| caption: |
Chapter One. The Naga Hills |
| caption: |
landscape as travels across India by train |
| text: |
In 1936 there was no alternative to travelling by train, and I am still glad that on that first journey through India I gained a vivid impression of the scorching heat and dry parched landscape of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and of the contrast offered by the luscious green of the young paddy on the fertile fields of Bengal. At that time I looked only for the picturesque in the Indian landscape and rejoiced in the brilliant light and the dark shade, in the graceful naked children waving to the train, and in the buffaloes lazily wallowing in the mud surrounded by elegant, snow-white egrettes. |
