Family
Life
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Introduction
A vital
defining part of any life, are family relations. What was yours like? From
large traditional family to lonely soldier waiting for a many weeks old letter
from a sweetheart, everyone will have a story to tell.
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Me
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
I was a young Indian (Parsi) girl living in
Calcutta
I was a young Indian (Parsi) girl living in
My neighbours consisted of a Chinese family
who had trekked from Burma, an Anglo-Indian family - Mr and Mrs Carter, a
Portuguese family — Mr and Mrs Coelho and their 4 sons, and 2 Baghdad Jewish
families — the Nahoums and the Manassehs.
My family lived on the top floor and from
our veranda (whose doors and windows had been plastered with black and brown
paper, as protection from broken glass during the air raid), I could see the
steeple and weather cock of St Andrews Church, and in the background Howrah
Bridge, the life-line of Calcutta connecting the 2 sides of the mighty Hooghly
River.
Katyun Randhawa, a young Indian (Parsi) girl, Calcutta
(source: A5756150
The bombing of
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
I already thought of myself as a young
woman
Privately educated, I had taken and passed
my Matric at 14, I was now 16, wearing a sari and at College and already
thought of myself as a young woman.
Nandita
Sen, Schoolgirl, Calcutta
(Source: Nandita's story at: http://timewitnesses.org/english/%7Enandita.html,
Nandita Sen Hyderabad - January 2005, seen 18th November 2005)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Nandita Sen)
When I looked in the mirror
When I looked in the mirror, what I saw was
a thin, serious little girl with large eyes in a solemn face which gave no hint
of the gaiety which was to develop in later years. I started to become
extremely shy and became tongue tied when people remarked on the shape of my
eyes or how clever I was and finally got to a stage where I never spoke until
spoken to.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi
(source:
page 23 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
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My Parents
_____Pictures
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
'The Modern Review'
Both my grandfather and father were
journalists, my grandfather having started 'The Modern Review' which U Thant,
first Secretary-General of the United Nations, years later said "truly
represents the voice of freedom".
Nandita
Sen, Schoolgirl, Calcutta
(Source: Nandita's story at: http://timewitnesses.org/english/%7Enandita.html,
Nandita Sen Hyderabad - January 2005, seen 18th November 2005)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Nandita Sen)
we were certainly a highly political family
My grandfather was a reformist Hindu
belonging to the Brahmo Samaj, a social reformist movement, opposed to all
religious mumbo-jumbo and we were certainly a highly political family - I was
one of seven girls, 4 sisters and 3 cousins - all deeply committed to
liberation politics and the freedom of women. I myself am proud to have three
feminist grand-daughters.
Nandita
Sen, Schoolgirl, Calcutta
(Source: Nandita's story at: http://timewitnesses.org/english/%7Enandita.html,
Nandita Sen Hyderabad - January 2005, seen 18th November 2005)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Nandita Sen)
I had the bad news that my Mother was dying
In September 1943 I had the bad news that my
Mother was dying. This was an awful shock for me. I never had any warning that
this was a possibility. I tried all ways I could think of to get back home. I
volunteered for the Commandoes in
I was told this was impossible because I
couldn’t be spared #, this I thought was a lot of B/S, because I couldn’t see
that we were doing anything worthwhile. To help me over my grief my troop
officer recommended me for a fire fighting course in
Stan Martin, soldier,
Calcutta, September 1943
(source: A1982955 Stan Martin's WW2 story at BBC
WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Grandmother was made of sterner stuff
When the communal riots broke out on August
16, 1946, our area took on a slightly haunted look as if the violence would
affect our lives and we had to be prepared for emergencies. There were no
Hindus left here once the riots reached their peak, except us.
Grandfather was determined to move out to
the Great Eastern Hotel till the madness died down but grandmother was made of
sterner stuff. She refused to budge from her own house and preferred to deploy
armed guards near our gate. The threats of local Muslims passing by in
Samir
Mukerjee. Schoolboy. Calcutta
(source:
Samir Mukerjee: Keep the faith & the friends. The Telegraph: 31Oct2003)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Samir Mukerjee)
My mother
Life was quite quiet and humdrum except for
vists from my parents at Easter every year. I used to think of my mother as
some sort of visiting fairy. She was always such a laughing, jolly person.
It was only in later years that I realised
that she - although she did love her children - had at such a young age been
pushed into having so many children without any knowledge of how to use birth
control or anything. She wasn't really suitable to have so many children not
being the sort of person that enjoyed children. I think she liked them most
when they were toddlers and then outgrew them.
