahadur, as her son to be the leader of the movement. Kazi, a political leader of standing, was used by her as a front for her own ambitions. The Chogyal and Hope cook hated her, treating her with utter contempt. I was often a witness to the enactment of this unpleasant drama"

2) "The american and Belgian ladies played the most destructive role.
3) "Both failed to retain the dignity of the small kingdom with rich cultural traditions.Narrowing down the larger issue of retaining Sikkim identity through a democratic process , they hastened the collapse of their mentors through misplaced actions."

We had dinner with them, and I was introduced to 'chhang', which comes in three varieties: boys' chhang, men's chhang, and heroes' chhang. That's how I remember. And yes, I'm THAT old, old enough to remember Hope Cooke and her enfuriating pretensions, leaning forward and repeating every single-word exclamation thrice: 'Really? Really? Really?' She was the Gyalmo, and played the role to the hilt.

Really you met her. Do expand on that when you have time. What is is 'chang' business?

 

[PakBlood]

I'm reading these:
1-Saving Capitalism:For the Many not the few
2-1984
3-Animal Farm
4-Atlas Shrugged(Will start it soon)

Has anyone read any of these before?
Atlas Shrugged and 1984 are particularly treated as the bible of Libertarianism.I'll hopefully move onto Anarchist literature next.

 

[pragmatic_dude]

Idi Amin'S Uganda - Account by Niranjan Desai
--Quick run of the account--

Asians at that time ran most of the business in Uganda and were one of the most prosperous middle class.This was the cause of some resentment in local populace.

1) 4th August 1972, Uganda Leader outlawed all asians, later modified to include only Indians, Pakistanis and Britishers. His quote "Asians milked the cow but did not feed it"

2) Niranjan Desai along with N.Mukherjee were assigned to Kampala in relation to the extradition of Indians by MEA.

Fun note :
Desai was initially not allowed entry and was forced to board the plane back to kenya. Fearing the embarrassment it would cause to the ministry in the press if news of this leaks ,he managed to convince one of the Kenyan immigration officers, one of whom he recognized to stay there for a bit longer and went to Uganda
via land route.

3) There were restrictions posted on the Asian community as in they could not sell their business, cannot take more than one suitcase each with them. Asian employed a variety of methods like buying a round class ticket and latter cancelling it, smuggling it in jewelry , posting jewelry via postal mail etc . Similar to what happened in India during demonetization.

4) Indian government used extensively the service of Gujrati AIR , which was listened religiously by the community there for all details , procedures etc regarding the departure.

5) Indian and British government reached an understanding where any Indians holding British passport will be given visa be Britan.

Fun note :

Some of the indians who wished to take the sea route to india were transported via train from kampala to mombasa [port city] . On the way they were harassed by Ugandan soldiers who for one pretext or another took even their meager belongings.The Indian government then asked Desai to accompany them in order to prevent that from happening. When desai accompanied them he was stopped by a Captain [who was friendly to india as he had done a short course there], during furnishing his credentials and chatting with the captain,
it was found that a gold chain was snatched from an elderly Goan women in the back carriages by a soldier.
Our guy complained to the captain and got it retrieved. Fearful of reprisal by the soldier who stole in , Desai
invited the captain for drinking and drank with him all night long.

5) Many people including the Chief Justice , popular anchors, opposition leaders were killed under the Amin orders.

6) The economy collapsed immediately after the Asians departure.Food shortages,essential goods shortages became common. Unemployment rose sky high.

7) Some indians took permission from Ugandan government to export their cars to india.
While Uganda government initially agreed they later stopped the process without any explanation.
Desai got in an heated correspondence with the Ugandan government over the matter due to which he was declared persona non grata.

8) 52,000 Asians departed out of which 29 K went to Britan,11 K to India,5 K to Canada.

9) The asians were settled in a camp in Britan but soon they used their business skills and set up "patels corner" in Britan . The british still gives their example of sucessfull immigrats who assimilated and made positive contributions to the British economy and role models for all other immigrants

10) Desia was sent back to Uganda despite his protest as amabassodors after the regime has changed in 1987. The economy had virtually collapsed and uganda resembled more like 1950's east africa.

