‘It gives me most pride to see kids so energised each time’
When it comes to the written word, William Dalrymple barely needs any introduction. Author of books such as In Xanadu…
In all the excitement over Mother Teresa’s canonisation one thing overlooked was William Dalrymple’s association with her. The author started his tryst with India at the Missionaries of Charity home in Alipur Road, Delhi, in the 1960s as a young man. It was from there that he used to pay quick visits to the Walled City and its monuments. Kashmere Gate, Red Fort, Chandni Chowk, Jama Masjid and Daryaganj with its Delhi Gate were all visiting sites.
One remembers meeting the future saint at the Alipur Road house for an interview for The Statesman just after she had received the Nobel Prize in 1979. Dalrymple wasn’t there then. Mother was quite excited among the children sitting in a class of sorts. Just then the postman came with a packet for her. She signed the acknowledgement sheet but the postman lingered as he wanted "bakshish". Mother got irritated and walked back to the room she had left. Perhaps the postman was obliged by one of the sisters, for he left without more fuss. But probably Mother was not told about it as she had ticked off the man earlier, saying she was poor and didn’t have any money.
It was in such surroundings in the Civil Lines that Dalrymple got his initiation into the Indian life and manners, learning Hindi and later Urdu, like actor Tom Alter, to perfection. Maybe he went to Calcutta or Scotland after that but Delhi had already stolen his heart. He still spends half the year (the other half in Britain) at his farmhouse, with wife Olivia Fraser, a descendent of the same family as that of the well-known British Resident William Fraser, who was murdered outside Kashmere Gate in 1835. For that matter, the author himself has links with the famous Metcalfes — Charles, Thomas, Emily and Theophilus.To that add the link with Saint Teresa and you have the complete man amid the "City of Djinns".
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