She was a jolly, round, person about 5 feet
tall with a face like an apple- Her cheeks were always rosy and she had
laughter lines around her eyes. The song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out
in the Mid-day Sun" must have been written with her in mind. She would go
out when the rest of us were prostrate with heat! She was always a great
gadabout and happiest when wandering around the markets or going to the
pictures - anything but stay at home. She also liked racehorses. Her brother
was a gentleman jockey and kept a stable until his alcoholism got the better of
him and he lost everything. He too was a little man with sandy hair and green
eyes -just like my grandmother's. He was also the apple of his mother's eye and
could wheedle anything out of her although he had a healthy respect for his
father.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 25-26 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
My mother’s
dramatic wedding
The story goes that at the age of 15 Mummy
was abducted by an Indian Maharajah. The Indians were crazy for white girls. My
Aunt's second husband to be and my grandfather eventually got her back by some
nefarious means and decided to marry her off quickly to squash any hint of
scandal. My father was fourteen years older than she was and quite a confirmed
bachelor. By some means an arrangement was reached and she was married on 2
April 1923 in
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 26 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
first few years of her marriage were spent
having children
The first few years of her [my mother’s]
marriage were spent having children which came thick and fast. Three girls in
the first four years and then four boys in the next five years and then a gap
of three years and I was the last.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 26 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
I think she was rather colour prejudiced
My Aunt Dolly, whose first marriage ended
tragically with the death of her husband Jeremy Wilkes, unfortunately married a
friend of his on the rebound. She used to tell me about her "Jerry"
who was blonde and blue eyed and she said she always had a soft spot for blue
eyes after him. Oddly enough, I think she was rather colour prejudiced because
she went to great pains to ensure that I did not get tanned, dressing me in
long sleeved dresses and long stockings, even in the summer. Despite this, I
have never known anybody with such Christian charity. She would tend the
dirtiest, blackest, beggar if she felt they needed it. Unfortunately, her
second marriage did not work out. Kingsley Lewis, the man she married was a
very dark skinned man with a terribly posh accent and a great deal of
education. He was in military intelligence and had a brilliant career ahead of
him. After she left him, he left
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 26-27 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
Aunt Dolly met an Indian and she eloped
with him to Burma
A few years after she married him, Aunty
Dolly met an Indian (in those days
Years later I met Col. Lewis who used to
tell me all about their time in
She also used to drive in an era when cars
were something of a novelty and a woman driving a car caused quite a stir. She
was a tall woman, with a lovely carriage. She had large brown eyes which
somehow always struck me as sad. Her teeth were slightly prominent but not
enough to be ugly. On her it looked quite attractive. Her hair was very curly
and looked springy but was very silky to the touch.
Apparently she went through a marriage
ceremony in the Muslim rite whilst in Rangoon, she being unaware that Hamid
already had a wife living with whom he obviously cohabited after his marriage to
my Aunt as there were two children of this marriage who were bom within a
couple of years of my own birth which was in 1936. Knowledge of this came to
her much later, when I was about six years old. I can remember this Indian
woman from the
There were three bothers in his family. He
was the eldest and then there was Majid who was also married to an English
girl, Dulcie, a striking looking woman with flame red hair and huge grey eyes
and a temper to match the colour other hair. She had one son then, Bobby, and
she changed their name to Shaw instead of Shah and refused to kow tow to the
Muslim ways. However, Majid was the best of the bunch being full of fun and
much more human and caring than the others. His failing was racehorses - he
loved them and lost immense sums of money at the races.
Anyway - one time when they were all
visiting us at the- same time, which had not happened before since we always
seemed to see them in separate groups. Aunty Dulcie said to my Aunty Dolly:
"You are a fool. Don't you know those
two boys are Hamid's children? Taj is his first wife and you do not have a leg
to stand on because she has two sons and you have not produced any children of
your own."
This was a thunderbolt to Aunty Dolly.
