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Jim Corbett’s home in Nainital, Gurney House is a 10 minute walk up the hillside from The Naini Retreat (Ayarpatta Slopes, Mallital, Nainital). Unlike his winter home at Kaldhungi which is now a well preserved museum and managed by the government, Gurney House has a lived-in feel even now. The house was sold to the present owner Dalmias’ granparents (Mrs and Mr SP Verma) when Corbett moved to Kenya. The Dalmias live in Delhi and visit their heritage property.

I visited Gurney House on a rainy day in July. It was still drizzling, but the caretaker Ganesh Joshi was all smiles. He showed us around the property, including the private museum that showcases the life and times of Jim Corbett and his sister Maggi Corbett. This house has a different feel from the Jim Corbett Museum at Kaladhungi, just 37 km downhill from Gurney House. It is not as huge as the Kaladhungi home, but the natural surroundings are amazing. As I unlatched the gate to Gurney House, the garden in full bloom, against a setting of rhododendrom (Buranaz in Kumaoni dialect), Angu, Tilaunj/Kharsu trees got me spellbound. I walked in with not a soul in sight. I even spotted a leech before the caretaker, Ganesh Joshi appeared to familiarize me with the place.

Jim Corbett - Biography
The legend of Jim Corbett is still alive, not only in the minds and hearts of the people of Kumaon & Garhwal, but also all over the world. His six books, which are the nearest to his autobiographies, have never been out of print. There are four biographies on him and three films on his life have already been made.

Edward James Corbett was born on 25thJuly 1875 of nglish ancestory in Nainital. He lived in Gurney House in Nainital for the greater part of his life with the last of his large family, his mother Mary Jane Corbett and his sister Margaret Winfred Corbett, fondly called Maggie.

His father, the postmaster in Nainital, died when Jim Corbett was four. It fell to Corbett’s mother to raise and educate 12 children on a widow’s meager pension. His mother, Corbett recalled, “had the courage of Joan of Arc and Nurse Clavell combined”. After the death of his mother in 1924, Maggie and Jim were constant companions to each other and both chose not to marry.

Jim Corbett was a simple, unassuming man of six feet and a few inches with blue eyes. He dressed only in bush clothing and wore an assortment of hats which he would never forget in the jungle. He was shy but liked the company of his Indian friends. He was known as a shikari, a killer of man-eaters. He loved the people of India and understood their needs and sentiments. It is for them that he risked his life many times to shoot the ten man eaters about whom he has written in ‘The Man Eaters of Kumaon’, Man Eating Leopards of ‘Rudraprayag’ and ‘The Temple Tiger’. He never shot a tiger or leopard until he was convinced that the animal had taken to man eating.

Much of his time was spent boating and angling on the lake in Nainital. Kaladhungi was his winter home. In the forests of Kaladhungi he learnt his first lesson in hunting from his eldest brother Tom. He hunted his first leopard at the age of six. Jim was blessed with an excellent eyesight, keen hearing, remarkable memory and the power of deduction and observation supplemented with toughness and courage. He could sing and play the guitar. For his living, he worked for 22 years (1892-1914) with the Bihar North Western Railways. He also operated a house-agenting business in Nainital.

Edited by rigbymauser (26/09/10 12:47 AM)

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