Joanna Lumley's India (2017) s01e03 Episode Script
Episode 3
1 It's 5:30 in the morning.
An early start for the final leg of my adventures through India.
I'm joggling across Rajasthan in a train.
I'm sitting in a third-class compartment, which actually is terrific, apart from the slightly shonky windows with bits of .
.
it's fabulous.
It's got three layers of seats and you get two sheets and a pillow to lie down.
And the lavatory is two little footprints and a hole to the ground.
What's not to like?! This year, India's celebrating 70 years of its independence, and I'm travelling around the subcontinent, exploring this most glorious of countries.
So far, I've seen the great Hindu temples of the south Trumpets are starting.
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braved the mountain road to the Kingdom of Sikkim Quite scary bits of the road where somebody's gone over.
.
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visited the deserts in the west of the country This is my first sip of camel milk.
.
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and the teeming metropolis of Mumbai.
- Here's my uncle.
- Yes! There's Ivor.
In this, my final adventure, we'll revisit Rajasthan, travel on to Delhi and up to the foothills of the Himalayas.
I'll witness the complexities of the capital city .
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have an audience with a great holy man Holiness, we've got a present for you, - which we hope that you like.
- Ooh! .
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and end in glorious Kashmir, the place of my birth.
Welcome to India.
The train is taking me to my last adventure in Rajasthan.
Lying on the Pakistan border, Rajasthan is famous for its beautiful deserts, its opulent palaces and its stunning lakes.
It's also home to one of the most famous tiger reserves in the world.
In about 1850, there were 250,000 tigers roaming in India.
But they were hunted ceaselessly by the British and Maharajahs together in great big shoots, and ten years ago, their numbers had dwindled to 1,400 tigers left.
They've done huge conservation programmes and they've worked on it, and they've got the numbers over 2,000.
Anyway, I'm going to a place called Ranthambore National Park, which is one of the finest wildlife reserves in India.
In the cool of dawn, I get my first glimpse of this stunning park.
It was established back in 1973, around the ruins of a 10th-century fort.
This is a gateway in itself, this banyan tree.
This park is like something out of Kipling's Jungle Book -- quintessentially Indian -- and I'm lucky enough to have as my guide one of the world's most eminent tiger conservationists.
Belinda Wright has spent her entire life in India, founded the country's wildlife protection society and has been a leading light in the fight against poaching.
What are the hours that a tiger keeps? When do they kill? When do they sleep? When it's very hot, they'll either sleep or go in the water.
They like the water.
If they make a big kill, then they have a huge amount of food to eat, - and then they'll just sleep.
- Sleep it off.
- Yeah.
We should get moving because our best chance of finding a tiger is the next half hour.
Today the park provides a safe habitat, and tiger numbers have just reached a healthy level.
But you still need an expert guide to spot one.
(The good thing is this is the time they walk around.
) (You have to just look for movement.
) (You can just see her there,) (just a little shadow) (walking through the trees.
) (Oh, my gosh.
) (Look at that colour!) God, to see her through the woods like this, it's just extraordinary.
(Do you see her battle scars?) - (Who's she been fighting with?) - (Oh, everybody!) (Mother, sister, brother, etcetera.
) God, how fantastic.
Ranthambore highlights the seemingly unsolvable problem of people and tigers trying to live together.
And indeed, not everyone is in favour of the park.
200 families were evicted from the land, and many very poor people still see poaching as a means of survival.
But there's a unique grassroots project that's designed to bring the locals onside and defeat the culture of poaching that threatens the park.
These are the children of the Moghiya people, a local tribe of skilful hunters and trackers, who are now blamed for much of the poaching around the park.
May I join your class? Namaskar, namaskar, little ones.
How nice to see you.
Please sit.
The Moghiya are semi-nomadic, and school is not usually an option.
These boys are being given an education in the hope that they don't grow up to become tiger killers.
What is your favourite animal? - Tiger.
- Tiger.
- Tiger! Mine too.
~ Young Vikram, who's singing to the class, is the grandson of a notorious poacher, who's awaiting trial for killing several tigers.
~ Thank you.
Shabash, shabash, shabash.
Of these children, their parents have never had any education nor did their grandparents.
Because their parents are usually dabbling in the dark arts of poaching, suddenly, this is the new generation, which is going to change that.
Let's hope that when maybe they're tempted by any kind of crime in the future, they'll push it aside and remember the teaching here.
Dr Khandal runs the project, and has seen the results.
Do you think that, by teaching the Moghiya boys that poaching is bad, that they will change their ways? Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Poaching is amazingly in decline.
- It's going down? - Yeah.
The fact of the involvement of the Moghiya community.
They are the prime poaching community in this area, and these boys are getting an alternative, so It's a brighter future, for people and for animals.
Nearly a million people live around the park, and Tiger Watch is also attempting to bring them onside.
They are being trained to catch tigers on camera.
So this is fixed to a tree.
Yeah.
This is the motion-detection camera.
They've got some real beauties already, but I thought I'd lend MY experience.
Here I go, walking like a tiger, quite slowly.
I look like an old sofa! Oh, it's got me.
Don't please make me a George Galloway thing.
Here I go.
Looks like a really deranged person who's escaped from a home.
A person bolting for it.
Bahut acha.
Thank you.
Thank you very much indeed.
That's excellent.
Here I go.
Before leaving for Delhi, I have one more day in Ranthambore, and one more chance to see a tiger in the wild.
Crikey, go a bit faster! (There's too many deer around for her to be very close by.
) - I'm trying to think like a tigress.
- Yeah.
Who's hot, slightly hungry And after several long, hot hours in the back of the Jeep, Belinda directs us towards another waterhole.
And there's not a deer in sight.
Oh, my God, across the way, through the tree.
Can you see? She's getting in the water.
She's being very respectful of crocodiles.
Crocodiles can gang up on tigers in water.
That is all to do with crocodiles.
Wow! (Isn't that wonderful?) - (Spooked by something.
) - (Yeah.
) Do you think all these creatures are saying, 'Watch out, watch out! Tiger, tiger, tiger!'? There's a whole load of peacocks looking slightly polite and bemused.
'Oh, I think we'd better get out of here now.
Here comes Madam Tigress.
' I am just so thrilled to have seen that -- to have seen her walking through the water like that.
It's been wonderful -- and SHE is wonderful.
Oh, look, here.
Honestly, Belinda, I can't thank you enough.
You've also done everything in the world, haven't you? I've never seen a tiger tiptoeing through the water like that because of crocodiles.
- Every day is a new day here.
- Yes.
250 miles to the north lies Delhi.
Modern India's capital, but also a city that's been the centre of a succession of many mighty empires.
The Moguls invaded from Persia, and established their empire here in 1526.
These Muslim rulers left a legacy of some of the most stunning and imaginative architecture in the world.
This is the Emperor Humayun's Tomb.
A faintly familiar shape? That's because this is the precursor of the great dynastic mausoleums, which, decades later, culminated in the Taj Mahal.
Look at it.
This was the first time so much red sandstone and gleaming white marble had been used in such profusion.
I love it! But it's quite possible that without this glorious building, MY story could have been very different.
I'm particularly grateful to this place because it's where my father proposed to my mother and she accepted.