Whether she had suspected or not nobody will ever know. She was like the
proverbial ostrich. She refused to acknowledge anything which would tarnish her
image of this man whom she blindly adored. When faced with this fait accompli
she had a terrible row with him, and Taj and her two sons left the next day and
I did not see them for many years after - actually in
Apparently Hamid placated my Aunty Dolly by
telling her that his first marriage had been arranged when he was a child
between his parents and there was no question of love between them and it had
been his duty to produce heirs to his father's estates in the
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl., Calcutta
(source: page 27-28
Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
He had a flair for business
When we moved to
Unfortunately, the business sense was not
shared by Hamid's brother who tended to live off his success.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl., Calcutta
(source:
page 28-29 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
She took to drinking rather heavily
Around this time she took to drinking rather
heavily in the evenings when she was alone. Although I did not understand this
at the time in later years it dawned on me that it was probably unhappiness
because the man she idolised so seldom visited her and although she would never
admit it he was obviously having a good lime enjoying night life etc., in
Calcutta.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi
(source:
page 15 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
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Brothers and Sisters
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
a bit of a family reunion
After what seemed an eternity but was only a
matter of 7 or 8 months the 14th army (known as the Forgotten Army) which had
undergone jungle conditions which the commandoes would have baulked at,
reopened the road and we were able to return to the plains of
We did manage a couple of meetings in
J E Homewood, Royal Air Force,Calcutta, mid
1940s
(source: A5838366 My War Pt 5 at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
My brother Jim
In 1938 my brother JAMES (Jim) RYAN joined
the Royal Artillery. When war was declared he was sent to
The train took them to a camp at Bury from
where he telephoned a friend of my father who took my parents and me to find
him. The camp was filled with weary men who had abandoned helmets, rifles and
boots to board the boat. However, Jim took from his battledress pocket a
birthday present of a small pearl necklace and French perfume for me, as I was
17th the day he reached
Six months later he was on a troopship bound
for
At
this time I had been in the WAAF since 1942 and was given leave for the
funeral.
Footnote:
When he was going to
My
sister and I got on a ferryboat to
The
‘Iris’ was the passenger ferry and the ‘Francis Storey’ a luggage boat.
by
Mrs Norah Seery
868913 Sergeant
James Ryan , Army, Calcutta
(source: A5705192 Sergeant James Ryan at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
My brother Dominic
My brother Dominic had done his final exams
and come home and one night he started on him. My mother happened to be home
that night and I was amazed. She stood up to him and told him to get out. She
was always so timid and easily intimiated but Dominic was always the apple of
her eye and like a mother tigress she defended him. The next day he left and
went to live with my grand-aunt - my mother's aunt and he got a job in the
Customs - a job he kept for twenty years.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. La
Martiniere for Girls, Calcutta
(source:
page 46 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
We seven surviving children
We seven surviving children - Marie, Ida,
Winnie (the oldest boy David died when only a few months old), Dominic, Barney,
Stephen and last but by no means least, myself, Elizabeth - so named because I
was born a few days after Princess Elizabeth of York became heir apparent to
the throne of England - all lived there with my Aunt and an army of servants.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi
(source:
page 15 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
I was given a rubber doll for Christmas
That year, I was given a rubber doll for
Christmas which was something of a novelty because rubber dolls had just become
fashionable and mine had been specially imported. My brother Barney - always a
hit of a nut - put it in the fire.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Dehra Dun
(source:
page 12-13 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
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Boyfriends & Girlfriends
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
speaking on BBC radio from Calcutta
In July 1943 I heard that my boyfriend
Charlie would be speaking on BBC radio from
Doreen Myall
W/242400 , ATS at RAOC
(Royal Army Ordinance Corp), Greenford Middlesex UK
(source: A3658944 My Time in the ATS at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Demobed away from Eunice
At the end of the war huge numbers of
servicemen were applying for and being granted their demob whilst still
stationed abroad, having found employment or girlfriends there. This situation
was becoming such a problem that in the
As it was three of us picked up our rail
vouchers for the three-day rail journey from
Eric Cowham, Royal Navy, Calcutta
& Bombay
(source: A7229856 HMS Tyne, Burma and India at
BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
… there was Eurasian women and there was
quite a few romances
But as I say. there was Eurasian women and
there was quite a few romances amongst them. It was easier for our fellows to
make contact with them. Because usually they spoke perfect English for a start.
Most of the Indian people didn't speak English unless they were traders and
that, so there was a language barrier there with them. And then Indian people
had been treated very badly for generations by the British.
Eddie
Mathieson, Marines’ commando soldier on
the Burma Calcutta
(source:
page 240 of MacDougall, Ian: Voices from War and some Labour Struggles;
Personal Recollections of War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women. Edinburgh
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)
Oh, you were lookin' for trouble if you
started sniffin' around Indian women
Indian women were very submissive to their
husbands. There was no romances or anythin' like that between Indian women and
our lads—well, not to my knowledge! The situation didn't—I mean, you weren't
liked anyway. Oh, you were lookin' for trouble if you started sniffin' around
Indian women.
Eddie
Mathieson, Marines’ commando soldier on
the Burma Calcutta
(source:
page 239 of MacDougall, Ian: Voices from War and some Labour Struggles;
Personal Recollections of War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women. Edinburgh
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)
Reg and I
Reginald or Reg as he was known was a
fair-skinned, black-haired boy, very good at sport and quite a heartbreaker.
