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Brief encounter
One of the all-time great romantic movies tells the story of a "brief encounter" on a railway platform. This chance meeting wasn't loaded with such sultry undertones or present such a challenge to moral values, but it had an interesting outcome.
Staff members Pete and Dot Wildman were travelling back to Mussoorie from Delhi, and getting ready to board the Shatabdi in the typically crowded New Delhi railway station when they were accosted by a worried-looking western traveller. "Is this the Dehradun train?" Apparently, not unusually, he had received several clear affirmations of differing answers, and the sight of two other western travellers had held the promise of accurate information.
A conversation inevitably ensued, and it transpired that Mark Helyar was an English theatre director taking time out to travel around India, and was in process of pursuing ideas for a book. The theme - peoples and communities struggling to develop themselves - sounded interesting and worthwhile, and concerned an area where Woodstock people had been active for many years , so it was natural to invite Mark to visit the school and make use of our library facilities. Amongst other useful books, he bought himself a copy of Bob Alter's "Water for Paboli".
Time goes by, and Pete receives an email: "Hi, I don't know if you remember me, but we met on the platform of New Delhi railway station.." Pete is notoriously poor at remembering things, but Dot had a vague memory; in any case, Mark's request to come and visit again was welcomed (especially since he was promising a free copy of his book), and couple of weeks later Pete and Dot were meeting him at the gate and thankfully realising that they did in fact remember him.
What was interesting, though, was that Mark was very grateful for this chance meeting, since the research at Woodstock, and in particular a meeting with Darab Nagarwalla, Hanifl Centre staff, had been very helpful in forming his ideas for the book he was working on. The icing on the cake for Mark was the chance to call on Bob and Ellen Alter and share experiences about NGOs and developments in Garhwal.
It's just a simple event, but somehow this seems to happen so often at Woodstock - someone knows someone, a connection is made, and people are helped on their way. The book has been privately published, but has made it to bookstores in the UK, and has opened u doors for Mark to travel more in India, exploring the development issues facing local people and the pressures of multinational companies on their lifestyle and land, and being commissioned to write for a UK audience about some of the depredations of UK companies. It's good to play even a small part in this story.