I think he must have been down here in Delhi on some sort of army business.
They'd met in Kashmir.
She might have been staying were her parents here at the time or maybe her older sister? Anyway, they came for a romantic walk around Humayun's Tomb.
He said, 'Will you marry me?' and she said, 'Yes.
' And I'm so thrilled because, if they hadn't agreed to get married, I wouldn't be here, my sister wouldn't be here and life would've been completely different.
How lovely.
So this is where their hearts beat as one.
This is a gorgeous time of day.
It's very early in the morning.
And as a beautiful waitress said to me on a Tennessee morning at breakfast, she said, 'Y'all have a blessed day now.
' So I shall! Delhi is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world.
The British in India moved their capital here in 1911.
It was a strategic move, intended to avoid the growing opposition to British rule in the old capital Calcutta.
The architect Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to design the new government buildings.
I love this part of Delhi.
It's actually New Delhi.
Lutyens was an extraordinary man because he respected Indian architecture so much, and so he's got these little cupolas and minarets and things that look charming and Indian about it.
This just says India on a majestic scale.
And people who came out here to visit the Viceroy said that it made Buckingham Palace look like a cottage.
Seven decades of self-government have seen India emerge as a major world power, and Delhi has witnessed a phenomenal growth in high-tech industries.
The success of something called BPO -- or business process outsourcing -- has been pivotal .
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and India now earns £50 billion a year, providing business services for the world.
Companies such as Pepsi and Vodafone have outsourced some of their services to DigiCall.
It's one of Delhi's many call centres.
I want to see if I could get a job there.
Hello.
Good morning.
I'm Joanna Lumley.
I've come for interview.
Hi.
You can have a seat and fill this form in.
OK, thank you.
Years of exp? Experience.
How much experience you have.
A lifetime.
OK, good, this is going to be 70 years' experience.
Ratings are: one -- poor, five -- excellent.
I'm going to be excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent.
- No, they will rate you.
- Oh, THEY rate me? Rajeev Sharma is one of India's call centre gurus.
So, Rajeev, this seems to me behind me cyber city.
How long has this been here? - Essentially, the last ten years.
- And so what was here before? - Nothing.
- Nothing.
In Britain, sometimes working at a call centre might be seen as quite a lowly job, but here it's good, isn't it? Here it is.
Money-wise this is a place where you can earn money and decide what you want to do with it later.
Is this a young-people industry, do you think? Yes.
Average age in a call centre would be anywhere between 18 to 25.
- So very young? - Very young.
I think I've filled in everything I need to.
They will call you for interview.
- So she'll be our new candidate.
- OK.
I'm Joanna.
So, Joanna, why do you want to work in a call centre? Because I love communicating with people, and I think it's an industry that is growing and growing, - and I'd love to be part of it.
- Great.
Have you seen how old I am? - It's OK.
- OK, good.
They can't see me because I'm on a phone.
That's completely fine.
We give opportunities to each and every person.
Hello, madam.
How can I help you? I've somehow blagged my way through to the final stage of the training.
'Where is my product?' Oh, madam, I'm so sorry for this delay, and I'm going to ensure that the product gets to you tomorrow Ajay Sam is in charge of this whole operation.
We service around 45 clients internationally and within India.
Yeah.
We cater to all languages.
And is this growing? We're growing at a rate of 15-20% year on year.
- That's huge.
- That's huge, yeah.
Because you've had to have such a hard time with our company, I'm going to send you a free product of your choice.
'You're going to give me something as a complimentary product?' I'm going to give you a complimentary product.
I think that, if I came to you as a trainee, you wouldn't accept me.
I promise you.
Oh, why do you say that? I'm not very good at IT.
And I would promise the customer anything they wanted! She had a toaster.
That's all she wanted.
Now she's ordered an oven as well.
I've promised her it -- free.
We'll send her the oven as well, and then we'll send her a bill.
- It's been a pleasure being here.
- My pleasure too.
I've got to say, it's still left me terribly nervous in case somebody rings up and says, 'I'm very angry about the delivery.
' No! I now have the greatest respect for people who work in call centres, and next time I'm put through to them, I shall be more appreciative.
I was a model in the '60s, and any time there's a chance to drop in on a photographic shoot, I'm there.
But this is exciting because this in India.
Top Indian designer, Indian stylist, top Indian models, and I'm in Delhi, and it's going to be fabulous.
The thing about photo shoots all around the world is that they're exactly the same.
It just unifies us.
It doesn't matter whether you're in the United States or Russia, in Japan, here in India, it kind of draws the whole world together.
Ravishing beauty, gorgeous things which look unattainable.
All to go into a magazine, all to make women dream of beauty.
Oh, dear, I can't get this off.
I may have to keep it! Today's shoot is resort wear.
Gosh, it's fantastic.
Traditionally, only for the very rich, but now part of the £50 billion Indians spend on fashion every year.
Rajdeep, these are high-end clothes.
Is there a huge market for them? There's a huge market because today all the clients are travelling internationally, and resort wear has become so strong.
It's affordable as well.
Could anybody aspire to owning this? Probably just about $150.
- Right? - What?! - Yes.
- Yes.
- What?! - Yes! Oh, my heavens! - That's a little tunic.
- That's a tunic.
You call this style Boho Indian Luxe.
- I just made that up, but I think it sounds - It sounds pretty good.
You could be feeling really dowdy, and you just put on something like this, a bit of lippy -- you've got to do something to your face.
But anyway, once you've done that, you've got something like this on Around the world, Indian models are so in vogue right now and can demand top dollar.
Would it be dreadfully rude if you told me your age? - I'm 38.
Not at all.
- Stop it! No! I'm 38.
- You look just like a child.
- Thank you.
I feel like a child! You look about 19, and beyond gorgeous.
- You are so beautiful.
- Oh, stop it! Sitting here, double-sharing the mirror, you go, 'Oh, I'm going to have to ask for help.
' Isn't that beautiful? I love make-up.
All these people who say, 'Scrub your face, - and go about as nature intended,' I think that's a bore.
- Yeah.
Modelling requires a bit of patience and skill.
More than most people imagine.
I can remember a time when Patsy was stoned out of her mind doing some photographs, and she trod through the back paper like this.
- Yeah, I remember seeing that! - And got all caught up in it.
- Squeeze in, guys.
- Lovely! Thank you.
Thanks, darlings.
Thank you, my lovely ones.
Today Delhi is clearly somewhere you can make it.
Its population is exploding .
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and £280 million is being spent on a new monorail system.
But in the shadow of one of the new train lines you can also see what happens to the thousands who aren't so fortunate.
Those not earning can quickly fall through the net, and the number of homeless in the city is now estimated to be far in excess of 150,000.
- Are they from all over India? - Yeah, yeah.
All over India coming to Delhi.
- Where do you sleep here? - Can sleep anywhere.
Here, there, here, here.
This is an area of central Delhi where countless homeless men bed down for the night and where I met Raju.
So, Raju, how long have you lived here? Last 38 years.
38 years? But you're a young man.
How old were you when you came here? 12 years.
I was 12.
12, Raju.
What happened? Because I was drinker.
Alcoholic.
- When you were a little boy? - Yeah, I was 12.