His girlfriend was a girt called Ailsa O'Halloran who had also been orphaned at
a young age and lived with her grandfather. When they split up, all the girls
were setting their caps at Reg but he decided to make me the object of his
attentions. It started with him winking at me across the choir stalls and one
Sunday evening he came up to me before the service and said "Hello."
I was terrified that if my Aunt saw me talking to a boy - any boy - she would
have a fit,
A few days later I received a letter from
him. It was a simple little letter which said he thought I was very nice and
would like to get to know me better, I treasured this billet doux - the first I
had ever had. He wrote to me at my school since obviously anything which came
to my home would have been opened and I probably would not: even have been
allowed to see it.
We continued with stolen snatches of
conversation and a few more letters for some months and then he bit on the
bright idea of asking my mother if she and I would like to come to the pictures
with him on Sunday afternoon- Mummy could never resist the pictures and so she
took me and it became a sort of regular outing – Sunday Matinee pictures.
Foolishly I kept his tetters in my school
case and one day. Aunty Dolly was tidying it up when she found them. There was
one unbelievable scene and an inquisition on how I we had met, how many times
we had spoken and so on. Eventually she calmed down enough for me to explain
that he was Rev Bryan's adopted son.
Since Rev Bryan visited us regularly, she
decided she was going to far and then went the other extreme and decided he was
the man for me and I should never have contact with any other.
She kept saying I was a "one man
woman" and all this sort of thing. Sadly, this turned out to be the truth
but Reg was not the man and when I met my "one" man, nobody else ever
could mean quite the same to me.
It was the 5 February 1950 - and we went to
the pictures on Sunday afternoon as usual. The film was "In Old
My girlfriends used to call me
"carrots" but Reg said my hair was like "burnished copper"
in the sun.
He taught me Spoonerism and how to do
complicated crosswords. He was great company but in 1952 he decided he was
going back to Ailsa and broke it off with me, I was disconsolate but no doubt
would have got over it except for the fact that Aunty Dolly: said I must wait -
he would come back,
We then moved to
On January 22 - as I said, he came round to
us with a high temperature and feeling under the weather. Aunty Dolly put him
to bed in the only bed we possessed and the two of us slept on the floor. In
the middle of the night he whispered to me that I should get in the bed with
him because he was freezing - like a fool I did. The consequences of that night
probably changed the course of my life.
Instead of being some sort of dream of
wonder - I cannot even remember what actually happened.
A couple of days later he felt better and
moved back to his digs and again said he did not want me to be his girlfriend
any more.
Two months later, 1 realised something was
wrong and it turned out I was pregnant. It is very hard for people in this
country and in this day and age to realise what a catastrophe this was to me. I
had to tell my Aunt and she bemoaned my "breaking her trust" and so
on.
Eventually we had a meeting with Bishop
Bryan and Reg, my Aunt and myself. Bishop Bryan pointed out that it was a very
bad basis for a marriage - at the time we thought he was being callous but now
it is clear that he was talking sense. Reg had never really loved me.
It was the chase rather than the capture
which had intrigued him. It was a challenge to get through all the barriers
which surrounded me and having made the breakthrough, he soon lost interest.
Anyway - we were married on April 5 1953 in
Barrackpore Cathedral […]
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 56-57 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
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Husbands & Wives
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
Indian Women
Indian
Women. Indians are great family
men. But their wives are kept much more secluded than western women. In certain
circles it is a breach of good manners to inquire of a man about his wife or to
mention women in any respect in conversation. A married woman wears a red spot
in the center of the forehead. Many wear a small jewel in the side of the nose
purely as an ornament as American women wear earrings. The jewel has no
religious or caste significance.
Indian women keep to their homes as much as
possible. Most Moslem and many Hindu women take particular care not to show
their faces before strangers and wear heavy veils when out of doors. In the
villages and rural sections where women are working out of doors, you should
exercise special care not to stare at them or address them. Many will run at
the approach of a white man.
(source: “A Pocket Guide to
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
A dash for Calcutta
While we were in
It was a most
spectacular place, and the main pagoda was covered from top to bottom in
genuine gold leaf. The subsidiary temples were covered in the most intricate
woodcarvings altogether it made a fascinating afternoon. Eventually we thought
the time had come to make our way back and we returned to the entrance. To our
dismay the Lieutenant, the jeep and our boots were nowhere to be seen. Worse
still it had started to rain. After waiting disconsolately for twenty minutes
or so, the decision had to be made to walk back, in socks for some, in bare
feet for others, over hard gritty road and paths, two miles that seemed twenty.
