Jim Corbett - man-eating tiger killer

     Jim Corbett has been a popular topic among Woodstockites, especially those students of the 1940s through the 1960s and beyond. Lots of stories - heard, told by our parents, or even personal stories. They seem to resurface every year or from some occasion or new publication. In the last two year 2 email groups have been sharing stories and comments.

     My renewed interest a few years ago was because of Stephen Alter's publication in 2016 of

"In the Jungles of the Night, a Novel about Jim Corbett," with its 3 sections 1) on his young life in the Himalayan mountains near Nanital, 2) his professional life as a district administrator in the foothills of the Himalayas during the last decades of British rule in India when he famously hunted man-eating tigers, and 3) lastly his retirement when he moved to Kenya with his sister after 1947 and reminisced about his life and wrote about Kenya wild life.  

    Listen to this UTube 15-minute video https://youtu.be/q6nn_fFNk4A  about "'Coolies' in the Great War" taken from the third section of the Jungles book. Please forgive my halting voice - the first time I've tried this. You can read the text either in pdf or a Word file format.
     This selection is not about tigers, so it shows a different side of Jim Corbett. And be sure to read or listen all the way through to a surprise ending.
    I wonder if anyone has ever been to the Corbett Museum  in Kaladhungi, Uttarakhand in the Corbett Reserve? Looks interesting. Let me know if you've visited it and what you think.

Corbett Museum

    Here's a selected list of 13 books which Stephen Alter used in writing the Jungles book

   Wikipedia has an article on Jim Corbet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Corbett

    Worldcat.org has two listings - one is a list of 712 titles written by or about Jim Corbett and second list for Corbett, Jim 1875-1955. A list of 153 works in 728 publications in 26 languages held in 7,845 libraries world wide.
     What an interesting person - no wonder there is so much interest and talk about him.
   

Hiking

Hiking - what a favorite topic.  And in the last week or so there have been email discussions about hiking - treking out to Seakoli and on down to the Aglar river, up to Deosari, and on up to conquer Nag Tiba.  Or other hikes - down to Dehra Doon (Dun?) and back up in a day. Or Scott and others' trip to Dhodital (1958).

     Today (2019 Sept 24), in celebration of Jim R's birthday yesterday, I add a video of the hiking song 

      Now the boring background to what stimulated this post -- The emails originally were about the hike to Dehra Doon, with David S. replying to Gil's message on the Woodstock Rules that required getting prior permission from a family in Dehra Doon that they could hike down there - and that David and other Doon hikers had broken that law and not done that.

     Even before David's apology, there was an email message from Gil with the Jackson’s photo of looking at the Ice Cream Cone mountains and the Seokoli gap. (That photo and another of hikers resting on the road are also in Hugh’s memorial.) 

     There are other hiking tales. 

     Gil has written about three attempts he did with others to conquer Nag Tiba or Cobra Hill. 
Cobra Mountain 1

Cobra Mountain 2

Cobra Mountain 3

     On the Tales of the Petrushka web page you will also find David Chance’s Deo Sari pilgrimage, Jack on Nag Tiba, etc. Even a blog about Lindsay’s and my climb to NagTiba in 2009. Or you could see other hikes mentioned above, like the Dhodital trip (1958) by Scott with David C, Jackson, and Hugh.

      And I like the photos of the 1959 Nag Tibba conquerors too.

     There are so many other hikes, experiences, and events which cannot be seen, some that still need to be told or recalled and even recorded, some which will remain untold, forgotten off in the ether, or nowhere – very pleasant memories which will likely die with us.

      Still what fun!

      Finally, for reference about the song - go the Class of 1959 Woodstock site and click on the Woodstock School Songs image on the right hand side - you will see a list (Contents) of the Songs with the Hiking song words and be able to hear the hiking song under the 2001 WOSA Alumni Reunion collection.