Last Fun Fact :

"The Last king of Scotland" movie is about Amin.

-------Main point to note :
Desai criticized the Indian government reponse to the crisis. He Says it should have raised this matter in International forums, had Uganda sanctioned. He says this response was on par with the indian govt. sentiment at that time that indian immigrants were not India's responsibility.
This was perpetuated by Nehru sentiment that Indian immigrant should not look to india for help but assimilate in the host country.
This perception of Indian state was continued by Indira gandhi but soon changed when Rajiv Gandhi came to power and was reflected in India's response to Fiji's crisis which i will write about soon.

I'm reading these:
1-Saving Capitalism:For the Many not the few
2-1984
3-Animal Farm
4-Atlas Shrugged(Will start it soon)

Has anyone read any of these before?
Atlas Shrugged and 1984 are particularly treated as the bible of Libertarianism.I'll hopefully move onto Anarchist literature next.

Animal farm is brilliant. Haven't read the others.
Atlas shrugged is by Ayn Rand who i do not hold favourably

 

[Reichsmarschall]

This is the best thread on PDF

This is the best thread on PDF

 

[Joe Shearer]

Joe, the book name is "the ambassador's club" by Shiv Shankar Menon . The Sikkim chapter is titled "Sunset for the Chogyal" a 23 pages long account by B.S Das who was appointed by then foreign secretary Keval Singh as administrator of Sikkim after the government collapse on 7th April 1973. After objection by Chogyal about his title of "administaror", he diplomatically suggested that he can take the title of "Chief Executive" which the ruler accepted without realizing the implication..

The lady that i mentioned above has two paras dedicated on her in the book , some of the quotes about her in the book :

1) "The third lady to enter the political powerplay in Sikkim was Kazini , a formidable belgian lady married to kazi Lhendup Dorji, the leader of the anti-Chogyal forces.This lady threw her weight around by claiming to have been close once to Kemal Ataruk of Turkey and then Chou Enlai of China. She married the Kazi to be the first lady as the prime minister's wife.She took charge of the anti establishment movement and adopted a Nepalese, Nar Bahadur, as her son to be the leader of the movement. Kazi, a political leader of standing, was used by her as a front for her own ambitions. The Chogyal and Hope cook hated her, treating her with utter contempt. I was often a witness to the enactment of this unpleasant drama"

2) "The american and Belgian ladies played the most destructive role.
3) "Both failed to retain the dignity of the small kingdom with rich cultural traditions.Narrowing down the larger issue of retaining Sikkim identity through a democratic process , they hastened the collapse of their mentors through misplaced actions."



Really you met her. Do expand on that when you have time. What is is 'chang' business?

Met both, actually. My parents were in and out of Sikkim and Bhutan all the time, and my father was a personal friend of Jigme Dorji, the then Bhutan Prime Minister. That was a very curious time; society consisted of the tea planters, who were still practically all of them Scots to a man (and woman), local Indian officials and the Bhutanese and Sikkimese political constellation (the King of Bhutan was above and out of this circuit). It was a question of where to go each evening (not for us; I was there between the ages of seven and eleven) and setting out soon after returning from office for a two to three hour drive and returning well after midnight. My parents started collecting orchids, and we soon had a collection rivalling Takdah, around 500 different varieties.

Chhang is fermented barley. Your drink it out of a bamboo segment for a cup, sipping it out of a bamboo straw; it warms you up. Towards the end of the drink, they top it up again with boiling water, again and again, until the potency is lost or you are under the table, whichever comes first.

I'm reading these:
1-Saving Capitalism:For the Many not the few
2-1984
3-Animal Farm
4-Atlas Shrugged(Will start it soon)

Has anyone read any of these before?
Atlas Shrugged and 1984 are particularly treated as the bible of Libertarianism.I'll hopefully move onto Anarchist literature next.

Read the last three, and was revolted by the last. George Orwell, or Eric Blair, was also an IP officer, like my father, but from Burma. He couldn't stand the Brits in the Indian bureaucracy. Both 1984 and Animal Farm are classics; Animal Farm is immortal, but made huge sense back in the day, because it was a not very subtle parody of the Russian Revolution. The two leaders of the pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, were supposed to be Stalin and Trotsky; the one who came out and addressed the animals and hopped from foot to foot was Trotsky.

