The Times and I - (Part 1)

The Times and I - (Part 1)

My visits to The Times of India began when I was a school-kid. In those days it was no problem for a youngster to travel from Dadar to Fort, the main business area of Bombay, by a slow-coach tram or a 'local' suburban train of either the Great Indian Peninsular (G.I.P.) or the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (B.B. and C. I.). Later, as the population of Bombay and suburbs multiplied, getting in or out of a suburban train became a matter of expertise. 
My father had enrolled me as a member of the Petit Library in town when I was eight.
Opposite the G.I.P's Victoria Terminus (V.T.) on the main thoroughfare of town were Times Group's offices. At V.T. I would cross the street and go to the ground floor Stores of the Times Group, which was run by one of my father's best friends. I was sure to get a pastry or an ice-cream if I visited him, before heading for the library.  
But my first visit to the Times Group editorial offices came after I submitted a poem to the Illustrated Weekly. At that time the Times was still a British newspaper run by Bennet, Coleman and Co.  I got a letter asking me to call at the office of the Weekly Editor C. R. Mandy, an Irishman. He was surprised to see a school kid. He said he liked the refrain repeated at each verse's end: But she was a goddess on a pedestal! He said he couldn't publish the poem, but he wanted to see more work by me.

That ended my poetic career. I don't think I ever wrote a poem again.

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Ms. Jagjit Daniel's Dreams of One Country. Novel: United States of India Rises!
In a time of historic events a Love-inspired woman's campaign for Noble Values launches India's ascent... to join the world's elite developed nations!

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