Victoria and Dow Hill Schools Books

This would be the first book written by Denis Ronald Sherman whose mother was a member of staff at Victoria (Kindergarten teacher?) ... Stephanie was a day scholar at Dow Hill in the 1940s. (Doreen Grezoux and Peggy Littlewood will also remember her.)

"Old Mali and the Boy" (ISBN 0 435 12087 5) written in the third person about his young life in Victoria which, as we have noted before on this list, became required reading for the English exam course in Literature both in Scotland and England. I certainly enjoy my copy.

Orchids and Algebra – The story of Dow Hill School
By Denise Coelho (old girl)

======================================================
Under the Old School Topee

By Hazel Innes Craig (Haztwin@aol.com )
(Mrs H M Craig, 53 iHill Rise, Rickmansworth, HERTS WD3 7NY, U.K. )

Costs £14.50 to send out to you in deepest Australia, i.e. £10 for book and £4.50 p&p ., airmail, or £12.50 total seamail

Paperback, published in the UK by the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA), 76 ½ Chartfield Avenue, London SW15 6HQ

======================================================
"Calcutta. An Artist's Impression"

Beautiful pen and ink drawings of Calcutta done by Desmond. They were done as part of a series in the Saturday edition of The Statesman. Desmond worked as a journalist for The Statesman, for a period of time.

Below is a sample sketch from the book. Click on the picture to see it in a larger scale.

A collection of delighted columns, this work, reflects the passion the author felt for Kathmandu. The land of stupas and hawkers, hippies and tourists, forgotten shrines and temples, the home of the Pashupatinath and the Living Goddess Kumari, Doig was completely enchanted by the city. An artist's impression of the emerald valley acompanied with his vivid sketches and research by Dubby Bhagat are lively poignant and reminiscent of a forgotten era. RESEARCH BY: Dubby Bhagat has been a salesman, a journalist, and advertising copywriter, a guide and a hotelier in The Everest Hotel, Nepal's premier five-star property. With his mentor Desmond Doig, he helped to design The Malla Hotel and The Shangri-la. He lives in Kathmandu.246 pages ~ Isbn: 81-7223-371-X ~ language: English ~ Year: 1999 ~ Binding: Paperback ~ Contents ForewordThe Light of Many SunsOf Divine Street WalkersThe Stupa of a Million DewdropsThe Mystery of the Black BhairabThe Forgotten Shrine of the SikhsThe Gate of the Vermilion godWhere Serpents Breathe FireProcessions for a Grieving QueenA Goddess from Calcutta ?When a Goddess Played DiceThe House of the Living GoddessThe Hill of the Flaming LotusThe Stupa Built by TimeThe Golden Mask of the White BhairabA House for Shiva and ParvatiThe City Vishnu May Have BuiltA Golden Gateway for a GoddessWas There a Yeti in the Royal Zoo ?The Temple of the TrinityThe Courtyard of a Thousand DelightsA Decapitated God and an Insatiable PrincessA Monument to an Angry GodThree Golden KingsDown History's Narrow LanesA Temple to Bhimsen, the PandavaA Temple of Dubious ReputationOn the Banks of Eternity ItselfA Courtyard to the Buddha's MemoryPatan's Monastery FantasticIn the Heart of Eternity Itself No Water in the Royal BathRape in Eternity ItselfA Bountiful Rani and a Great BellA Temple to a Compassionate GodA Victim of the MahabharataA Temple to a Secretive GoddessPatan's Grand Temple GoldenA Temple to Ravana's MemoryThe Village of the Dancing DurgaThe Water Gardens of BalajuThe Pottery TempleThe Vanishing Courtyard of the Medicine MenThe Hill of the Camphor TreeThe Jewelled Gift of a Snake GodTantric Secrets in a Deep Forest A Divine Sleep in StoneThe Temple of the Rising SunThe Gorge of the Flaming SwordThe Greatest Building of Them AllNana Sahib's Jewels Were Kept HereThree Men on a HorseThe Gates to the Royal PalaceThe Kali of the SouthA Cow Festival to Honour the DeadTaking Toothaches to a GodA living Monument to a Glorious PastA Monument to an Indian PrincessWhen Indra Was Caught StealingThe Days of DasasinUnder the Spreading Peepal Tree Travel/Our Neighbours.

