For three reasons it is fantastic to be in Coonoor. 1: the climate is wonderful. 2: a lot of British were living here and even a few still do! So I’m collecting loads of information. (photo: Victoria + Buffalo) But most of all 3: the people here are tremendous warm and helpful. The only disadvantage is the very poor internet connections.
Coonoor is a hill station on 1850 m in the south of India. Everywhere around, on the rolling hills, are tea plantations, which originally were started by the British. Most of the British left after the independence, a few stayed. I’m trying to find out as much as possible about their lives. I spoke with several people; businessmen in tea, their wives and their kids, a professor, a hotel owner and his manager, an archivist, an old colonel and his wife, a pensioned politician and his wife, a rickshaw driver, a Chinese restaurant owner, a drunken partygoer, an old woman of 95 who had an English mother who was born in India and a 93 year old English missionary who never returned to England.
In every meeting I collect little bits and pieces. I’ll stay here one more week and hope that I can get deeper into my subject, because as a Dutch woman it is not always easy to understand how and why the Indian society function as it does.
Update schedule.
My Film is shown in the following cinema’s in holland:
10 and 17 April Schagen CineMagnus
24 April and 1 May Den Burg Cinema Texel
1 t/m 7 May Venlo Filmtheater De Nieuwe Scene
8 May IJselstein Fulcotheater
8 May Amersfoort Filmhuis Lieve Vrouw
15 and 22 May Dieren Filmhuis Dieren
15 May Alkmaar Filmtheater Provadja
7 juli Zutphen Filmtheater Luxor