My family and between me, there were some problems.
- So you had a split-up? - Yeah.
And they threw you out? And you came here.
And what do people do when they come here? They try to work in the daytime? Some people -- they're doing garbage work.
You will see there.
Yes, recycling things and garbage, collecting things.
Collecting things, and they're selling here.
Ingeniously, some of these men have set up a makeshift cinema from all sorts of old scraps.
Cinemas in Delhi don't accept us.
- Tell me about that.
- They just kick us.
- Do they kick you out? - Yeah, yeah.
- Why? - Because we are dirty people.
We don't have nice clothes.
We don't have perfumes.
That kind of things.
I'd love to see what films you're showing.
Can I come in? Yeah.
~ This seems a very happy crowd.
Are they happy people because they're watching television? They don't worry about another day.
- They just want to spend today.
- Today, now.
- Yeah.
- They're living in the present.
- We're all like a family here.
- Yes.
We don't have relations here.
We are all one.
- You're all one family.
- Yeah.
- It's wonderful.
Which are favourite films? Which are the most popular? Some movies I see, the James Bond And Arnaldo -- something like that.
I know who you mean.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Yeah, Arnie.
It may only be an old TV and a DVD player wired up under a makeshift tent, but -- for these men -- it's their own Cinema Paradiso.
Phew! Well, quite hot in there, but what an extraordinary place.
We're in the heart of Delhi, the capital of India, and living in as decrepit and derelict conditions as I've ever been in.
Just in this very short time I've been here, I've seen rats and dogs of all kinds.
Everybody kind of getting on.
Cows wandering through rubbish.
It's astonishing.
I'm so pleased I came here.
[~.]
Isn't it odd, this life-saving thing? Look what it does.
Look at the pleasure it gives.
Suddenly, for a moment, they're lost.
They can escape.
They're entertained, and life can seem glorious again, sitting with a great big family.
It's extraordinarily gentle, and to go in there and some people making namaste welcome signs.
And the gentleman sitting next to me, who's missing the front teeth, he said politely, 'Do you have a problem?' And I said, 'No.
No problem.
' And he meant And then he said, 'You want water?' That was his problem.
He was meaning, 'Would you like me to get you some water?' (I'm sorry.
) Anyway Anyway, anyway, they've got the cinema.
That's good.
We were all so touched by what we saw here that we thought we'd help out with some tarpaulin to weatherproof the leaky cinema tent against the approaching rainy season.
Delhi has been heart-wrenching and illuminating in equal measure.
But now I have to collect my thoughts, my inner self and my luggage, and head to the mountains.
60 years ago, India gave refuge to a god-king.
High in the mountain town of Dharamsala lives one of the world's most revered spiritual leaders.
I want to ask him about practically the meaning of life and what we should be doing and, well, just everything.
The greatest mountain range in the world stands along India's northern border.
An hour's flight north from Delhi, nestled below the snowy Himalayan peaks, is Dharamsala.
It feels great to be out of the city, and I'm simply beyond excitement because I have an audience with one of my greatest heroes.
His residence is high in the mountains in a small town called McLeod Ganj.
I'm very excited, a bit fluttery.
I'm going to an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
It's a tremendous honour to be allowed to bring the film crew in, and just talk to him, and I want ask him about .
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practically the meaning of life and what we should be doing and, well, just everything.
And if anybody knows the answer, I think it's the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama has been here in India for the past 60 years, since his country was invaded by China and he had to flee in fear of his life on foot across the Himalayas.
'The road on which the living Buddha was to end his amazing journey led through thick jungle.
'It was in fact the only track, but the Dalai Lama and his escort must have appreciated it, after the long mountain trek.
' 'A white scarf, in keeping with Tibetan custom, was presented by the Indian Government's envoy at this simple but very dramatic meeting.
Smiling and perfectly composed, the young god-king showed no signs of his ordeal, though he'd just completed perhaps the most exhausting journey in the world.
' After escaping to India, His Holiness carried on his role as leader of the Tibetan people in exile here in India .
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and still receives a continual flow of pilgrims, well-wishers and refugees from his homeland.
I'm excited anyway, but there's a family connection.
Almost a hundred years ago, my grandparents and my aunt met the 13th Dalai Lama, the man the present Dalai Lama succeeded.
His Holiness is Buddhist, and he lives peacefully in this predominantly Hindu country, which is also shared by many other religions.
Your Holiness with all the religious intolerance in the world, what is there that we -- as individuals -- can do to counter this? Forgiveness, tolerance.
Unfortunately, including Buddhism, sometimes we just take religion as something like a ritual or some prayer and not much pay attention, not much seriously practise, about the real message of religion.
So it is possible.
- Yes.
- If you are sincere.
I am Buddhist.
I really admire Islam.
Some people describe Islam as more militant, more negative.
But look over a thousand years how much Muslims bring, produce nice, sensible human beings.
Yes.
Some mischievous people among the Buddhist, among the Christian, - among the Jews, also there.
- Of course.
So that's my thinking.
So maybe, if we can't have all one religion, we can at least have one compassion.
That's right.
That's right.
Basic human nature is compassion.
Compassion is much better than anger.
Yes.
You can ask scientists.
They definitely say more compassion in heart, your physical is better.
I think even we see your face -- compassion there -- more smile.
Anger there -- even you see dogs or cats also don't like angry face.
No, they don't.
We've been travelling through India.
And, Your Holiness, it may be looking through rose-tinted glasses, but it seems that India is happier than the Western world.
And yet some of the people we've met here in India are very poor.
Can you be happy with almost nothing? I find, you see, when I met some rich family, sometimes they're more sort of bright.
Then poor Indian workers, very poor, when I shake hand, their face peaceful, sincere.
So accessing modern education I think creates more desire, more ambition and, ultimately, self-centred attitude.
- So you introduce these things.
- I shall do.
The role of the Dalai Lama has been filled for centuries through a belief in reincarnation.
The current Dalai Lama is the 14th .
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chosen at the age of two to replace his predecessor the 13th, Thubten Gyatso, whom my grandfather Colonel Leslie Weir knew in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, in the days when the country was free.
Your Holiness, I want to bring this to you because my grandfather was Here, this is my grandfather.
So he knew 13th Dalai Lama.
And these are the articles from before you were born.
The Dalai Lama whose reincarnation is awaited.
So 13th Dalai Lama has passed away.
- You haven't been born yet, Holiness.
- Right.
Oh that's right.
Yes.
And then I was at a loss to think what to get as a present for the great man, but I heard on the grapevine that he loves gadgets.
Holiness, we have got a present for you, which we hope that you like.
- Ooh! - It's a drone.
It's to fly.
- I saw.
- You've seen these.
- We would love you to have this.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
Please give me one guarantee.
This somehow mishandles, and hits my whole head! You should give me guarantee not that kind of thing happens.
- Thank you so much for talking to us.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
I really appreciate.
I really appreciate.
- So you are very, very kind.
- Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And I think spirit -- your grandfather's spirit, - I think still carry.
- I think he does.
- Ah.
- Ah.
So thank you.
Honestly, it was such a privilege to have an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
I've come out of it feeling completely calm, completely blessed and determined to be a more compassionate person, to make something good of my life.
