We Homes Chaps | movie | 2003 | Official Trailer - video Dailymotion

This film documents a school reunion held at the centenary celebration of the founding of Dr. Graham's Homes, a school i | dG1fb280WFpjM0NzREU

Transcript

00:00My father was a tea planter, got involved with a local girl, and it was Quit India time,

00:10so he left, and I don't know the reason why, my mother never took me back, but I went back

00:17to her for a year, and then from then that was the end contact with her, so the school

00:25was my home.

00:26And I didn't go home for the first four or five years, so this became my world, so later

00:35on when I finally went back to my home for the first holidays in Kathmandu, I really

00:41didn't know what home was even, it was like a really romantic idea of home, it was abstract.

00:49It was 1889, a young missionary arrived at the end of a long journey from Scotland in

00:55one of the most remote and yet beautiful parts of the world.

00:59The place was called Kalimpong, in the high Himalayas of India.

01:04During his travels through the tea plantations and the foothills, he discovered the sad plight

01:09of the children, born of the coolie women who worked on the estates, and the Europeans

01:14who were not allowed to marry until they became managers.

01:19But Graham felt that in the ethereal surroundings and climate of Kalimpong, the change to a

01:24better life might begin.

01:36The occasion lends itself to heightened emotions, and perhaps something more than nostalgia.

01:43I had seen my father the year before, that was the only time after coming here.

01:49I remember when we were leaving, looking out of the window of this twin auto aircraft,

01:56and knowing that I'd never see him again.

01:59If I was somewhere else, I don't know if I would be able to survive today.

02:07At times, I've also thought of like, suicide, and...

02:15Home is love, that's all.

02:18Nervous, nervous as hell.

02:28This is a letter from the principal.

02:30When the family had to leave Tibet, they came to Kalimpong, and the parents tried to start

02:35a small cafe, but as they had little or no capital, it failed.

02:39And as living is supposed to be cheaper in Nepal than here, the parents went to Nepal,

02:42leaving the children here in school.

02:46Nothing was heard from them for many months, and the children were...

03:02I mean, we talk about being shaped by the homes, shaped by the childhood,

03:08and these might well be the components of that shape.