Author Description

Kalimpong was flooded with foreigners in the early fifties when China was invading Tibet. This sudden influx of foreign nationals led Pandit Nehru, the Prime Minister of India, to announce that Kalimpong was a 'Nest of Spies'. The author, a school girl then, got the opportunity to meet and know these colourful foreigners and wrote about her interactions with them. She spent her happy childhood in pristine Kalimpong, a child's paradise, in the company of several illustrious and famous characters. There were princes, princesses, writers, poets, academics, and scholars as well as simple ordinary people such as ayahs, servants, and locals. The author enjoyed her school days and has written about the teachers, nuns, and all the pranks she played at school in her book, Unforgettable Kalimpong. All her childhood experiences prompted her to write these stories, all through which runs a vein of humour bringing the characters to life.