My grandfather Leslie Weir, who loved this part of the world so much, and who was such a close friend of the 13th Dalai Lama, would be so proud and thrilled to think that I'd had an audience with the 14th Dalai Lama up here in Dharamsala.
Blessed day.
The end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
The last chapter of my journey is Kashmir, where I was born.
The beauty of this region has been renowned for centuries.
But since India and Pakistan were split apart in the Act of Partition in 1947, it's become a conflict zone.
'The chief dispute between Pakistan and India has centred on the Principality of Kashmir in the north.
'Behind its peaceful exterior, Kashmir has been a land of conflict.
With Partition, its Muslim majority was determined to join Pakistan, while its Hindu government acceded to India.
' Today there are half a million Indian troops in Kashmir, trying to quell demands from a powerful independence movement in a conflict that's killed 47,000 people.
I'm thrilled to be in Srinagar, the city where I was born, but it breaks my heart that this beautiful land is now so troubled.
Through the ages, the stunning lakes have drawn people who want to shelter from the summer heat of the Indian plains.
Altaf has offered me fabulous accommodation.
- Oh, Altaf, look at this! - Please welcome.
Tell me when houseboats first came to the lake.
Well, around 1800s.
This is an idea from the British Empire, when they were not allowed to buy land in Kashmir, and they came with this fabulous idea of making houseboats.
What's happened? Because tourism has fallen right off.
Kashmir has a problem.
It has been a problem since the making of India and Pakistan.
Kashmir was neither part of India or Pakistan.
So when the Partition came, it was sort of blocked on with India.
Absolutely, yeah.
And, yes, many people here would say that that was not really the right thing to do.
But -- looking at a business point of view -- I think it's really great to be with India.
Because? Because of the growth in India, which is really big at the moment.
People will come, won't they? - It's just heavenly.
- Heaven, yeah.
My parents were married here in Srinagar, and they had a honeymoon on one of these houseboats.
- Oh, how wonderful.
- Goodness knows which one.
But they simply adored this part of the world.
I'm so proud of being a Kashmiri.
I boast about it all the time.
People say, 'What can you remember?' and you say, 'Nothing.
' Shalimar -- this is me.
Come in.
This is my room.
I mean, look at this room.
Gorgeous little flowers sprinkled on the bed.
And here, this is Mummy and Daddy on their wedding day.
And this would have been here in Srinagar at the church.
Isn't that just too sweet for words? Those are sweet pictures.
That was Mummy on her wedding day here.
But this is the picture of me.
That's about what I looked like when I left here.
In some way, pretty similar to how I am now.
Slightly fat face, grinning.
With on top.
So not much changed.
In the summertime, the lakes are covered with lilies and lotus blossom, which women in small boats collect for cattle fodder.
Now it's early spring -- and perfect for vegetables.
It's just before dawn, and I've hitched a ride in a shikara to find the floating market that's been happening here every morning for over a hundred years.
So this is the vegetable market in the early morning.
Whoo! I'm in danger of being speared by these huge boats which come.
Argh! And they just appear to be selling leaves to each other.
They weigh some leaves and look at each other's leaves and say disparagingly, 'Those leaves are no good.
' Look, a bit of haggling over leaves.
Good leaves, bad leaves.
It's fabulous.
This market has proved impervious not only to army curfews but also to the devastating floods that three years ago destroyed this whole area.
Excuse me, sir.
Can I buy some? Can I have some of these? Huh? The traders usually barter with each other, but seem delighted to take my cash.
Thank you.
~ Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Mr Wonderful, do you have any blue poppy seeds? - I have three colours.
- Blue-ier, blue-y.
- .
.
green poppy and blue.
- I'd love them.
I have such a disappointing record with poppies every year.
Oh, look, here it is.
Who does not want to buy that? - How much will that be? - 6,000 rupees.
6,000?! Rupees.
Rupees.
6,000 rupees.
20 packet.
I don't want 20 packets.
- Ten packets? - Five packets.
Actually, I don't know why I'm being so mean.
I went to the ATM, and I got out stacks of money.
There's something unbelievably mean about me.
I'm quite mean.
I think I'd be quite happy with a garden just full of poppies.
I saw a film in the '60s called It was Fellini, and it was called Giulietta Degli Spiriti, and it was a pretty, like, trippy film.
And they had great poppies.
Perfect.
I am VERY happy.
- When people happy, I am happy.
- I'm happy.
- God is happy.
- This is the way it is.
The old town of Sirinaka -- unlike me -- appears not to have changed for 70 years.
It's extraordinary.
It feels like a completely different country.
It doesn't feel like India at all here.
It just feels Well, it feels like Kashmir.
That's the truth of it.
It's mostly Muslim.
Gorgeous fresh vegetables.
Sad butcher's shop, which I don't look at.
But then I look at gorgeous vegetables again.
The architecture is different and the air's different and Puppy dog Puppies are different.
Well, actually, puppies are the same.
Call to prayer.
There's a place across town that I really want to visit.
Well, this is extraordinary to be back at what was the Residency in Sirinaka.
It's now the Kashmir Government Arts Emporium.
But this is where my grandparents lived for a bit, where my mother and father were certainly married.
They would have had their wedding reception here.
When I was a little baby and I'd been born here on the Gupta Road in the Mission Hospital -- little baby, I would have been here.
And then there was a tragedy, and the building burnt down, and was rebuilt in the 1990s.
They've sort of kept it to what it looked like, which you've got to admit is Surrey stockbrokers' belt.
It is.
Look at it.
What happened to the British -- we used to come abroad with the most heavenly architecture available to us, and say, 'I think we'll put a little bit of home here.
' Anyway, this is what it looked like.
It's so gorgeous to be back and to think, even though I was just a -- just a baby, with teeth growing, probably crying through the night with pink cheeks, I was sleeping in here.
Kashmir is a very fitting place to end this immense journey.
Starting in the southern-most state of Tamil Nadu, we've travelled over 5,000 miles around this mesmerising country, and now we're finally drawn to the foothills of the Himalayas in the extreme north.
Oh! Wow! This is the Vale of Kashmir.
All spread out with memories of my family.
You can see the soft lakes and rivers joining up and behind them the white snows of the Himalayas.
And this is the end of our extraordinary journey.
Just to think, we started at Kanyakumari right down in the southern tip of India, and then it just seemed to explode.
We went up to Madurai and saw fabulous temples.
India has shown me such incredible diversity, optimism and tolerance.
It really is a unique and glorious country.
We went into tea plantations and followed wild elephants, who suddenly appeared especially for us.
We went up to Hyderabad.
Extraordinary city.
I was made into a goddess.
Pretty much liked that.
We went to Calcutta, and there we went into something out of a kind of Dickens dream.
The jute mill.
The country faces huge problems of poverty and population growth, but it's on the cusp of becoming a superpower -- and its potential is immeasurable.
We went to Gujarat in the west part of the country, and we went to a Dalit community who were so friendly to us, but eye-opening how some people have to live.
The tragedies of the Dalit community.
But then we went to stay in a palace, with a Maharaja, which was extraordinary, and his old palace, because most of us have two -- the new and the old -- his old palace up on the hill, had the finest wall paintings known in India.