In this supremely exciting story of high ice and high adventure, the Master of Everest sets out on a two-part mission: (1) to find the Abominable Snowman and (2) to discover how ordinary men can survive a winter at dizzying altitudes. Although the Himalayan people's belief in the existence of the mysterious Yeti, or Snowman, is unshakable, Hillary and his companions had great difficulty at first in finding anyone who claimed to have actually seen one. Nevertheless they were able to collect three high-domed scalps and three skins-unwillingly lent by the natives-which were flown out to civilization for expert examination. In addition, they photographed a skeletal hand, alleged to be that of a Yeti. The Hillary party soon decided that they had the answer to the Snowman riddle. Any idea that man can easily adjust to life and work at high altitudes was disproved by the murderous hardships which faced the expedition, the best equipped of its kind. In spite of the treacherous weather, one team climbed the "unclimbable" Mount Amadablain. But, first Hillary, and then other members of his party were struck down by altitudeinduced illness. The assault on a second peak, Mount Makalu, had to be abandoned only 400 feet from the top. Hillary had wondered whether six months of living at 19,000 feet and above would enable his men to climb Makalu without oxygen-but it became dramatically clear that prolonged "adjustment" saps vitality and lowers resistance.

Desmond Doig, the Expedition's press correspondent and expert linguist, tells of the search for the elusive Yeti - the Abominable Snowman of Sherpa legend - and of all that was learned of the lives, customs, and mythology of the Sherpa people.

It was this aspect of the Expedition which most captured public interest, but the main purpose was to carry out physiological research into high altitude acclimatization, the culmination of which would be an ascent of Mt. Makalu , 27,790 feet, without oxygen equipment.

Sir Edmund Hillary, the Expedition Leader, relates how they built a prefabricated laboratory, the Silver Hut, at 19,000 feet, where nine doctors, physiologists and climbers spent the winter under the leadership of Dr Griffith Pugh; how a group of climbers from the wintering party, led by Dr Michael Ward, reached the summit of the 'unclimbable' Amadablam; how the Expedition, joined by a party of fresh climbers, moved over three 20,000 foot passes to Mt. Makalu for the attempt on the summit.

This phase of the Expedition was dogged by misfortune and illness, but in spite of this the scientific work was successfully completed - a tribute to the persistence and endurance of group of very brave men.

3 Articles were written by Desmond Doig (old boy) for The National Geographic Magazine.

The author a correspondent for the Calcutta Statesman, British newsman Desmond Doig has taken tea with maharajahs and sought the 'abominable snowman' in the high Himalayas. Recently the Prime Minister of Bhutan invited him to become the 1st journalist ever to travel widely throughout that little known land. In 3 months he covered almost 600 miles on foot and by horse and mule back.

The proof sheets of this remarkable article followed Mr Doig on his latest foray to the roof of the world with Sir Edmund Hillary's recent expedition. Sherpas runners sped the pages from Nepal's exotic capital, Kathmandu, to a campsite at 19,000 feet on the slopes of Ama Dablan, Mt Everests next door neighbour.

Note: Readers interested in Bhutan or Nepal should read the articles written in the National Geographic Magazine. Check the Indexes for the NGM using "Doig" as the search criteria. (Ed; John F)

Dr. Pemba, was the son of a Tibetan who worked for the British Agency to Tibet. Brought up near Lhasa in Tibet he eventually entered Victoria School, Kurseong. Good stories are told about a young boy who couldn't understand English and the problems that he had to overcome in a boys school. After leaving Victoria School he went on to London where he became the first Tibetan to become a doctor in 'Western medicine'.

"An account of Boarding School (Victoria School) life in a remote part of the high Himalayas during the years of the Second World War and the declining Raj".

A teacher and later education adviser with UNESCO, has accumulated a lifetime's experience of some of the world's most exotic places. In The Hibiscus Years he shares this experience with us. In the course of a fast moving autobiographical narrative - in which many of the incidents are humorous and some are extremely hair-raising - he introduces us to the many fascinating places and peoples he has encountered, from the West Indies to Africa, the Middle East, India, the Far East and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. He recounts with affection his close relations with the indigenous peoples of these far-flung countries and highlights many of the customs and traditions of their diverse races and cultures.