Eventually we got back to the billets but of the jeep and boots there was no
sign. Later in the evening the mystery was solved by a telephone from the RAF
at Mingaladon Airfield who said that an army jeep was waiting for collection,
our missing one. Of the Scotsman there was no trace but we heard later what
happened. He was some years older than the rest of us, and was married with a
wife in
William (Bill) Knight, Army, Rangoon
(source: A5905235
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
I was beginning to wonder where my husband
Maurice was
By this time I was beginning to wonder where my husband
Maurice was and whether we would ever meet here.
The 250 strong
detachment was split up according to our postings. Ten of us including myself
and Diana Cooper were billeted at the Catholic convent (Loreta Convent Entali)
where Mother Theresa used to teach. We were welcomed into their midst with
great kindness.
Then an evening of
anticipation for me. A Captain Underwood was searching for me via the RTO
(Route Transport Office) through our liaison officer. I had given the convent’s
number but due to a change of staff and a misunderstanding it had not been
passed on to Maurice (who was a movements officer). So my excitement faded as
the evening wore on, and Maurice, I now know, had spent the night trying to
locate the ten missing VADs.
Greta Underwood, V.A.D., Calcutta
(source: A4859814 A V.A.D. in
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
My sister’s
wedding nights
Many, many years later - when I was in my early twenties my
sister Marie told me that on the wedding night she threw a fit when he tried to
undress her and chucked him out of the bedroom. She was a big, strong girl and
stood no nonsense. She said she knew absolutely nothing and refused to let him
into her bed for several nights until eventually he complained to our parents
that he would have to have the marriage anulled and then she was talked to and
told it was her duty to submit. She said it was the most horrific experience
the first time and she screamed and went mad. Anyway, just over nine months
later she came up to all the expectations and produced her first son who was
the first baby in our family after myself and whom I loved dearly although not
a little jealous of all the attention stolen away from me.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi
(source:
page 16 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
her older sister had been widowed at 23
Also in
our class were two Bengali sisters, Anita and Sabita- who lived just outside
the school gates. One day Sabita told the girls that her older sister had been
widowed at 23 and that she had three children. In Hindu society a widow cannot
remarry but many used to commit Suttee (burning themselves on their band's
funeral pyre). Those who lived had to shave their heads Wear white cotton saris
for the rest of their lives and live like a servant in the house of their
husband's family. I, being the innocent that I was, when I heard that this girl
had three children, murmured "Yes, and she can have more."
There was
a shocked silence among the girls. I did not know what I had said wrong. I
thought one got married and then children just happened. I did not realise
there had to be both parties to the marriage to achieve this. Sahita, looking
at my face, realised that I had said it in all innocence and patted my hand and
said, "Yes dear, of course she can."
The rest
of the girls started to laugh and I blushed and withdrew into myself again.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. La Martiniere for Girls, Calcutta
(source:
page 49 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
My mother’s
dramatic wedding
The story goes that at the age of 15 Mummy was abducted by
an Indian Maharajah. The Indians were crazy for white girls. My Aunt's second
husband to be and my grandfather eventually got her back by some nefarious
means and decided to marry her off quickly to squash any hint of scandal. My
father was fourteen years older than she was and quite a confirmed bachelor. By
some means an arrangement was reached and she was married on 2 April 1923 in
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 26 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
Aunt Dolly met an Indian and she eloped
with him to Burma
A few
years after she married him, Aunty Dolly met an Indian (in those days
Years
later I met Col. Lewis who used to tell me all about their time in
She also
used to drive in an era when cars were something of a novelty and a woman
driving a car caused quite a stir. She was a tall woman, with a lovely
carriage. She had large brown eyes which somehow always struck me as sad. Her
teeth were slightly prominent but not enough to be ugly. On her it looked quite
attractive. Her hair was very curly and looked springy but was very silky to
the touch.
Apparently
she went through a marriage ceremony in the Muslim rite whilst in Rangoon, she
being unaware that Hamid already had a wife living with whom he obviously
cohabited after his marriage to my Aunt as there were two children of this
marriage who were bom within a couple of years of my own birth which was in
1936. Knowledge of this came to her much later, when I was about six years old.
I can remember this Indian woman from the
There were
three bothers in his family. He was the eldest and then there was Majid who was
also married to an English girl, Dulcie, a striking looking woman with flame red
hair and huge grey eyes and a temper to match the colour other hair. She had
one son then, Bobby, and she changed their name to Shaw instead of Shah and
refused to kow tow to the Muslim ways. However, Majid was the best of the bunch
being full of fun and much more human and caring than the others. His failing
was racehorses - he loved them and lost immense sums of money at the races.
Anyway -
one time when they were all visiting us at the- same time, which had not
happened before since we always seemed to see them in separate groups. Aunty
Dulcie said to my Aunty Dolly:
"You
are a fool. Don't you know those two boys are Hamid's children? Taj is his
first wife and you do not have a leg to stand on because she has two sons and
you have not produced any children of your own."