Honestly, India India has got everything.
You'd be mad not to come here.
An early start for the final leg of my adventures through India.
I'm joggling across Rajasthan in a train.
I'm sitting in a third-class compartment, which actually is terrific, apart from the slightly shonky windows with bits of .
.
it's fabulous.
It's got three layers of seats and you get two sheets and a pillow to lie down.
And the lavatory is two little footprints and a hole to the ground.
What's not to like?! This year, India's celebrating 70 years of its independence, and I'm travelling around the subcontinent, exploring this most glorious of countries.
So far, I've seen the great Hindu temples of the south Trumpets are starting.
.
.
braved the mountain road to the Kingdom of Sikkim Quite scary bits of the road where somebody's gone over.
.
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visited the deserts in the west of the country This is my first sip of camel milk.
.
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and the teeming metropolis of Mumbai.
- Here's my uncle.
- Yes! There's Ivor.
In this, my final adventure, we'll revisit Rajasthan, travel on to Delhi and up to the foothills of the Himalayas.
I'll witness the complexities of the capital city .
.
have an audience with a great holy man Holiness, we've got a present for you, - which we hope that you like.
- Ooh! .
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and end in glorious Kashmir, the place of my birth.
Welcome to India.
The train is taking me to my last adventure in Rajasthan.
Lying on the Pakistan border, Rajasthan is famous for its beautiful deserts, its opulent palaces and its stunning lakes.
It's also home to one of the most famous tiger reserves in the world.
In about 1850, there were 250,000 tigers roaming in India.
But they were hunted ceaselessly by the British and Maharajahs together in great big shoots, and ten years ago, their numbers had dwindled to 1,400 tigers left.
They've done huge conservation programmes and they've worked on it, and they've got the numbers over 2,000.
Anyway, I'm going to a place called Ranthambore National Park, which is one of the finest wildlife reserves in India.
In the cool of dawn, I get my first glimpse of this stunning park.
It was established back in 1973, around the ruins of a 10th-century fort.
This is a gateway in itself, this banyan tree.
This park is like something out of Kipling's Jungle Book -- quintessentially Indian -- and I'm lucky enough to have as my guide one of the world's most eminent tiger conservationists.
Belinda Wright has spent her entire life in India, founded the country's wildlife protection society and has been a leading light in the fight against poaching.
What are the hours that a tiger keeps? When do they kill? When do they sleep? When it's very hot, they'll either sleep or go in the water.
They like the water.
If they make a big kill, then they have a huge amount of food to eat, - and then they'll just sleep.
- Sleep it off.
- Yeah.
We should get moving because our best chance of finding a tiger is the next half hour.
Today the park provides a safe habitat, and tiger numbers have just reached a healthy level.
But you still need an expert guide to spot one.
(The good thing is this is the time they walk around.
) (You have to just look for movement.
) (You can just see her there,) (just a little shadow) (walking through the trees.
) (Oh, my gosh.
) (Look at that colour!) God, to see her through the woods like this, it's just extraordinary.
(Do you see her battle scars?) - (Who's she been fighting with?) - (Oh, everybody!) (Mother, sister, brother, etcetera.
) God, how fantastic.
Ranthambore highlights the seemingly unsolvable problem of people and tigers trying to live together.
And indeed, not everyone is in favour of the park.
200 families were evicted from the land, and many very poor people still see poaching as a means of survival.
But there's a unique grassroots project that's designed to bring the locals onside and defeat the culture of poaching that threatens the park.
These are the children of the Moghiya people, a local tribe of skilful hunters and trackers, who are now blamed for much of the poaching around the park.
May I join your class? Namaskar, namaskar, little ones.
How nice to see you.
Please sit.
The Moghiya are semi-nomadic, and school is not usually an option.
These boys are being given an education in the hope that they don't grow up to become tiger killers.
What is your favourite animal? - Tiger.
- Tiger.
- Tiger! Mine too.
~ Young Vikram, who's singing to the class, is the grandson of a notorious poacher, who's awaiting trial for killing several tigers.
~ Thank you.
Shabash, shabash, shabash.
Of these children, their parents have never had any education nor did their grandparents.
Because their parents are usually dabbling in the dark arts of poaching, suddenly, this is the new generation, which is going to change that.
Let's hope that when maybe they're tempted by any kind of crime in the future, they'll push it aside and remember the teaching here.
Dr Khandal runs the project, and has seen the results.
Do you think that, by teaching the Moghiya boys that poaching is bad, that they will change their ways? Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Poaching is amazingly in decline.
- It's going down? - Yeah.
The fact of the involvement of the Moghiya community.
They are the prime poaching community in this area, and these boys are getting an alternative, so It's a brighter future, for people and for animals.
Nearly a million people live around the park, and Tiger Watch is also attempting to bring them onside.
They are being trained to catch tigers on camera.
So this is fixed to a tree.
Yeah.
This is the motion-detection camera.
They've got some real beauties already, but I thought I'd lend MY experience.
Here I go, walking like a tiger, quite slowly.
I look like an old sofa! Oh, it's got me.
Don't please make me a George Galloway thing.
Here I go.
Looks like a really deranged person who's escaped from a home.
A person bolting for it.
Bahut acha.
Thank you.
Thank you very much indeed.
That's excellent.
Here I go.
Before leaving for Delhi, I have one more day in Ranthambore, and one more chance to see a tiger in the wild.
Crikey, go a bit faster! (There's too many deer around for her to be very close by.
) - I'm trying to think like a tigress.
- Yeah.
Who's hot, slightly hungry And after several long, hot hours in the back of the Jeep, Belinda directs us towards another waterhole.
And there's not a deer in sight.
Oh, my God, across the way, through the tree.
Can you see? She's getting in the water.
She's being very respectful of crocodiles.
Crocodiles can gang up on tigers in water.
That is all to do with crocodiles.
Wow! (Isn't that wonderful?) - (Spooked by something.
) - (Yeah.
) Do you think all these creatures are saying, 'Watch out, watch out! Tiger, tiger, tiger!'? There's a whole load of peacocks looking slightly polite and bemused.
'Oh, I think we'd better get out of here now.
Here comes Madam Tigress.
' I am just so thrilled to have seen that -- to have seen her walking through the water like that.
It's been wonderful -- and SHE is wonderful.
Oh, look, here.
Honestly, Belinda, I can't thank you enough.
You've also done everything in the world, haven't you? I've never seen a tiger tiptoeing through the water like that because of crocodiles.
- Every day is a new day here.
- Yes.
250 miles to the north lies Delhi.
Modern India's capital, but also a city that's been the centre of a succession of many mighty empires.
The Moguls invaded from Persia, and established their empire here in 1526.
These Muslim rulers left a legacy of some of the most stunning and imaginative architecture in the world.
This is the Emperor Humayun's Tomb.
A faintly familiar shape? That's because this is the precursor of the great dynastic mausoleums, which, decades later, culminated in the Taj Mahal.
Look at it.
This was the first time so much red sandstone and gleaming white marble had been used in such profusion.
I love it! But it's quite possible that without this glorious building, MY story could have been very different.
I'm particularly grateful to this place because it's where my father proposed to my mother and she accepted.
I think he must have been down here in Delhi on some sort of army business.
