Original subtitles

JOANNA LUMLEY: It's 5:30 in the morning,

an early start for the final leg of my adventures through India.

[WHISTLE BLOWS]

I'm joggling across Rajasthan in a train.

I'm sitting in a third-class compartment,

which actually is terrific,

apart from the slightly sort of shonky windows

with bits of... [WHISTLES]

It's fabulous. It's got three layers of seats

and you're given 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 is 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...

-[NAGASWARAM BLOWING] -The trumpets are starting.

...braved the mountain road to the Kingdom of Sikkim...

Quite scary bits of the road where somebody's gone over.

[CAMEL BELLOWING]

...visited the deserts in the west of the country...

This is my first sip of camel milk.

...and the teeming metropolis of Mumbai.

LUMLEY: Here's my uncle! WOMAN: Yes!

LUMLEY: 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 have got a present for you, which we hope that you like.

Oh!

...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 maharajas together

in great big shoots,

and 10 years ago, their numbers had dwindled to 1,400 tigers left.

They've done huge conservation programmes

and they've worked on it and 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.

[TRAIN HORN BLOWS]

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? -Yeah.

If they make a big kill,

they'll have a huge amount of food to eat

and then they'll just sleep.

-Sleep it off. -Yeah.

WRIGHT: We should get moving

because our best chance of finding a tiger is the next half hour.

LUMLEY: 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.

WRIGHT: [WHISPERING] The good thing is this is the time they all come out.

So you have to just look for movement.

Just see over there, just a little shadow,

walking through the trees.

LUMLEY: Oh, my gosh.

Look at that colour!

God, to see her through the woods like this,

it's just extraordinary.

WRIGHT: Do you see her battle scars?

LUMLEY: Who's she... Who's she been fighting with?

WRIGHT: Oh, everybody. Mother, sister, brother, uncle, et cetera.

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.

Two hundred 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.

[CHILDREN RECITING LESSONS]

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?

CHILDREN: Tigers!

[CHUCKLES] Mine, too.

[VIKRAM SINGING IN HINDI]

LUMLEY: 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. -[CLASS APPLAUDING]

Of these children, their parents have never had any education,

nor have their grandparents,

because their parents are usually dabbling

in kind of 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 they'll remember the teaching here.

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]

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?

KHANDAL: Yeah, definitely. The poaching is amazingly declined.

LUMLEY: It's going down? KHANDAL: Yeah.

The fact of the involvement of the Moghiya community,

though they are the prime poaching community in this area,

and these boys are getting alternatives, so...

It's a brighter future,

-for people and for animals. -Mmm-hmm.

LUMLEY: Nearly a million people live around the park

and Tiger Watch is also attempting to bring them onside.

They're being trained to catch tigers on camera.

So this is fixed to a tree...

-Yeah, it's a motion-detection camera. -LUMLEY: Yeah.

LUMLEY: They've got some real beauties already,

but I thought I'd lend my experience.

Here I go. Walking like a tiger, quite slowly.

[LAUGHING] I look like an old sofa.

Oh, and it's got me.

-[LUMLEY ROARS] -[ALL LAUGH]

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.

-[LAUGHING] -Bahut acha!

Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. That's excellent.

Here I go.

[LAUGHING]

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.

[BOTH LAUGHING]

[WHISPERING] 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 water hole

and there's not a deer in sight.

WRIGHT: [GASPS] Oh, my God. Across the way, through the tree.

Can you see?

She's getting water.

She's being very respectful of crocodiles.

LUMLEY: Crocodiles can gang up on tigers in water.

WRIGHT: That is all to do with crocodiles.

Wow.

[LUMLEY CHUCKLES SOFTLY]

WRIGHT: Isn't that wonderful?

-[LAUGHS] -[GASPS] Spooked by something.

LUMLEY: Do you think all these creatures are saying,

"Watch out, watch out. Tiger, tiger, tiger"?