 

[pragmatic_dude]

Animal Farm is immortal, but made huge sense back in the day, because it was a not very subtle parody of the Russian Revolution. The two leaders of the pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, were supposed to be Stalin and Trotsky; the one who came out and addressed the animals and hopped from foot to foot was Trotsky.

I think you will like the movie "the Trotsky".It's a small Canadian indie movie about a kid who thinks he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky and goe about bringing Marxist revolution in his father's factory and then in his public school in Canada .It's Hilarious.

 

[EgyptianAmerican]

Common Stocks and uncommon profits by Philip Arthur Fisher.

Re-reading The Wise Man's fears by Patrick Rothfuss.

I am in love with The Wise Man's fears, it is an amazing book.

 

[pragmatic_dude]

Common Stocks and uncommon profits by Philip Arthur Fisher.

Re-reading The Wise Man's fears by Patrick Rothfuss.

I am in love with The Wise Man's fears, it is an amazing book.

I love Patrick Rothfuss and the kingkiller trilogy...but Damm , the dude is taking toooo long to put out his final book.Its frustrating to say the least and also a bit disingenuous if you ask me .

 

[EgyptianAmerican]

he dude is taking toooo long to put out his final book.Its frustrating to say the least and also a bit disingenuous if you ask me .

I don't mind waiting for a good book. If he needs to take the time to smooth out all the rough edges, then so be it.

 

[Signalian]

@Joe Shearer have u written any books?

I have been reading "The enchanted book" by Enid Blyton to my nephew and niece.

and once i kept the book aside and made a scenario of GOBLIN vs ELF fight with use of ambush, assault and airborne tactics using guns as weapons, they both ran from the room

i did the same with a gf once, after that she never asked me to ever tell her a bed time story again

 

[Joe Shearer]

@Joe Shearer have u written any books?

I have been reading "The enchanted book" by Enid Blyton to my nephew and niece.

and once i kept the book aside and made a scenario of GOBLIN vs ELF fight with use of ambush, assault and airborne tactics using guns as weapons, they both ran from the room

i did the same with a gf once, after that she never asked me to ever tell her a bed time story again

What? Used a gun for a weapon? Listen to uncle, this is urgent. DO NOT USE SUBSTITUTES.

I have been stuck for four years, writing a book on Kashmir: how it was formed as a princely state, and how that formation makes it impossible to go forward, either as Pakistani or as Indian, as that state as it was. No money to buy the critical books that will allow me to do the citations properly, especially about the expansion into Gilgit, jointly with the British, and about the lease and its after-effects.

But I would LOVE to write a swords-and-sorcery book, or series. I read LOTR when I was 18, read the Harry Potter series in hard cover, because I couldn't wait for soft covers to be printed, read the George R. R. Martin series but stopped till the bloody man finishes, I hope before I kick the bucket, and so on and so forth. Even now, isolated from my books for three years, I have the Lankhmar series, complete, lying in the spare room.

 

[RAMPAGE]

What? Used a gun for a weapon? Listen to uncle, this is urgent. DO NOT USE SUBSTITUTES.

I have been stuck for four years, writing a book on Kashmir: how it was formed as a princely state, and how that formation makes it impossible to go forward, either as Pakistani or as Indian, as that state as it was. No money to buy the critical books that will allow me to do the citations properly, especially about the expansion into Gilgit, jointly with the British, and about the lease and its after-effects.

But I would LOVE to write a swords-and-sorcery book, or series. I read LOTR when I was 18, read the Harry Potter series in hard cover, because I couldn't wait for soft covers to be printed, read the George R. R. Martin series but stopped till the bloody man finishes, I hope before I kick the bucket, and so on and so forth. Even now, isolated from my books for three years, I have the Lankhmar series, complete, lying in the spare room.

I can't wait to read something by you, Joe. Preferably fiction because that's where the money is. I won't even ask you to send me free copies.

 

[Joe Shearer]

I can't wait to read something by you. Joe. Preferably fiction because that's where the money is.

@jbgt90

It's all your fault, you skinflint.