THE HIBISCUS YEARS are the record of the travels of a UN man. Dr Bishop has written this autobiographical travelogue to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of UNESCO. The book will appeal to all those who love faraway places and peoples, or who admire the courage and dedication of those who serve them.

Teaching Mathematics in the Secondary School and
Teaching Mathematics in the Primary School (Collins, Glasgow 1963)
Experimental Science for Tropical Science, 3 Vols (Collins, Glasgow 1963)
Curriculum Development, A textbook for students (Macmillan, 1985)
Innovation in Education (Macmillan, 1986) .
Alternative Strategies in Education (Macmillan, 1989)
Travels in Imperial China, The Exploration and Discoveries of Pere David (Cassell, 1990)
Eight Hundred Years of Physics Teaching (Fisher Miller Publishing, 1994)
Pika Don (Fisher Miller Publishing, forthcoming).

by Lieut General J.F.R (Jackie) Jacobs. Previously Governor of Goa and subsequently Governor of the Punjab. (Old Boy).

(ISBN:817304189X)

The campaign for the liberation of Bangladesh was short and swift, spread over some thirteen campaign days, conducted in riverine terrain highly suitable for defence - terrain that for a large part of the year is water logged with `bunded' rice paddies.

======================================================

"An Odyssey in War and Peace"

by Lieut General J.F.R (Jackie) Jacobs.

Few people have seen history in the making and even fewer have had the chance to make history. Lieutenant General J.F.R. Jacob, or "Jack Jacob" as he is known to contemporaries, has done both. In a memoir that has more history than even textbooks, the high point of General Jacob's career was his orchestration of India's spectacular victory over Pakistan in 1971 leading to the liberation of Bangladesh. And though his role in this "lightening campaign" wasn't fully acknowledged in India, Pakistan's National Defence College did. Their study of the war says: "the credit really goes to General Jacob's meticulous preparations in the Indian eastern command and to the implementation by his Corps commanders". No mention of General Sam Manekshaw there, although Jacob's account has a lot about "Sam" in it.

An Odyssey in War and Peace aims to set the record straight on a number of issues, particularly about the roles of Manekshaw, then army chief and Lt Gen J.S. Aurora, eastern army commander. Manekshaw comes out looking rash and delusionary, though Jacob says he still holds him in high regard, while Aurora appears spineless and self-centred.

Born into a Jewish family in Kolkata and sent off to a boarding school in the Darjeeling hills, he developed a love for the outdoors and that led him to join the army. On commission, he saw battles in Iraq's deserts and later on the Burma front and Sumatra. These experiences stayed with him. It was the Japanese surrender at Sumatra and the guard of honour he received there that led him to insist that the Pakistani surrender at Dacca would include a guard of honour. A tearful General Niazi ordered his adc to command it.

He dismisses the story that Manekshaw often told-and which I too have heard him narrate at Vigyan Bhawan-about how Manekshaw had stood up to Indira Gandhi to go war. Jacob had helped set up a Bangladeshi government in exile in Kolkata and was appalled when his proposal for the eventual capture of Dacca was dismissed by Manekshaw, who felt that establishment of a free Bangladeshi government in the port towns of Khulna and Chittagong was an adequate war aim. So, without Manekshaw's knowledge but with help from General Inder Gill, then dmo, Jacob went ahead with his plan to capture Dacca.

Manekshaw refused to release additional troops from the Sino-Indian border-until well after the campaign began-but Gill did so, on the promise that it'll be kept a secret from Manekshaw.

On December 16 during a brief lull in battle, Jacob headed to Dacca unarmed, to meet General A.A.K. Niazi and East Pakistan's top military brass, and seek their surrender. Despite 26,400 Pakistani soldiers in Dacca while 3,000 Indian soldiers were nearby, Niazi later admitted that Jacob had "blackmailed me into surrendering". What followed was the unconditional public surrender of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers, the only one of its kind in history. But Jacob nearly missed the event; a car meant to carry him was hijacked by General Aurora, his wife and Niazi. But Jack still got in on time, having hitched a ride on a truck. A team later deputed to write the history of the campaign was puzzled on checking the records of the campaign, by the mismatch in the colourful accounts they'd got from Manekshaw and others. No wonder that General Aurora had all the records of this remarkable campaign destroyed. But now hopefully, Jacob's Odyssey would set the record straight. Printer's devils apart, it is a delightfully informative account by a maker of modern India's history.