They'd met in Kashmir.
She might have been staying were her parents here at the time or maybe her older sister? Anyway, they came for a romantic walk around Humayun's Tomb.
He said, 'Will you marry me?' and she said, 'Yes.
' And I'm so thrilled because, if they hadn't agreed to get married, I wouldn't be here, my sister wouldn't be here and life would've been completely different.
How lovely.
So this is where their hearts beat as one.
This is a gorgeous time of day.
It's very early in the morning.
And as a beautiful waitress said to me on a Tennessee morning at breakfast, she said, 'Y'all have a blessed day now.
' So I shall! Delhi is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world.
The British in India moved their capital here in 1911.
It was a strategic move, intended to avoid the growing opposition to British rule in the old capital Calcutta.
The architect Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to design the new government buildings.
I love this part of Delhi.
It's actually New Delhi.
Lutyens was an extraordinary man because he respected Indian architecture so much, and so he's got these little cupolas and minarets and things that look charming and Indian about it.
This just says India on a majestic scale.
And people who came out here to visit the Viceroy said that it made Buckingham Palace look like a cottage.
Seven decades of self-government have seen India emerge as a major world power, and Delhi has witnessed a phenomenal growth in high-tech industries.
The success of something called BPO -- or business process outsourcing -- has been pivotal .
.
and India now earns £50 billion a year, providing business services for the world.
Companies such as Pepsi and Vodafone have outsourced some of their services to DigiCall.
It's one of Delhi's many call centres.
I want to see if I could get a job there.
Hello.
Good morning.
I'm Joanna Lumley.
I've come for interview.
Hi.
You can have a seat and fill this form in.
OK, thank you.
Years of exp? Experience.
How much experience you have.
A lifetime.
OK, good, this is going to be 70 years' experience.
Ratings are: one -- poor, five -- excellent.
I'm going to be excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent.
- No, they will rate you.
- Oh, THEY rate me? Rajeev Sharma is one of India's call centre gurus.
So, Rajeev, this seems to me behind me cyber city.
How long has this been here? - Essentially, the last ten years.
- And so what was here before? - Nothing.
- Nothing.
In Britain, sometimes working at a call centre might be seen as quite a lowly job, but here it's good, isn't it? Here it is.
Money-wise this is a place where you can earn money and decide what you want to do with it later.
Is this a young-people industry, do you think? Yes.
Average age in a call centre would be anywhere between 18 to 25.
- So very young? - Very young.
I think I've filled in everything I need to.
They will call you for interview.
- So she'll be our new candidate.
- OK.
I'm Joanna.
So, Joanna, why do you want to work in a call centre? Because I love communicating with people, and I think it's an industry that is growing and growing, - and I'd love to be part of it.
- Great.
Have you seen how old I am? - It's OK.
- OK, good.
They can't see me because I'm on a phone.
That's completely fine.
We give opportunities to each and every person.
Hello, madam.
How can I help you? I've somehow blagged my way through to the final stage of the training.
'Where is my product?' Oh, madam, I'm so sorry for this delay, and I'm going to ensure that the product gets to you tomorrow Ajay Sam is in charge of this whole operation.
We service around 45 clients internationally and within India.
Yeah.
We cater to all languages.
And is this growing? We're growing at a rate of 15-20% year on year.
- That's huge.
- That's huge, yeah.
Because you've had to have such a hard time with our company, I'm going to send you a free product of your choice.
'You're going to give me something as a complimentary product?' I'm going to give you a complimentary product.
I think that, if I came to you as a trainee, you wouldn't accept me.
I promise you.
Oh, why do you say that? I'm not very good at IT.
And I would promise the customer anything they wanted! She had a toaster.
That's all she wanted.
Now she's ordered an oven as well.
I've promised her it -- free.
We'll send her the oven as well, and then we'll send her a bill.
- It's been a pleasure being here.
- My pleasure too.
I've got to say, it's still left me terribly nervous in case somebody rings up and says, 'I'm very angry about the delivery.
' No! I now have the greatest respect for people who work in call centres, and next time I'm put through to them, I shall be more appreciative.
I was a model in the '60s, and any time there's a chance to drop in on a photographic shoot, I'm there.
But this is exciting because this in India.
Top Indian designer, Indian stylist, top Indian models, and I'm in Delhi, and it's going to be fabulous.
The thing about photo shoots all around the world is that they're exactly the same.
It just unifies us.
It doesn't matter whether you're in the United States or Russia, in Japan, here in India, it kind of draws the whole world together.
Ravishing beauty, gorgeous things which look unattainable.
All to go into a magazine, all to make women dream of beauty.
Oh, dear, I can't get this off.
I may have to keep it! Today's shoot is resort wear.
Gosh, it's fantastic.
Traditionally, only for the very rich, but now part of the £50 billion Indians spend on fashion every year.
Rajdeep, these are high-end clothes.
Is there a huge market for them? There's a huge market because today all the clients are travelling internationally, and resort wear has become so strong.
It's affordable as well.
Could anybody aspire to owning this? Probably just about $150.
- Right? - What?! - Yes.
- Yes.
- What?! - Yes! Oh, my heavens! - That's a little tunic.
- That's a tunic.
You call this style Boho Indian Luxe.
- I just made that up, but I think it sounds - It sounds pretty good.
You could be feeling really dowdy, and you just put on something like this, a bit of lippy -- you've got to do something to your face.
But anyway, once you've done that, you've got something like this on Around the world, Indian models are so in vogue right now and can demand top dollar.
Would it be dreadfully rude if you told me your age? - I'm 38.
Not at all.
- Stop it! No! I'm 38.
- You look just like a child.
- Thank you.
I feel like a child! You look about 19, and beyond gorgeous.
- You are so beautiful.
- Oh, stop it! Sitting here, double-sharing the mirror, you go, 'Oh, I'm going to have to ask for help.
' Isn't that beautiful? I love make-up.
All these people who say, 'Scrub your face, - and go about as nature intended,' I think that's a bore.
- Yeah.
Modelling requires a bit of patience and skill.
More than most people imagine.
I can remember a time when Patsy was stoned out of her mind doing some photographs, and she trod through the back paper like this.
- Yeah, I remember seeing that! - And got all caught up in it.
- Squeeze in, guys.
- Lovely! Thank you.
Thanks, darlings.
Thank you, my lovely ones.
Today Delhi is clearly somewhere you can make it.
Its population is exploding .
.
and £280 million is being spent on a new monorail system.
But in the shadow of one of the new train lines you can also see what happens to the thousands who aren't so fortunate.
Those not earning can quickly fall through the net, and the number of homeless in the city is now estimated to be far in excess of 150,000.
- Are they from all over India? - Yeah, yeah.
All over India coming to Delhi.
- Where do you sleep here? - Can sleep anywhere.
Here, there, here, here.
This is an area of central Delhi where countless homeless men bed down for the night and where I met Raju.
So, Raju, how long have you lived here? Last 38 years.
38 years? But you're a young man.
How old were you when you came here? 12 years.
I was 12.
12, Raju.
What happened? Because I was drinker.
Alcoholic.
- When you were a little boy? - Yeah, I was 12.
My family and between me, there were some problems.