-WRIGHT: Yes, they are. -[LUMLEY GASPS]

There's a whole lot of peacocks

who are looking slightly polite and rather bemused.

"Oh, I think we'd better get out of here now."

-[WRIGHT LAUGHS] -"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, sambar here.

Honestly, Belinda, I can't thank you enough.

You've also done everything in the world, haven't you?

WRIGHT: I've never seen a tiger tiptoeing

through the water like that because of crocodiles.

LUMLEY: So, every day is a new day here. WRIGHT: Yes.

LUMLEY: Two hundred and fifty 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 Mughals 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...

I mean, 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 said...

If they hadn't agreed to get married,

um, I wouldn't be here, my sister wouldn't be here,

and life would've been completely different.

[GASPS] 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. -[MEN LAUGHING]

And as a beautiful waitress said to me on a Tennessee morning at breakfast,

she said... [IMITATING SOUTHERN DRAWL] "Y'all have a blessed day, now."

So I shall!

[ALL LAUGHING]

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, he 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 an interview.

Ah, hi. Yeah, you can have a seat and fill in this form.

Okay, thank you.

"Years of exp"?

WOMAN: Experience. How much experience you have.

Ah, a lifetime.

Okay, good. This is going to be 70 years' experience.

Um, ratings are 1 poor, 5 excellent.

I'm going to be excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent...

No, they will do it.

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 it came up in the last 10 years.

-And so what was here before? -Plain ground.

-Nothing? -Nothing.

In Britain, sometimes, um, working at a call centre

would seem as quite a lowly job, but here it's good, isn't it?

-Here, it is. I mean, money-wise... -Yeah.

...uh, 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. I mean, average age in a call centre

would be anywhere between 18 to 25.

-So, very young. -It's very young.

I think I've filled in everything I need to.

They'll call you for interview.

-WOMAN: So she'll be your new candidate. -Okay.

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.

-Okay. -I'd love to be part of it.

-Great. -Have you seen how old I am?

-It's okay. -Okay, good.

-We give... -They can't see me. I'm on a phone.

That's completely fine. We give opportunity 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.

WOMAN: [ON PHONE] ...four days. 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, because...

Ajay Sam is in charge of this whole operation.

We service around 45 clients internationally

-and within India. -Whew!

Yeah, so because we cater to all languages...

And is this growing?

We're growing at a rate of 15% to 20% year-on-year.

-Oh, 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.

WOMAN: You want 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...

-Mmm-hmm. -You wouldn't accept me. I promise you.

Oh, well... [LAUGHS] Why do you say that?

I'm not very good at IT.

[LAUGHS]

And I would promise the customer anything they wanted.

[BOTH LAUGHING]

She just 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 does ring up and say, "I'm very angry about the delivery."

-No! -[LAUGHS]

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 is 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 photoshoots all around the world

is that they're exactly the same.

It just unifies us.

So it doesn't matter whether you're in the United States or in 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, um,

all the clients are travelling internationally

and resort wear has become so strong. It's affordable as well.

Could anybody aspire to owning one of these?

Probably, mmm, just about $150.

-Right? -LUMLEY: What?

RAJDEEP: Yes. Yes.

-What? -Yes!

Oh, my heavens.

-LUMLEY: That's a tunic. -So, that's a tunic.

You call this style "boho Indian luxe"?

RAJDEEP: I just made that up but I think it sounds pretty apt.

Well, I love it. I think it sounds pretty good.

Do you know, you could be feeling really dowdy

and you just put on something like this, bit of lippy,

I mean, you've got to do something to your face,

but anyway, once you've done that, you got something like this on...

[LAUGHS]

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 how old you are?

I'm 38. Not at all.

-LUMLEY: 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. -[LAUGHS]

-MODEL: You are so beautiful. [LAUGHS] -Oh, stop it.

Sitting here, double-sharing the mirror, you go,

"Oh, I'm going to have to ask for help, too."