Source = http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/maroof-raza-reviews-lt-gen-j-f-r-jacob-an-odyssey-in-war-and-peace/1/139514.html

======================================================


	The Books of Victoria and Dow Hill Schools

	It is incredible to come across books created by girls and boys of the two schools. "Old Girls" and "Old Boys" and not forgetting the Staff. What about Poetry? To see poetry written by old girls, boys and Staff Click Here. If one has been to the two schools, then it is quite understandable. The following, are books that mention either Dow Hill School or Victoria School. There are also books written by old girls or old boys of the two schools. If you know of any other books please send the info to me.
	Books ====================================================== Old Mali and the Boy by Dennis Ronald Sherman (old boy) This would be the first book written by Denis Ronald Sherman whose mother was a member of staff at Victoria (Kindergarten teacher?) ... Stephanie was a day scholar at Dow Hill in the 1940s. (Doreen Grezoux and Peggy Littlewood will also remember her.) "Old Mali and the Boy" (ISBN 0 435 12087 5) written in the third person about his young life in Victoria which, as we have noted before on this list, became required reading for the English exam course in Literature both in Scotland and England. I certainly enjoy my copy. Paperback Published: April 1992 Macmillan Education ISBN: 0435272268 ====================================================== Orchids and Algebra – The story of Dow Hill School By Denise Coelho (old girl) Paperback, printed and published in the UK ISBN: 1869809009 Denise was an old girl of Dow Hill. ====================================================== Bells of Such Silence & Other Poems By Denise Coelho (old girl) Small paper back Published 1972 By Poetry One, 33 Fitzilian Ave. Harold Wood, Essex. UK. ====================================================== However Measured The Drum By Denise Coelho (old girl) Small Paper Back. Published 1972 By Intech Graphics, Hornchurch, UK ====================================================== Under the Old School Topee By Hazel Innes Craig (Haztwin@aol.com ) (Mrs H M Craig, 53 iHill Rise, Rickmansworth, HERTS WD3 7NY, U.K. ) Costs £14.50 to send out to you in deepest Australia, i.e. £10 for book and £4.50 p&p ., airmail, or £12.50 total seamail ISBN: 0907799353 ====================================================== CAPERS by Sam M Parry. (old boy, and two years behind me) Hardback, published in the UK by The Book Guild. 28 High Street.Lewes. Sussex. UK ISBN: 1857763963 ====================================================== Singular Reflections By Sam M Parry. (old boy) ISBN: 1-929131-08-9 Published by Arora Publishing, Fairfax, California, USA. 1999 ====================================================== The English Girl By Sam M Parry. (old boy) ISBN: 1-929131-08-9 Published by Arora Publishing, Fairfax, California, USA. 2006 ====================================================== In the Shade of Kanchenjunga by Jennifer Fox Paperback, published in the UK by the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA), 76 ½ Chartfield Avenue, London SW15 6HQ ISBN: 0907799493 ====================================================== "Calcutta. An Artist's Impression" by Desmond Doig (old boy) Large Hardback, published in Calcutta by The Statesman Newspaper. ISBN: Summary Beautiful pen and ink drawings of Calcutta done by Desmond. They were done as part of a series in the Saturday edition of The Statesman. Desmond worked as a journalist for The Statesman, for a period of time. Below is a sample sketch from the book. Click on the picture to see it in a larger scale. Job Charnock's Tomb. The Founder of Calcutta - by Desmond Doig. ====================================================== Mother Teresa: Her people and her work by Desmond Doig (old boy) ISBN 0-340-69067-4 Harper and Row. 1976 ====================================================== My Kind of Kathmandu: An Artist's Impression of the Emerald Valley By Desmond Doig (old boy) ISBN: 8172231083 ====================================================== In the Kindom of the Gods - An Artist's Impression of the Emerald Valley By Desmond Doig. (old boy) ISBN: 817223371X A collection of delighted columns, this work, reflects the passion the author felt for Kathmandu. The land of stupas and hawkers, hippies and tourists, forgotten shrines and temples, the home of the Pashupatinath and the Living Goddess Kumari, Doig was completely enchanted by the city. An artist's impression of the emerald valley acompanied with his vivid sketches and