in the lengthy list of bad political decisions made by the British

Clip from Yes, Prime Minister [link]
(From 1986! How little things have changed.)

My (great-) Uncle Bill was a mechanic in the China-Burma-India theater of operations in WWII [link] , so I learned about Kunming, and Chongqing by extension, as part of learning about that era.

Uncle Bill came back from the war with very strong and overt bigotry about Indians, Burmese, Chinese, "furriners" in general, and a lingering case of malaria. He could never understand my Dad's interest in that part of the world.

My Dad was a political anthropologist. He did his Ph. D. research in the mid-1960s in Rajasthan. I lived in northern Pakistan starting in 1974, was there for 5th grade through 10th grade, then northern India for 11th and 12th grade. So I grew up in the culture of the aftermath of Partition in much the same way that my Dad grew up in the culture of the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War in western Arkansas -- hearing the (many and varied) stories, seeing the effects, enduring the endless arguments, but emotionally removed.

Thats fascinating dcp! Tell us more!!

David I had heard of that city because of crazy pics and videos. But don’t know much about it. I do not know much at all about partition.

Tell us more!!

Dangerous invitation. 😏 I could go on, and on, and on....

In Pakistan and India we were wealthy and privileged in ways we wouldn't be in the U.S., got to go places and do things and meet people that are experiences I treasure now, but didn't appreciate at the time.

The culture shock I went through when I returned to the U.S. full time was...difficult.

Dad retired from USAID [link] in the early 2000s. In late 2020 he started doing a series of interviews for the archives of the U.S. State Department. The intro is here: [link]

There are a lot of good (IMHO) stories in the transcript: [link]

TCG is still sick and is actually taking a sick day from work, which never ever happens.

I was vaguely aware of The Partition (thanks, Doctor Who!), but Chongquing was just a place name to me with no details attached.

In other news, I forgot to put my trash out last night and can now hear the garbage truck booming its way around the surrounding streets as if to taunt me. "Boom! Ha ha, picked up your street first! Boom!"

Thanks for the birthday wishes, y’all! My sister came down for a visit, so I’ve been mostly off-line for a few days.

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That's so cool, dcp! You're a third culture kid -- do you identify with that? We lived in Germany until I was six (Argentina before that, where I was born, but we left when I was months old), so my transition back to the States was pretty easy -- I think my older two sisters identify more with the third culture kid profile, especially the eldest -- she was abroad from maybe 9 or 10 until 17. My dad worked for Dupont. We came back in '74 after his colon cancer diagnosis.

Are y'all familiar with Chongqing? I was not.

I saw Chungking Express but I don't actually know if that refers to the same place. And that's the extent of my knowledge, such as it is.

The Partition of India was covered a little bit in one of my history classes during my second attempt at a master's, so I know a bit about that, although not much. It was actually a British History class, iirc, so that informs what I know.

You're a third culture kid -- do you identify with that?

Absolutely.

At the international schools in Pakistan the student body was made up of dip kids, mish kids, contractor kids, local upper-class kids, and local wealthy middle-class kids. Because my Dad worked for USAID, I was on the fringe of the dip kids, and the fringe of the contractor kids. One of the oddities there was that they offered French and Spanish language classes -- but not Urdu. So I learned Spanish in school, and Urdu at home. (I don't remember much of any of it. A few dozen words of vocabulary. Sigh.)

At the Woodstock School [link] in northern Uttar Pradesh (now Himachal Pradesh) in India, most of the students were foreign mish kids and/or Indian kids from wealthy families.

The curriculum was set up to prepare students for O-levels, A-levels, PSATs, ACTs, SATs, and a whole lot of AP exams. There were Hindi classes for all grades and all levels. The high school offered advanced math for all four years. Three years of German, French, Spanish, biology, chemistry, and physics were available. There were special arrangements for daytrips hiking in the foothills of the Himalayas, and once a semester you could sign up for long-weekend excursions deeper into the mountains.

The dorms were 500 feet lower down the hillside than the classrooms. Making that climb after breakfast was no fun, but it did build up the leg muscles.

The food was boarding-school terrible.

Ah, nostalgia.