Isn't that beautiful?

I love makeup. All these people who say,

"Oh, scrub your face and just go about it as nature intended,"

-I think that's a bore. -Yeah.

Modelling requires a bit of patience and skill.

More than most people imagine.

PHOTOGRAPHER: That's good.

I can remember one time when Patsy was absolutely stoned out of her mind

doing some photographs,

and she trod through the back paper like this.

-Oh, yeah, I remember seeing that. -We got all caught up in it.

[BOTH LAUGH]

WOMAN: Squeeze in, guys, come on.

PHOTOGRAPHER: 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 or just... -Yeah, yeah, all over.

Yeah, all over India, coming to Delhi.

Where do you sleep here?

-You can sleep anywhere. Here, there. -Anywhere.

Here, here.

LUMLEY: This is an area of central Delhi

where countless homeless men bed down for the night

and where I met Radju.

So, Radju, how long have you lived here?

Last 38 years.

-Thirty-eight years? -Yes.

But you're a young man. How old were you when you came here?

Twelve year.

-I was 12. -Twelve, Radju. What happened?

Because of, I was drinker.

-Alcoholic. -When you were a little boy?

Yeah, I was 12.

My family and between me... There's some problem.

-So you had a split-up? -Yeah.

-And they threw you out? -Yeah.

And you came here.

And what do people do when they come here?

They try to work in the daytime?

There's some people, they're doing garbage work.

-You will see there. -Yes, recycling things and garbage.

Collecting things.

RADJU: Yeah, collecting things and they're selling here.

LUMLEY: 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... [LAUGHS]

-Do they kick you out? -Yeah, yeah.

-Why? -Because of we are dirty people.

I have... We don't have nice clothes.

We don't have perfumes.

That kind of things.

LUMLEY: I'd love to see what films you're showing.

-Yes, we will go. -Yeah?

-Can I come in? -Yeah, yeah.

[FILM PLAYING]

[FILM ACTORS SPEAKING HINDI]

LUMLEY: This seems a very happy crowd.

Are they happy people? Because they're watching...

They didn't worry about other 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 religions here.

-We are all one. -You're all one family?

-Yeah. -That's wonderful.

LUMLEY: Which are your favourite films? Which are the most...

RADJU: Well, some movies I see, the James Bond.

And Arnaldo... Something like that.

Um, 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 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.

[FILM ACTORS SPEAKING HINDI]

LUMLEY: Isn't it odd, this sort of 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 door to me is missing the front teeth.

He said politely, "Do you have a problem?"

I said, "No, no problem." 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?"

[CLAPS HANDS]

[TRAIN RATTLING OVERHEAD]

[VOICE BREAKING] I'm sorry.

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 weather-proof 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.

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 have been allowed to bring the film crew in,

just talk to him.

And I want to ask him about, um...

Well, kind of 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.

[NEWSREEL MUSIC PLAYING]

NEWSREEL NARRATOR: 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.

LUMLEY: 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 100 years ago, my grandparents and my aunt

met the 13th Dalai Lama,

the man the present Dalai Lama succeeded.

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]

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 1,000 years,

how much Muslims bring,

produce nice, sensible human beings.

Yes.

Some mischievous people, even the Buddhists,

even the Christians, even 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 compassionate heart, your physically, it's better.

I think, even you see, your face,

compassion there, more smile.

Anger there.

-[BOTH LAUGHING] -Even you see, our dogs...

-Yes? -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, polite.

Then, poor Indian workers, very poor.

When I shake hand,

-their face, peaceful, sincere. -Mmm.

So, accessing modern education

I think creates more desire,

more ambition

and ultimately, self-centred attitude.

-So, you introduce these things. -I shall.

[BOTH LAUGHING]

LUMLEY: 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, Thupten Gyatso,

whom my grandfather, Colonel Lesley 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 was, he knew the 13th Dalai Lama

and this is the articles from before you were born.