research by Dubby Bhagat are lively poignant and reminiscent of a forgotten era. RESEARCH BY: Dubby Bhagat has been a salesman, a journalist, and advertising copywriter, a guide and a hotelier in The Everest Hotel, Nepal's premier five-star property. With his mentor Desmond Doig, he helped to design The Malla Hotel and The Shangri-la. He lives in Kathmandu.246 pages ~ Isbn: 81-7223-371-X ~ language: English ~ Year: 1999 ~ Binding: Paperback ~ Contents ForewordThe Light of Many SunsOf Divine Street WalkersThe Stupa of a Million DewdropsThe Mystery of the Black BhairabThe Forgotten Shrine of the SikhsThe Gate of the Vermilion godWhere Serpents Breathe FireProcessions for a Grieving QueenA Goddess from Calcutta ?When a Goddess Played DiceThe House of the Living GoddessThe Hill of the Flaming LotusThe Stupa Built by TimeThe Golden Mask of the White BhairabA House for Shiva and ParvatiThe City Vishnu May Have BuiltA Golden Gateway for a GoddessWas There a Yeti in the Royal Zoo ?The Temple of the TrinityThe Courtyard of a Thousand DelightsA Decapitated God and an Insatiable PrincessA Monument to an Angry GodThree Golden KingsDown History's Narrow LanesA Temple to Bhimsen, the PandavaA Temple of Dubious ReputationOn the Banks of Eternity ItselfA Courtyard to the Buddha's MemoryPatan's Monastery FantasticIn the Heart of Eternity Itself No Water in the Royal BathRape in Eternity ItselfA Bountiful Rani and a Great BellA Temple to a Compassionate GodA Victim of the MahabharataA Temple to a Secretive GoddessPatan's Grand Temple GoldenA Temple to Ravana's MemoryThe Village of the Dancing DurgaThe Water Gardens of BalajuThe Pottery TempleThe Vanishing Courtyard of the Medicine MenThe Hill of the Camphor TreeThe Jewelled Gift of a Snake GodTantric Secrets in a Deep Forest A Divine Sleep in StoneThe Temple of the Rising SunThe Gorge of the Flaming SwordThe Greatest Building of Them AllNana Sahib's Jewels Were Kept HereThree Men on a HorseThe Gates to the Royal PalaceThe Kali of the SouthA Cow Festival to Honour the DeadTaking Toothaches to a GodA living Monument to a Glorious PastA Monument to an Indian PrincessWhen Indra Was Caught StealingThe Days of DasasinUnder the Spreading Peepal Tree Travel/Our Neighbours. ====================================================== High in the Thin Cold Air By Sir Edmund Hillary and Desmond Doig (old boy) In this supremely exciting story of high ice and high adventure, the Master of Everest sets out on a two-part mission: (1) to find the Abominable Snowman and (2) to discover how ordinary men can survive a winter at dizzying altitudes. Although the Himalayan people's belief in the existence of the mysterious Yeti, or Snowman, is unshakable, Hillary and his companions had great difficulty at first in finding anyone who claimed to have actually seen one. Nevertheless they were able to collect three high-domed scalps and three skins-unwillingly lent by the natives-which were flown out to civilization for expert examination. In addition, they photographed a skeletal hand, alleged to be that of a Yeti. The Hillary party soon decided that they had the answer to the Snowman riddle. Any idea that man can easily adjust to life and work at high altitudes was disproved by the murderous hardships which faced the expedition, the best equipped of its kind. In spite of the treacherous weather, one team climbed the "unclimbable" Mount Amadablain. But, first Hillary, and then other members of his party were struck down by altitudeinduced illness. The assault on a second peak, Mount Makalu, had to be abandoned only 400 feet from the top. Hillary had wondered whether six months of living at 19,000 feet and above would enable his men to climb Makalu without oxygen-but it became dramatically clear that prolonged "adjustment" saps vitality and lowers resistance. and Desmond Doig, the Expedition's press correspondent and expert linguist, tells of the search for the elusive Yeti - the Abominable Snowman of Sherpa legend - and of all that was learned of the lives, customs, and mythology of the Sherpa people. It was this aspect of the Expedition which most captured public interest, but the main purpose was to carry out physiological research into high altitude acclimatization, the culmination of which would be an ascent of Mt. Makalu , 27,790 feet, without oxygen equipment. Sir Edmund Hillary, the Expedition Leader, relates how they built a prefabricated laboratory, the Silver Hut, at 19,000 feet, where nine doctors, physiologists and climbers spent the winter under the leadership of Dr Griffith Pugh; how a group of climbers from the wintering party, led by Dr Michael Ward, reached the