Some years ago over afternoon tea on our back porch, Mary Kay and I heard from a guest the outlines of a story set on one of the earth’s storybook islands: Sri Lanka. Its former Dutch and English masters called it ‘Ceylon’, a name that has become synonymous with delicate tea, temples with Buddhist relics … More Once Upon a Train (1)

It must surely be one of the oddest bits of historical flotsam cast up by India’s exotic, but restive northeast. The artifact in question – seldom seen by outsiders – now holds pride of place on a wall in the Shillong* headquarters of India’s paramilitary unit, the Assam Rifles. There in a regimental ballroom, surrounded … More The Dalai Lama’s Pistol