- So you had a split-up? - Yeah.
And they threw you out? And you came here.
And what do people do when they come here? They try to work in the daytime? Some people -- they're doing garbage work.
You will see there.
Yes, recycling things and garbage, collecting things.
Collecting things, and they're selling here.
Ingeniously, some of these men have set up a makeshift cinema from all sorts of old scraps.
Cinemas in Delhi don't accept us.
- Tell me about that.
- They just kick us.
- Do they kick you out? - Yeah, yeah.
- Why? - Because we are dirty people.
We don't have nice clothes.
We don't have perfumes.
That kind of things.
I'd love to see what films you're showing.
Can I come in? Yeah.
~ This seems a very happy crowd.
Are they happy people because they're watching television? They don't worry about another day.
- They just want to spend today.
- Today, now.
- Yeah.
- They're living in the present.
- We're all like a family here.
- Yes.
We don't have relations here.
We are all one.
- You're all one family.
- Yeah.
- It's wonderful.
Which are favourite films? Which are the most popular? Some movies I see, the James Bond And Arnaldo -- something like that.
I know who you mean.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Yeah, Arnie.
It may only be an old TV and a DVD player wired up under a makeshift tent, but -- for these men -- it's their own Cinema Paradiso.
Phew! Well, quite hot in there, but what an extraordinary place.
We're in the heart of Delhi, the capital of India, and living in as decrepit and derelict conditions as I've ever been in.
Just in this very short time I've been here, I've seen rats and dogs of all kinds.
Everybody kind of getting on.
Cows wandering through rubbish.
It's astonishing.
I'm so pleased I came here.
[~.]
Isn't it odd, this life-saving thing? Look what it does.
Look at the pleasure it gives.
Suddenly, for a moment, they're lost.
They can escape.
They're entertained, and life can seem glorious again, sitting with a great big family.
It's extraordinarily gentle, and to go in there and some people making namaste welcome signs.
And the gentleman sitting next to me, who's missing the front teeth, he said politely, 'Do you have a problem?' And I said, 'No.
No problem.
' And he meant And then he said, 'You want water?' That was his problem.
He was meaning, 'Would you like me to get you some water?' (I'm sorry.
) Anyway Anyway, anyway, they've got the cinema.
That's good.
We were all so touched by what we saw here that we thought we'd help out with some tarpaulin to weatherproof the leaky cinema tent against the approaching rainy season.
Delhi has been heart-wrenching and illuminating in equal measure.
But now I have to collect my thoughts, my inner self and my luggage, and head to the mountains.
60 years ago, India gave refuge to a god-king.
High in the mountain town of Dharamsala lives one of the world's most revered spiritual leaders.
I want to ask him about practically the meaning of life and what we should be doing and, well, just everything.
The greatest mountain range in the world stands along India's northern border.
An hour's flight north from Delhi, nestled below the snowy Himalayan peaks, is Dharamsala.
It feels great to be out of the city, and I'm simply beyond excitement because I have an audience with one of my greatest heroes.
His residence is high in the mountains in a small town called McLeod Ganj.
I'm very excited, a bit fluttery.
I'm going to an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
It's a tremendous honour to be allowed to bring the film crew in, and just talk to him, and I want ask him about .
.
practically the meaning of life and what we should be doing and, well, just everything.
And if anybody knows the answer, I think it's the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama has been here in India for the past 60 years, since his country was invaded by China and he had to flee in fear of his life on foot across the Himalayas.
'The road on which the living Buddha was to end his amazing journey led through thick jungle.
'It was in fact the only track, but the Dalai Lama and his escort must have appreciated it, after the long mountain trek.
' 'A white scarf, in keeping with Tibetan custom, was presented by the Indian Government's envoy at this simple but very dramatic meeting.
Smiling and perfectly composed, the young god-king showed no signs of his ordeal, though he'd just completed perhaps the most exhausting journey in the world.
' After escaping to India, His Holiness carried on his role as leader of the Tibetan people in exile here in India .
.
and still receives a continual flow of pilgrims, well-wishers and refugees from his homeland.
I'm excited anyway, but there's a family connection.
Almost a hundred years ago, my grandparents and my aunt met the 13th Dalai Lama, the man the present Dalai Lama succeeded.
His Holiness is Buddhist, and he lives peacefully in this predominantly Hindu country, which is also shared by many other religions.
Your Holiness with all the religious intolerance in the world, what is there that we -- as individuals -- can do to counter this? Forgiveness, tolerance.
Unfortunately, including Buddhism, sometimes we just take religion as something like a ritual or some prayer and not much pay attention, not much seriously practise, about the real message of religion.
So it is possible.
- Yes.
- If you are sincere.
I am Buddhist.
I really admire Islam.
Some people describe Islam as more militant, more negative.
But look over a thousand years how much Muslims bring, produce nice, sensible human beings.
Yes.
Some mischievous people among the Buddhist, among the Christian, - among the Jews, also there.
- Of course.
So that's my thinking.
So maybe, if we can't have all one religion, we can at least have one compassion.
That's right.
That's right.
Basic human nature is compassion.
Compassion is much better than anger.
Yes.
You can ask scientists.
They definitely say more compassion in heart, your physical is better.
I think even we see your face -- compassion there -- more smile.
Anger there -- even you see dogs or cats also don't like angry face.
No, they don't.
We've been travelling through India.
And, Your Holiness, it may be looking through rose-tinted glasses, but it seems that India is happier than the Western world.
And yet some of the people we've met here in India are very poor.
Can you be happy with almost nothing? I find, you see, when I met some rich family, sometimes they're more sort of bright.
Then poor Indian workers, very poor, when I shake hand, their face peaceful, sincere.
So accessing modern education I think creates more desire, more ambition and, ultimately, self-centred attitude.
- So you introduce these things.
- I shall do.
The role of the Dalai Lama has been filled for centuries through a belief in reincarnation.
The current Dalai Lama is the 14th .
.
chosen at the age of two to replace his predecessor the 13th, Thubten Gyatso, whom my grandfather Colonel Leslie Weir knew in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, in the days when the country was free.
Your Holiness, I want to bring this to you because my grandfather was Here, this is my grandfather.
So he knew 13th Dalai Lama.
And these are the articles from before you were born.
The Dalai Lama whose reincarnation is awaited.
So 13th Dalai Lama has passed away.
- You haven't been born yet, Holiness.
- Right.
Oh that's right.
Yes.
And then I was at a loss to think what to get as a present for the great man, but I heard on the grapevine that he loves gadgets.
Holiness, we have got a present for you, which we hope that you like.
- Ooh! - It's a drone.
It's to fly.
- I saw.
- You've seen these.
- We would love you to have this.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
Please give me one guarantee.
This somehow mishandles, and hits my whole head! You should give me guarantee not that kind of thing happens.
- Thank you so much for talking to us.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
I really appreciate.
I really appreciate.
- So you are very, very kind.
- Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And I think spirit -- your grandfather's spirit, - I think still carry.
- I think he does.
- Ah.
- Ah.
So thank you.
Honestly, it was such a privilege to have an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
I've come out of it feeling completely calm, completely blessed and determined to be a more compassionate person, to make something good of my life.