This was a
thunderbolt to Aunty Dolly. Whether she had suspected or not nobody will ever
know. She was like the proverbial ostrich. She refused to acknowledge anything
which would tarnish her image of this man whom she blindly adored. When faced
with this fait accompli she had a terrible row with him, and Taj and her two
sons left the next day and I did not see them for many years after - actually
in
Apparently
Hamid placated my Aunty Dolly by telling her that his first marriage had been
arranged when he was a child between his parents and there was no question of
love between them and it had been his duty to produce heirs to his father's
estates in the
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl., Calcutta
(source: page 27-28
Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
first few years of her marriage were spent
having children
The first
few years of her [my mother’s] marriage were spent having children which came
thick and fast. Three girls in the first four years and then four boys in the
next five years and then a gap of three years and I was the last.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 26 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
Children
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
Indian child bride
Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press
photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix
magazine. Calcutta
(source: webpage
http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/sasia/calcutta1947/? Monday, 16-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of David N. Nelson,
South Asia Bibliographer, Van Pelt Library,
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
first few years of her marriage were spent
having children
The first
few years of her [my mother’s] marriage were spent having children which came
thick and fast. Three girls in the first four years and then four boys in the
next five years and then a gap of three years and I was the last.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 26 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
I reminded them of their own families
In the 1930’s my parents lived in
Although we were not being bombed as were people in
I have early recollections of there always being soldiers
in our bungalow and, so I am told, being thoroughly spoilt by them. Often they
had children or relatives of my age at home so perhaps I reminded them of their
own families.
When I was older I was told that these soldiers had been
brought out of Burma for medical treatment or leave from the front lines, my
parents, like many other people, took the soldiers into their homes for
convalescence or just a break before returning to the front.
M Brown ,schoolboy, Asansol, 1942-3
(source: A7468716 Wartime in
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Relatives
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
Joint Family System
In
(source: “A Guide Book to
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of
a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains
with the original submitter/author)
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
My Grandparents
My
grandmother was a very tall woman - 5ft 10 ins tall with dark wavy hair and
green eyes. My grandfather, on the other hand was small and not as tall as
Granny. He was blonde with large
grey eyes and a small beard in the style of Edward VlI. He was a man of high
intellect whilst Granny was a bit scatty and he called her Dotty because he
said she was dotty.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 25-26 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
My Grandfather and his friends
In the
last week of school a letter arrived telling me that my Grandfather - Thomas
Ashley-Walsh had died on November 7. I remember feeling a real sense of loss.
My grandfather had been obviously from the upper strata at home. He left
Both my
grandfather's friends were childless although Gibson had married one of the
Oakley sisters who were considered the signing beauties at that time. Mrs
Gibson was still beautiful when I knew her and she was in her seventies. Her
sister who was a widow and whose name escapes me, used to spend hours telling
us about the balls and the gowns in her young day and my brother Barney and 1
would sit enthralled listening to her and learning old songs like "Just
before die battle mother." She gave me an old song book which was a large
bound volume all written in copper plate. It has been lost somewhere during my
travels.
Philip
Weston became a doctor and he and his wife were very anxious to adopt a child
so it was agreed on a friendly basis that my mother would live with them as
their child. Unfortunately, a few months later, Mrs Weston died and so Philip
decided he could not handle bringing up a girl on his own so instead he took my
mother's brother Philip- who had been named after him. When he returned to
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Darjeeling
(source:
page 39-40 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
… the fact that his grandchildren were what
he called "niggers"
My
grandfather had also been a great character […]
Although
for expedience he had married his youngest and dearest daughter to an
Anglo-Indian and a very dark skinned one at that - he was the very Pukka Sahib
and I don't think was terribly happy about the fact that his grandchildren were
what he called "niggers". However, one must not judge him. He was a
product of his era and would have been an eccentric at best and an outcast at
worst had he thought differently. My Aunt of course compounded the felony by
marrying an Indian although she never bad any children by him but she did
change my name to Shah and that caused me a great deal of hardship as I grew older.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 40-41 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
She kept saying she would join him
My
Grandmother was heartbroken at grandpa's death. Despite 47 years of marriage
they were like lovers and never went anywhere without each other. She kept
saying she would join him, every year, on November 7 but she outlived him for
16 years and died in May 1963 at the age of 85.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 40-41 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
She lived her whole life looking after her
mother
Dorothy,
when in her early twenties became engaged to a man called always "Mr
Beg" -I never heard his other name. He had been a lodger in their house
and it seems his wife was in a lunatic asylum with no hope of ever being cured.
