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On the 1st of July 1909, five shots rang out at the Imperial Institute in South Kensington and two men lay dead. Above is an artist’s view of the event from the Illustrated London News. ‘It was ascertained that the assailant is Madha Lao Dhingra, a Hindu from the Punjab who has been studying engineeringContinue reading “July 1st 1909 / 2021”

As I live in the present I live in the magic of synchronicity I didn’t really understand what that meant until I experienced it.: A transmutation Sitting in my ‘morning chair’ with my notebook, I settle myself, looking at my pond, the wisteria beginning to bloom, the iris’s green blade leaves rising from the water,Continue reading “Masi’s dressing table. ‘Ooo! Gay!’”

 In the early 1980s at a point of disjuncture in my life, I attended some workshops entitled ‘Healing as Self-healing’.  In one of them, a guided meditation led us through a woodland into a clearing, a healing meadow and then to a house. And the house that appeared was ‘Val D’Or’, where I’d lived when IContinue reading “1950. Le Val D’Or – Tout Perdu”

“Scleroderma is an uncommon condition that results in hard, thickened areas of skin and sometimes problems with internal organs and blood vessels.”( Wikipedia) My father’s letters to Gita Sarabhai  are an aide memoir to my chronology and more. In a letter dated: 3rd August 1948, six months after my arrival in Paris, his suggests they collaborate on a book onContinue reading “1948/9 Scleroderma and Muesli”

Dr Radhakrishan was a very eminent man,  Philosopher, Oxford professor, Knight Bachelor, Educator, Author. When, in 1962, he was appointed the second President of India, Bertrand Russell said ” Plato aspired for philosophers to become kings and it is a tribute to India that she should make a philosopher her President”. He was in ParisContinue reading “Paris and Dr Radhakrishnan, 1948”

‘TS Eliot was an American lived in England and became British. WH Auden was English lived in America and became American Who lost and who gained?’ I am looking aimlessly at the yellowing wisteria shedding its leaves in my garden pond when Spider’s words from 60 earlier suddenly appear – from where? I am puzzled ,Continue reading “1959. SPIDER. Royal County Theatre, Bedford”

My first ‘object’ is a letter. First letter, first school, first separation. I remember writing it. I am four years old. In an English boarding school in Musoorie, up in the Himalayas,  sitting in a room with my 9 year old sister. There is a grownup there watching over us and we are  writing aContinue reading “1947 Letter from Musoorie”

‘By the time we got round to getting our wedding picture taken, I was already expecting and had become quite big.  That’s why we didn’t get a full length picture.’ In our flat in Paris this wedding picture used to live on a display shelf of a tall slim ornately carved piece of furniture belongingContinue reading “The Wedding Photograph, Lahore 1937”

I will start with a photograph. The first photograph.  Sitting in my mothers lap pointing in the direction of my father saying: “ Ooo – Gay!”  ‘There – Gone!” My father, Baldoon Dhingra, was a poet, and named me Meera, after a poet he loved and admired. And I remember calling myself Meera.  A fewContinue reading “Meera, Lahore, 1944”

‘Why don’t you carry on with your history in a hundred objects idea,’ said Ginny, ‘ didn’t you start it?’ ‘Yes. Ten years ago. When History of the World in a hundred objects was first broadcast.’ ‘It was such a good programme.’ ‘ And it was back on the radio during the lockdown while IContinue reading “Ginny and the dream”