summit of the 'unclimbable' Amadablam; how the Expedition, joined by a party of fresh climbers, moved over three 20,000 foot passes to Mt. Makalu for the attempt on the summit. This phase of the Expedition was dogged by misfortune and illness, but in spite of this the scientific work was successfully completed - a tribute to the persistence and endurance of group of very brave men. ====================================================== Look Back In Wonder By Desmond Doig (old boy) ISBN:8172231938 ====================================================== Sikkim. by Mele, Pietro Francesco, and Doig, Desmond (old boy), and Perrin, Jean ====================================================== School House In The Clouds Edmund Hillary & Desmond Doig (old boy) ====================================================== 3 Articles were written by Desmond Doig (old boy) for The National Geographic Magazine. September 1961 The author a correspondent for the Calcutta Statesman, British newsman Desmond Doig has taken tea with maharajahs and sought the 'abominable snowman' in the high Himalayas. Recently the Prime Minister of Bhutan invited him to become the 1st journalist ever to travel widely throughout that little known land. In 3 months he covered almost 600 miles on foot and by horse and mule back. The proof sheets of this remarkable article followed Mr Doig on his latest foray to the roof of the world with Sir Edmund Hillary's recent expedition. Sherpas runners sped the pages from Nepal's exotic capital, Kathmandu, to a campsite at 19,000 feet on the slopes of Ama Dablan, Mt Everests next door neighbour. Note: Readers interested in Bhutan or Nepal should read the articles written in the National Geographic Magazine. Check the Indexes for the NGM using "Doig" as the search criteria. (Ed; John F) ================================================== One Hell of a Life by Captain Stan Blackford (ex. Indian Army) (old boy) Paperback, published by the author, the author lives in South Australia. ISBN: 0646391046 e-mail: stanblackford@chariot.net.au Website: http://www.chariot.net.au/~blackford ====================================================== Young Days in Tibet. (Click here to read more about Yishi) by Tsewang Y Pemba (old boy) Published Jonathan Cape 30 Bedford Square London. Dr. Pemba, was the son of a Tibetan who worked for the British Agency to Tibet. Brought up near Lhasa in Tibet he eventually entered Victoria School, Kurseong. Good stories are told about a young boy who couldn't understand English and the problems that he had to overcome in a boys school. After leaving Victoria School he went on to London where he became the first Tibetan to become a doctor in 'Western medicine'. His younger brother also went to VS and was there at the same time as I was. ====================================================== Summoned By The Bell. By Stanley Vernon Prins (old boy) Published by the author. 2003. Woodside, Scroggwood, Bardon Hill, Northumberland. NE47 7AA. England. "An account of Boarding School (Victoria School) life in a remote part of the high Himalayas during the years of the Second World War and the declining Raj". ====================================================== THE HIBISCUS YEARS George Bishop (old boy) A teacher and later education adviser with UNESCO, has accumulated a lifetime's experience of some of the world's most exotic places. In The Hibiscus Years he shares this experience with us. In the course of a fast moving autobiographical narrative - in which many of the incidents are humorous and some are extremely hair-raising - he introduces us to the many fascinating places and peoples he has encountered, from the West Indies to Africa, the Middle East, India, the Far East and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. He recounts with affection his close relations with the indigenous peoples of these far-flung countries and highlights many of the customs and traditions of their diverse races and cultures. THE HIBISCUS YEARS are the record of the travels of a UN man. Dr Bishop has written this autobiographical travelogue to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of UNESCO. The book will appeal to all those who love faraway places and peoples, or who admire the courage and dedication of those who serve them. Other books by George Bishop Teaching Mathematics in the Secondary School and Teaching Mathematics in the Primary School (Collins, Glasgow 1963) Experimental Science for Tropical Science, 3 Vols (Collins, Glasgow 1963) Curriculum Development, A textbook for students (Macmillan, 1985) Innovation in Education (Macmillan, 1986) . Alternative Strategies