Hidden Dimensions

Kenneth Miln is a familiar name to regular Craigie readers. He has used his experiences of life in India to write a fictional story based on factual accounts. We intend to include some of the material from time to time in the column. Kenneth’s writing is entitled Hidden Dimensions.

“There are places where only the most intrepid adventurers are prepared to risk venturing. The following is a tale of encounters with alien entities in exotic lands.

“A decade before the onset of the Second World War, the known world ended

at certain natural barriers, a virtually insurmountable example of which was the massive and mysterious Himalayan mountain range. Extending almost 2,000 miles with many peaks towering above 20,000 feet from sea level, this stupendous range was, for the most part, unexplored.

“Scattered amongst the foothills, a number of small townships straddled crests leading up to the Eternal Snows; peopled by hill tribes of Tibetan, Lepcha and Bhutia origins, who naturally superstitious,

regarded their homelands as magical places. In the north-eastern foothills, at an elevation of 7,000 feet, the township of Darjeeling was such a place and from where only a few brave mountaineers departed on attempts to conquer the world’s highest peaks.

“In 1929, I was a young man employed as an engineer at a jute mill located 20 miles north of Calcutta on the east bank of the River Hooghly.

“Having read accounts of the creation of Darjeeling, I was keen to see something of the region for myself.

“May is the hottest month of the year in Bengal and just the right time for my departure from the stifling plains up to Darjeeling, where the climate was said to equate with a good summer’s day in Scotland.

“As the driver of my horse-drawn carriage left the mill compound, I heard the familiar clattering sound from hundreds of looms within the nearby jute mill. I was happy to be leaving the dark, noisy and dusty mill for a well-earned break. I felt relaxed despite the hot and humid weather.”

To be continued!

A Monikie reader wonders, tongue in cheek, why a new 20mph road sign has been erected in a tree in Hillhead Road.

A delivery is made to St Andrews Town Hall in Queen’s Gardens. The Bank of Scotland was and still is opposite.