"The Dalai Lama, whose reincarnation is awaited."

-So, 13th Dalai Lama has passed away... -Yes.

-You haven't been born yet, Holiness. -Mmm. Right.

-Oh. Yes, right. -Ah.

[CONVERSATION CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY]

LUMLEY: 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.

-Oh! -It's a drone. It's to... It's to fly.

-Oh. Right, right. I saw. -You know? You've seen these?

-We would love for you to have this. -Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Please, give me one guarantee.

This somehow mishandle into my own head...

[BOTH LAUGHING]

You should give me guarantee that not that kind of things happen.

[BOTH CHUCKLING]

Thank you so much for talking to us.

Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate.

-It's been wonderful. -I really appreciate.

So, you are very, very kind.

-Thank you so much. -Welcome.

Thank you.

And I think spirit, your grandfather's sort of spirit

-I think still carries. -I think he does.

-Oh? -Mmm-hmm.

-So, thank you. -Thank you.

[SIGHS]

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 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.

[SIGHS DEEPLY] 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.

NEWSREEL NARRATOR: 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.

LUMLEY: 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.

Now, what's happened?

Because tourism has fallen right off.

Kashmir has a problem. It has been a problem

since making of India and Pakistan.

Kashmir was neither a part of India or Pakistan.

So, when the... When the Partition came,

-it was sort of blocked on with India. -Absolutely, yeah.

And yes, many people here will say that that was not really right thing to do,

but being... 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, really big at the moment.

LUMLEY: People will come, won't they?

-It's just heavenly! -It's heaven, yeah.

My parents were married here in Srinagar and they had a honeymoon

-on one of these houseboats. -Oh, how wonderful. Lovely.

Goodness knows which one and I'm sure it's gone,

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."

[BOTH CHUCKLING]

"Shalimar"! This is me. Come in.

So this is my room. Look! 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, um, 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.

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]

So, this is the vegetable market in the early morning. Whoo!

I'm in danger of being speared by these huge boats which come...

[EXCLAIMS] Ah!

And they just appear to be selling leaves to each other.

And they weigh a bit of leaves and they 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... Can I buy some?

Can I have some of these?

-Huh? -[INDISTINCT REPLY]

The traders usually barter with each other,

but seem delighted to take my cash.

Thank you. Dhanyavaad. [LAUGHS]

Goodbye.

Goodbye. Mr Wonderful?

Do you have any blue poppy seeds?

-I have three colours... -LUMLEY: Blue, yeah, bluey.

Purple poppy, green poppy and blue poppy.

[INHALES SHARPLY] I love them!

I have such, um, 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? -Six thousand rupees.

-Six thousand? I'm... -Rupees, rupees, 6,000 rupees.

Twenty packets.

-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 sort of 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.

-You happy? -I am very happy.

-When people happy, I'm happy. -I'm happy.

-God is happy. -[LAUGHS] This is the way it is.

[HORNS TOOTING]

The old town of Srinagar, 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 shops which I don't look at,

but then I look at gorgeous vegetables again.

And the architecture is different and the air is different and...

-Puppy dog. -[DOG BARKING]

Puppies are different. Well, actually, puppies are the same.

-[MUEZZIN CALLING] -[GASPS] Call to prayer.

MUEZZIN: ♪ Allahu Akbar ♪

LUMLEY: 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 Srinagar.

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 had been born here in the Gupta Road

in the Mission Hospital, a 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 chhota, chhota baby,

with teeth growing, probably crying through the night with pink cheeks,

I was sleeping in here.

[HUMS]

Kashmir is a very fitting place to end this immense journey.

Starting in the southernmost 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.

I'm pretty much like 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 went to a Dalit community who were so friendly to us

but phew, 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 palace and the old palace.

His old palace up in the hill had the finest wall paintings

known in India.

Honestly, India.

India has got everything.

You'd be mad not to come here.