Chandigarh, July 24 (IANS) It was more than just puppy love for Chandigarh’s British Deputy High Commissioner Caroline Rowett. When she landed here for her posting in February 2021, little did she know that two street dogs of Chandigarh would soon become her faithful lifelong companions.

As her term draws to a close and she heads back to her hometown of London after a four-and-a-half-year stint, she’s making sure her four-legged friends are not left barking up the wrong tree. They are flying home with her — to join her husband and daughter.

Emotional in her farewell speech, she said it was tough to bid adieu to India, but she was happy to be reunited with her family — now with two dogs in tow.

The street dogs are named ‘Shimla’ and ‘Sula’, a female and a male, respectively. The former’s name is inspired by the tourist resort Shimla, which is fondly called by the British colonial rulers as the ‘Queen of Hills’, and the latter is named after her love for the popular Indian wine.

In her speech, Caroline highlighted the UK’s investments in the region, mentioning an agro-industry investment in Kullu and the establishment of an Indian operation by a Scottish distillery, underscoring the strengthening economic relationship between the UK and Himachal Pradesh.

Regarding her adopted dogs, Caroline said she came across one in the parking area of the Hyatt Regency in 2021, while the other one was in Sector 10’s Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) complex. Now both are aged between four and five years.

Before their travel to offshore, Caroline got both pets microchipped and rabies vaccinated. “Both implanting the microchip and being vaccinated against rabies took nearly eight months. Also, special cages were procured for their safe journey,” Rajinder Nagarkoti, Political, Press and Projects Adviser for the UK government, told IANS.

Vipan Rana, the UK government’s Protocol Officer, told IANS that he encountered Sula on the street crying with a critical skin disease. He narrated the pup’s condition to his boss, and she immediately decided to adopt it.

Caroline has represented Britain in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh.

As part of her Kullu-Manali visit in June, Caroline engaged with stakeholders from the tourism and hospitality sectors, including hoteliers, tour operators, and skiers, to explore collaboration opportunities.

During that visit, the UK delegation interacted with artisans engaged in the creation of traditional Himachali handloom products.

On signing the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), a significant step in strengthening bilateral economic ties, an optimist the Deputy High Commissioner told IANS, “The deal is expected to increase bilateral trade, worth 43 billion pound in year 2024, by 25.5 billion pound, UK GDP by 4.8 billion pound and wages by 2.2 billion pound each year in the long run.”

The UK-India investment relationship currently supports over 6,00,000 jobs across both countries. As of 2024, there are over 950 Indian-owned companies in the UK and over 650 UK companies in India.

For Caroline, who believes her present hometown, Chandigarh, means ‘City Beautiful’, starting direct flights from here to London is on her wish list.

In Haryana, she said they now have a centre of excellence on post-harvest cold chain management. “This will be the UK’s first centre of excellence in India, and its primary focus is to curb food losses and promote sustainable agriculture practices. This will come up in Panchkula,” she said.

“I’ve been to Mussoorie, Dehradun, Dharamsala, Shimla, Kasauli, Ambala and Ferozepur, exploring British links,” an elated first British woman envoy said.

In her next assignment, she will work in the London office with an Indian assignment.

One of her successful projects in the region is the pilot initiative of “Visa Fraud Ton Bacho (Beware of Visa Fraud)” that was launched in Jalandhar in Punjab in February to help protect Indians from the physical, financial, and emotional risks of visa fraud and irregular migration.

“The project increased our public contact as we have interacted directly with community leaders and helped the dreams of many young people, of being exploited, as too many fall victim to visa fraud,” she said.

She believes her bond with North India will always remain memorable as she attended even private weddings, interacted with scores of people, even at grassroots and relished traditional street foods like the famous ‘Amritsari Kulcha’ and ‘Chhole’, all the ingredients nicely and properly blended to offer a recipe for a perfect memorable trip back home.

Also, she experienced the Punjabi culture, heritage, colours and flavours by exploring Amritsar’s old winding lanes housing grand heritage.

The envoy is impressed with the world’s largest kitchen in the Golden Temple, where, on average, free fresh vegetarian meals are being served to 50,000 to 75,000 people all day and night.

One of Caroline’s admirers remarked jokingly, “People may be lining up to pay hefty sums to travel agents and even risk the perilous ‘donkey route’ in their desperation to migrate abroad, but the two have found themselves with air tickets and a British escort — all thanks to a bond that needed no visa.”

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

–IANS

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