India Hicks

And when I was 18, I went to India, and I'm exceptionally close to my mother.

We do a lot together.

We've had many adventures together.

We love to travel.

And when I asked her if she would come with me to India, it was the first time I'd heard a no from my mother.

Wow.

And she said she didn't want to go back because it had changed so much from the extraordinary India that she lived through.

She had many, many Indian friends, in fact, probably more Indian friends than English, certainly when she came back from that time.

And in fact, I think had trouble settling back into England because she'd seen this other world and this fascinating world of multi-faith and multi-race.

And it wasn't the confines of the English upbringing she'd had.

So when she said no, I asked my aunt, who was then Countess Mountbatten-Obama, if she would come.

And so I traveled with Timothy Natural and my aunt.

And we did it in two ways.

Tim and I, first of all, went out backpacking.

And we would stay in youth hostels that cost 69p a night.

And you'd get a bucket outside your room to wash in.

And then my aunt joined us and we did it in a very different way.

And we stayed with wonderful maharajas and in palaces and saw the other side of India.

But I think it was very important that I saw both sides and understood this extraordinary country and the dynamics of it.

Well, my mother and father maintained that after giving me quite an exotic name, India, they wanted to give me two easier names.