Balliol boy helps to build 'human bridge

As part of a science project, I once built a bridge at university, which collapsed ignominiously in front of the whole year. That was probably the moment when I abandoned all notions of becoming a scientist and sought refuge in journalism.

Over an early morning breakfast in London last week, I learnt that Sir Dominic Asquith, British high commissioner in India, has been a lot more successful in building a bridge - a "human bridge", that is.

Key figures in this human bridge, which he feels sustains the bilateral relationship, include such folk as Professor Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, president of the Royal Society and chemistry Nobel Laureate.

Sir Dominic read Classics when he was an undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford, which explains why he recalled the Royal Society's Latin motto - Nullius in verba ("take nobody's word for it").

My worry is that the human bridge is getting steadily weaker, not least because the UK government is not making it easy for Indian students to stay on to do two years of work after completing their courses.

In the long run and especially post-Brexit, Britain's economic health depends part-ly on a closer engagement with India's infrastructural development. I, for one, think that in Calcutta - a city Sir Dominic clearly loves - the Brits could help to improve the air quality and also rebuild the ancient sewerage system as a way of controlling flooding.

I have seen high commissioners come and go in London and in Delhi. I think India is very lucky to have Sir Dominic as the British high commissioner.

He maintains that "Shakespeare is understood and loved better in India than he is in Britain" and cites an early dinner party in Delhi to illustrate why he finds India intellectually stimulating: "Vikram Seth sat down in a corner after dinner and we had a conversation for about 20 minutes and it covered everything - George Herbert, a fairly unknown 18th century Welsh poet that I love and he likes; Schubert sonatas; birds of India; flora; and some Aristotle. I could not have had that conversation around many tables in Britain."

"I genuinely adore what I am doing," he says. "The biggest concern both my wife and I have is we will leave after four years having not seen anything like what we want."

Bengal's Helen

• Talking of Balliol College, Oxford, I am happy to bring news that a “Ghosh” has been elected Master of the College by its Fellows

No matter that this time the Bengali connection - the second such mastership of an Oxbridge college following Amartya Sen's tenure at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1998 to 2004 - is via marriage.

Dame Helen Ghosh, 61, director-general of the National Trust since 2012 and previously permanent secretary at the Home Office, will take over as Master of Balliol from April 2018, the first woman to hold the post in the College's 754-year-history.

Dame Helen, who read Modern History at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, is married to Peter Ghosh, associate professor of Modern History, Jean Duffield Fellow in Modern History, at St. Anne's College, Oxford.

Peter confirms he is Bengali on his father's side and English/Belgian on his mother's.

He tells me that his father, Saral Ghosh, "was at Calcutta Medical College in the 1930s; he came over to Britain c.1940, and practiced as an ear, nose and throat surgeon until his relatively early death in 1967".

He adds: "Paradoxically, I have never been to India but my wife - who is English - once went as part of a liaison contact between the Indian and British civil services. When she was there, she was told that there was a record of my father's attendance at Calcutta Medical College."

Maybe Peter and Helen, plus their son and daughter, should undertake a pilgrimage to Calcutta in search of Saral Ghosh. I am sure " Boudi" would be made welcome.

Indian alumni

• Balliol has had a number of distinguished Indian alumni, notably the two great batsmen, Iftikhar Ali Khan and Mansur Ali Khan, the eighth and ninth Nawabs of Pataudi respectively, plus the latter's daughter, actress Soha Ali Khan.

Students in India will perhaps be encouraged by Dame Helen Ghosh's mission statement: "I look forward to welcoming students from the widest possible range of backgrounds to the College."

Tittle tattle

• Following the row over the gender and race gap in pay at the BBC, the corporation has moved swiftly to announce that Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to play Dr Who after 12 male Time Lords, will get exactly the same salary as Peter Capaldi whom she is replacing.

This has encouraged one Jane Lunnon to tweet: "First Doctor Who and now first female Master of Balliol. Congratulations to Helen Ghosh. Exciting times..."