He was a Roman Catholic and so could not consider divorce. They were engaged
for eighteen years and then Dorothy broke it off because her mother could not
stand the man.
I feel
very sorry for Dorothy- She lived her whole life looking after her mother and
then found in her sixties that her mother had gone and she had nobody. She then
struck up a liaison with a young Indian man who was only after her money. They
had lived very sensibly and since Dorothy had always worked, she was quite
comfortably off. However, he soon ran through her life savings and then
abandoned her – almost blind with cataract and crippled with arthritis.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Darjeeling
(source:
page 37 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
Aunty Dulcie
Every year
we used to go to
Aunty
Dulcie too had a lovely home in The Mall in
On one of
our visits to
Aunty
Dolly and Marie used to act as crutches for Aunty Dulcie and help her get to
the terrace. One night Aunty Dulcie saw some soldiers passing and she put her
two fingers in her mouth and emitted a loud whistle, then hid behind Aunty
Dolly and Marie so the soldiers thought one of them had whistled and shouted up
to them with some laughing remark. They did not think it was funny – Aunty
Dolly particularly as she was very strait laced but Aunty Dulde laughed until
the tears ran down her face.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi
(source:
page 19-20 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
'Our Father - knit one slip one'
My mother had two cousins whom we called Aunty Elsie and
Aunty Lettie. I can always remember them being together - inseparable. Aunty
Elsie; I think had children although she was a widow and lived with her sister.
Aunty Lettie - who was like the twittering maiden aunt in a Dickens book, but
such a lovely sweet-natured woman - had been thrice married - once to the
Commissioner of Police but had outlived all her husbands. She, alas had been
childless but she had two stepsons from her first two husbands and had been a
wonderful mother to these two boys.
Anyway -
these two ladies lived in what was referred to as shabby genteelness. It was
Aunty Lettie who used to do knitting orders for The Good Companions and since
she was easily flustered and had absolutely no head for figures, she used to
visit us about once a week and my
sisters would put her straight on her knitting, more often than not, finishing
it for her.
On one
occasion-she turned up at Mazda Mansions, our flat in
"Oh
darlings - (to me and my sisters) - "this is driving me mad. There are so
many stitches and it is such a complicated pattern and last night, when I was
saying my prayers, I found myself saying 'Our Father - knit one slip one' - Oh
dear, Oh dear - what am I to do?"
She could
not understand why we all fell about laughing but I sat down and sorted out the
pattern for her and ended up finishing the garment which was knitted in two ply
wool and was a bed jacket -extremely Haired and nouncy, gathered into a yoke,
There was 216 stitches on one side of the front and over 500 on the back so it
was quite a major work. Anyway - when it was done she came to me with money she
had received because she said she had not really done the work and although 1
did not take it because I knew she was as badly off as we were -it started me
off doing work for the Good Companions and enabled me eventually to complete my
education.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 34-35 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
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Family Life
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
things in the family had become very sour
By this
time things in the family had become very sour. When I came back from
Apparently
he had withdrawn Barney and Stephen from school and made their lives so horrid
that they had run away from home. However, they did not get far as in India the
consensus of opinion was that children had to obey and so they were brought
back and he shaved their heads as a punishment and kept them on bread and water
for three days apart from also administering a severe beating which almost
broke Barney's arm. Barney in fact was so afraid of him that it changed his
life. Dominic had been left in school so was well out of it.
Once in
As if it
was a record being played again, I overheard my second sister Ida saying to my
Aunt that Wahid had been her boyfriend or the one that she loved or whatever -
we did not call it boyfriends in those days - and her sister had stepped in and
taken him away from her. Anyway he was the lord of the roost and Winnie was his
consort whilst Ida was the skivvy who cooked and cleaned and waited on them.
Now Winnie and Ida had been like twins and inseparable and Ida and always been
strong although very small and slightly built whilst Winnie who was much bigger
had always been sickly and prone to fainting fits. Whatever their reasons they
were mesmerised by this man and offered no argument to anything he might tell
them to do. Anybody who tried to gainsay him was forbidden the house and we
were forbidden to see them. None of us actually obeyed these commands except
for Ida and Winnie. My sister Marie gave him a piece of her mind and she was
told she was not to see us any more but she did and she was so good to us. The
only decent clothes I had were what she had made for me and as long as she was
able she helped us.
He used to
do all the shopping. He would not allow anybody to handle any money. He would
buy about a pound of meat for all of us and Ida would have to cook and he would
take out the lion's share for himself and some for the two girls and give us
literally the leavings to share between the rest of us.
