Contact is taking a holiday!

The six weeks I spent editing Contact magazine in Mcleod were life changing. I was 26, fresh from a year on The Sunday Times supplements team, but desperate to work on articles that really meant something; that felt like they were doing some good. My family has always had close ties with India, in particular Mcleod, where both my mother and brother taught in Petoen School, and their love of the town’s Tibetan community had seeped into my soul long before I made it there in person.

Being trusted to edit an entire magazine was a huge privilege, one that gave me the confidence I have today, and I’ll always be grateful to Contact for the chance to do that while Jenny was away in remote places. What’s more, the content was fascinating, poignant and, more often than not, desperately sad. The articles gave me an insight into the Tibetan community and the suffering they still endure at the hands of the Chinese today, though the chilling stories I was editing on a daily basis were wonderfully juxtaposed by the Tibetan team at Lha, whose attitude towards life is so inspirationally uplifting.

Inspirational is the word I would use for many of my assignments while I was in Mcleod. I reported on one of the Dalai’s Lama’s teachings with Samten, the editor, our Contact press passes getting us so close to His Holiness that I could count the smile lines around his eyes every time he chuckled, and interviewed some of the most interesting characters I have ever met for the magazine’s People stories, from the then Tibetan Prime Minister in exile, Lobsang Sangay, to Mariko, Mcleod’s first trans-woman.

Though it’s also the little things that will stay with me: being welcomed into the office gang like a long lost family member, laughing through press day with Samten, sipping cups of chai with Dorji, chinwagging with Rabsel in the corridor and greeting the nuns who came in for their English lessons. These daily interactions make me smile every time I think of Mcleod, and instilled in me my deep love of India that has drawn me back to the country three times since 2016. Thank you Contact, what a force for good you have been for so many, and what an important step in my life journey you will always be for me.