in Education (Macmillan, 1989) Travels in Imperial China, The Exploration and Discoveries of Pere David (Cassell, 1990) Eight Hundred Years of Physics Teaching (Fisher Miller Publishing, 1994) Pika Don (Fisher Miller Publishing, forthcoming). ====================================================== "Surrender At Dacca Birth Of A Nation" by Lieut General J.F.R (Jackie) Jacobs. Previously Governor of Goa and subsequently Governor of the Punjab. (Old Boy). (ISBN:817304189X) The campaign for the liberation of Bangladesh was short and swift, spread over some thirteen campaign days, conducted in riverine terrain highly suitable for defence - terrain that for a large part of the year is water logged with `bunded' rice paddies. ====================================================== "An Odyssey in War and Peace" by Lieut General J.F.R (Jackie) Jacobs. Few people have seen history in the making and even fewer have had the chance to make history. Lieutenant General J.F.R. Jacob, or "Jack Jacob" as he is known to contemporaries, has done both. In a memoir that has more history than even textbooks, the high point of General Jacob's career was his orchestration of India's spectacular victory over Pakistan in 1971 leading to the liberation of Bangladesh. And though his role in this "lightening campaign" wasn't fully acknowledged in India, Pakistan's National Defence College did. Their study of the war says: "the credit really goes to General Jacob's meticulous preparations in the Indian eastern command and to the implementation by his Corps commanders". No mention of General Sam Manekshaw there, although Jacob's account has a lot about "Sam" in it. An Odyssey in War and Peace aims to set the record straight on a number of issues, particularly about the roles of Manekshaw, then army chief and Lt Gen J.S. Aurora, eastern army commander. Manekshaw comes out looking rash and delusionary, though Jacob says he still holds him in high regard, while Aurora appears spineless and self-centred. Born into a Jewish family in Kolkata and sent off to a boarding school in the Darjeeling hills, he developed a love for the outdoors and that led him to join the army. On commission, he saw battles in Iraq's deserts and later on the Burma front and Sumatra. These experiences stayed with him. It was the Japanese surrender at Sumatra and the guard of honour he received there that led him to insist that the Pakistani surrender at Dacca would include a guard of honour. A tearful General Niazi ordered his adc to command it. He dismisses the story that Manekshaw often told-and which I too have heard him narrate at Vigyan Bhawan-about how Manekshaw had stood up to Indira Gandhi to go war. Jacob had helped set up a Bangladeshi government in exile in Kolkata and was appalled when his proposal for the eventual capture of Dacca was dismissed by Manekshaw, who felt that establishment of a free Bangladeshi government in the port towns of Khulna and Chittagong was an adequate war aim. So, without Manekshaw's knowledge but with help from General Inder Gill, then dmo, Jacob went ahead with his plan to capture Dacca. Manekshaw refused to release additional troops from the Sino-Indian border-until well after the campaign began-but Gill did so, on the promise that it'll be kept a secret from Manekshaw. On December 16 during a brief lull in battle, Jacob headed to Dacca unarmed, to meet General A.A.K. Niazi and East Pakistan's top military brass, and seek their surrender. Despite 26,400 Pakistani soldiers in Dacca while 3,000 Indian soldiers were nearby, Niazi later admitted that Jacob had "blackmailed me into surrendering". What followed was the unconditional public surrender of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers, the only one of its kind in history. But Jacob nearly missed the event; a car meant to carry him was hijacked by General Aurora, his wife and Niazi. But Jack still got in on time, having hitched a ride on a truck. A team later deputed to write the history of the campaign was puzzled on checking the records of the campaign, by the mismatch in the colourful accounts they'd got from Manekshaw and others. No wonder that General Aurora had all the records of this remarkable campaign destroyed. But now hopefully, Jacob's Odyssey would set the record straight. Printer's devils apart, it is a delightfully informative account by a maker of modern India's history. Source = http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/maroof-raza-reviews-lt-gen-j-f-r-jacob-an-odyssey-in-war-and-peace/1/139514.html ======================================================


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