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  Sim's Park Remains a Treasure in Need of Some TLC   Sim's Park  Source: Wikimedia Commons Nina Varghese   Many years ago, as part of a press delegation, I visited Shanghai and we were taken to see a beautiful garden and house of a long-forgotten Chinese nobleman. I was overcome with a feeling of  déjà vu . I had been here before. Then I realized where I had seen the pagoda, the koi pond, the bridges and the palm trees… an identical replica at Sim's Park.   Sim's Park is Coonoor's best-known tourist attraction. The beautiful park was the brainchild of James Duncan Sim, a British civil servant who was a member of the Madras Legislative Council. In 1874. Sim along with Major Murphy of the Madras Forest Department planned and developed the park along the natural contours of the land.   The park is set in a deep ravine covering 12 hectares which are planted with trees, shrubs and creepers brought from all over the world. The small lake at the bottom ...
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Copper, Soldier, Doctor, Spy

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    Early this year, I was at a book launch in Ooty by an alumnus of Breeks School. The book, The Swaraj Spy, written by Vijay Balan was about events long forgotten. The book made me think about men who had lived in Singapore in 1941 when the Japanese bombarded the island city. The first one who came to mind was Jacob Mathew Wattacheril, who in his short autobiography called Waves of Memory talks about Japanese-occupied Singapore. He arrived in Singapore from Kerala, India, a 21-year-old filled with the hope of making a life for himself. After a few setbacks, he fulfilled his life’s ambition and joined the police force. He recalls that on the night of December 7 1941, he and his batch mates were preparing for their law exams,  the Commandant came to their room and to tell them that the exams are cancelled as there was a possibility of a Japanese attack. Jacob Mathew and his colleagues went to bed and were  woken up almost immediately. In the early hours of Decembe...
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