My grandfather Leslie Weir, who loved this part of the world so much, and who was such a close friend of the 13th Dalai Lama, would be so proud and thrilled to think that I'd had an audience with the 14th Dalai Lama up here in Dharamsala.
Blessed day.
The end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
The last chapter of my journey is Kashmir, where I was born.
The beauty of this region has been renowned for centuries.
But since India and Pakistan were split apart in the Act of Partition in 1947, it's become a conflict zone.
'The chief dispute between Pakistan and India has centred on the Principality of Kashmir in the north.
'Behind its peaceful exterior, Kashmir has been a land of conflict.
With Partition, its Muslim majority was determined to join Pakistan, while its Hindu government acceded to India.
' Today there are half a million Indian troops in Kashmir, trying to quell demands from a powerful independence movement in a conflict that's killed 47,000 people.
I'm thrilled to be in Srinagar, the city where I was born, but it breaks my heart that this beautiful land is now so troubled.
Through the ages, the stunning lakes have drawn people who want to shelter from the summer heat of the Indian plains.
Altaf has offered me fabulous accommodation.
- Oh, Altaf, look at this! - Please welcome.
Tell me when houseboats first came to the lake.
Well, around 1800s.
This is an idea from the British Empire, when they were not allowed to buy land in Kashmir, and they came with this fabulous idea of making houseboats.
What's happened? Because tourism has fallen right off.
Kashmir has a problem.
It has been a problem since the making of India and Pakistan.
Kashmir was neither part of India or Pakistan.
So when the Partition came, it was sort of blocked on with India.
Absolutely, yeah.
And, yes, many people here would say that that was not really the right thing to do.
But -- looking at a business point of view -- I think it's really great to be with India.
Because? Because of the growth in India, which is really big at the moment.
People will come, won't they? - It's just heavenly.
- Heaven, yeah.
My parents were married here in Srinagar, and they had a honeymoon on one of these houseboats.
- Oh, how wonderful.
- Goodness knows which one.
But they simply adored this part of the world.
I'm so proud of being a Kashmiri.
I boast about it all the time.
People say, 'What can you remember?' and you say, 'Nothing.
' Shalimar -- this is me.
Come in.
This is my room.
I mean, look at this room.
Gorgeous little flowers sprinkled on the bed.
And here, this is Mummy and Daddy on their wedding day.
And this would have been here in Srinagar at the church.
Isn't that just too sweet for words? Those are sweet pictures.
That was Mummy on her wedding day here.
But this is the picture of me.
That's about what I looked like when I left here.
In some way, pretty similar to how I am now.
Slightly fat face, grinning.
With on top.
So not much changed.
In the summertime, the lakes are covered with lilies and lotus blossom, which women in small boats collect for cattle fodder.
Now it's early spring -- and perfect for vegetables.
It's just before dawn, and I've hitched a ride in a shikara to find the floating market that's been happening here every morning for over a hundred years.
So this is the vegetable market in the early morning.
Whoo! I'm in danger of being speared by these huge boats which come.
Argh! And they just appear to be selling leaves to each other.
They weigh some leaves and look at each other's leaves and say disparagingly, 'Those leaves are no good.
' Look, a bit of haggling over leaves.
Good leaves, bad leaves.
It's fabulous.
This market has proved impervious not only to army curfews but also to the devastating floods that three years ago destroyed this whole area.
Excuse me, sir.
Can I buy some? Can I have some of these? Huh? The traders usually barter with each other, but seem delighted to take my cash.
Thank you.
~ Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Mr Wonderful, do you have any blue poppy seeds? - I have three colours.
- Blue-ier, blue-y.
- .
.
green poppy and blue.
- I'd love them.
I have such a disappointing record with poppies every year.
Oh, look, here it is.
Who does not want to buy that? - How much will that be? - 6,000 rupees.
6,000?! Rupees.
Rupees.
6,000 rupees.
20 packet.
I don't want 20 packets.
- Ten packets? - Five packets.
Actually, I don't know why I'm being so mean.
I went to the ATM, and I got out stacks of money.
There's something unbelievably mean about me.
I'm quite mean.
I think I'd be quite happy with a garden just full of poppies.
I saw a film in the '60s called It was Fellini, and it was called Giulietta Degli Spiriti, and it was a pretty, like, trippy film.
And they had great poppies.
Perfect.
I am VERY happy.
- When people happy, I am happy.
- I'm happy.
- God is happy.
- This is the way it is.
The old town of Sirinaka -- unlike me -- appears not to have changed for 70 years.
It's extraordinary.
It feels like a completely different country.
It doesn't feel like India at all here.
It just feels Well, it feels like Kashmir.
That's the truth of it.
It's mostly Muslim.
Gorgeous fresh vegetables.
Sad butcher's shop, which I don't look at.
But then I look at gorgeous vegetables again.
The architecture is different and the air's different and Puppy dog Puppies are different.
Well, actually, puppies are the same.
Call to prayer.
There's a place across town that I really want to visit.
Well, this is extraordinary to be back at what was the Residency in Sirinaka.
It's now the Kashmir Government Arts Emporium.
But this is where my grandparents lived for a bit, where my mother and father were certainly married.
They would have had their wedding reception here.
When I was a little baby and I'd been born here on the Gupta Road in the Mission Hospital -- little baby, I would have been here.
And then there was a tragedy, and the building burnt down, and was rebuilt in the 1990s.
They've sort of kept it to what it looked like, which you've got to admit is Surrey stockbrokers' belt.
It is.
Look at it.
What happened to the British -- we used to come abroad with the most heavenly architecture available to us, and say, 'I think we'll put a little bit of home here.
' Anyway, this is what it looked like.
It's so gorgeous to be back and to think, even though I was just a -- just a baby, with teeth growing, probably crying through the night with pink cheeks, I was sleeping in here.
Kashmir is a very fitting place to end this immense journey.
Starting in the southern-most state of Tamil Nadu, we've travelled over 5,000 miles around this mesmerising country, and now we're finally drawn to the foothills of the Himalayas in the extreme north.
Oh! Wow! This is the Vale of Kashmir.
All spread out with memories of my family.
You can see the soft lakes and rivers joining up and behind them the white snows of the Himalayas.
And this is the end of our extraordinary journey.
Just to think, we started at Kanyakumari right down in the southern tip of India, and then it just seemed to explode.
We went up to Madurai and saw fabulous temples.
India has shown me such incredible diversity, optimism and tolerance.
It really is a unique and glorious country.
We went into tea plantations and followed wild elephants, who suddenly appeared especially for us.
We went up to Hyderabad.
Extraordinary city.
I was made into a goddess.
Pretty much liked that.
We went to Calcutta, and there we went into something out of a kind of Dickens dream.
The jute mill.
The country faces huge problems of poverty and population growth, but it's on the cusp of becoming a superpower -- and its potential is immeasurable.
We went to Gujarat in the west part of the country, and we went to a Dalit community who were so friendly to us, but eye-opening how some people have to live.
The tragedies of the Dalit community.
But then we went to stay in a palace, with a Maharaja, which was extraordinary, and his old palace, because most of us have two -- the new and the old -- his old palace up on the hill, had the finest wall paintings known in India.
Honestly, India India has got everything.
You'd be mad not to come here.