The flat
was two rooms separated by a bathroom which was accessible from both rooms
being between them. There was a small hallway which led to the kitchen and two
balconies leading of each room. Wahid, with Ida and Winnie occupied the larger
of the two rooms and my Mother, Father, Aunt, Barney, Stephen and I occupied
the other room - sleeping on the floor, except for Aunty Dolly and Mummy who
slept on the only bed. Aunty Dolly by this time was quite ill and she lost so
much weight she was suspected of having TB but it was chronic asthma from which
she suffered and the mental torment of waiting for her husband to turn up and
save us which of course never happened.
It was
like a political partition (
Barney was
the most scared and I used to have to spy out the lay of the land, open the
door for him and he'd run all the way down the stairs and through the passage
to get out. In the end he ran away and joined the merchant navy when I was
about 12.
On one
occasion when we heard a scuffle going on and thought he was hitting my
sisters, my father - then in his fifties and no match for this young man -
tried to intervene. Wahid hit him and my father had to retreat to our room. The
next day Ida seemed a bit the worse for wear but she insisted she had fallen
and not been beaten.
My mother
then got herself a job as a Nanny for an English couple - a live in job and
only came back on her days off.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 42-44 Elizabeth
James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
"Well I want everybody to hear"
Then in
1951 - the night before my
And I
said, "Well I want everybody to hear" and kept screaming until he
left me alone. Maybe he thought I'd fail my exams but that didn’t happen.
When he
attacked me, I was terrified. In my innocence, 1 did not really understand what
a Harem meant except that it was a collection of women dominated by one man. I
felt if I let him see I was afraid, I would be lost and have to live like my
two older sisters. So I braved out - something which taught me a lesson for the
rest of my life. If one stands up to bullies, they generally back down.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. La
Martiniere for Girls, Calcutta
(source:
page 45 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
she had slowly been signing everything over
to Wahid
Aunty
Dolly kept living in hopes that "Uncle" would come back. He kept
writing her flowery letters telling her how much he loved her but he never ever
came back. The thing was that he thought he had left her well provided for with
the string of shops and the houses, etc. Meanwhile she had slowly been signing
everything over to Wahid because he kept telling her he had to get money to
send to Hamid - a pack of lies. By the time we realised what was happeneing, it
was too late- He used to sleep all morning then go into the
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source: page 44-45
Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pets
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
My sister Marie could not stand cats
In
We also
had two cows, several geese and three Leghorns. One day on the way home from
Mrs D'Silva's (my private tutor) I saw a white kid tied to a stake on the
roadside and, much against the Ayah's will, I untied it and took it home.
However, Aunty Dolly drew the line there and made me return the goat as she felt
it must have belonged to somebody.
We also
had five cats. Cats have always been loved by me but my sister Marie could not
stand them, I remember when we lived in Sandell Street she jumped because a
black cat came up the stairs towards her and she missed her footing and fell
down the stairs, breaking her ankle.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi
(source:
page 17 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friends
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
Hospitality
Hospitality. Indians are hospitable people. If
they invite you to their homes, accept the invitation. They will be glad to
have you and the experience will be interesting. But don't be surprised if the
women members of the household are absent.
You should
follow the example of your host. Often that may mean sitting on the floor and
eating with your fingers instead of with knife and fork. Whatever the family
custom is, you should follow it. The Indians will overlook your social errors
and give you full credit for trying to adapt yourself.
Indians
chew betel nut, much as we smoke cigarettes. The nut is wrapped in a leaf
buttered with lime and then chewed like tobacco, only you will spit red instead
of brown. When you are offered betel or any gift, you may just touch it if you
do not wish to take it. Touching the gift means that you have accepted it in
the spirit in which it was offered.
Don't
accept any presents from an Indian other than some small token, never anything
of value. You would be expected to return in kind, often with some favor.
(source: “A Pocket Guide to
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
Friends and officers
We had a great collection of men in our Signals
Section at Barrackpore and they helped to make life tolerable. Of course there
are always a few you are drawn to as friends more than others and shift work
means that you work with and see more of some men than others. I should single
out Dan Davis, Bob Stannard, Brian Wilson, Bob Robinson, Jack Phillson and Bill
Kerr as the ones I spent most time with, but I was also friendly with some non-
Signals personnel and even with two Army men, Fred Stericker and Major Cohen,
both of whom were in my choir at the Methodist Church, along with a Lt. Colonel
and Wing Commander. As you can see, rank differences didn't always take on the
same importance as at home - though some officers did keep to their own kind.
Harry Tweedale, RAF
Signals Section, Barrackpore, 1942
(source: A6665457 TWEEDALE's WAR Part 11 Pages
85-92 at BBC WW2 People's War'
on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
One of the things was loneliness
Because of
the civilian friends I made at Barrackpore, it may seem that life was fairly
comfortable. It could certainly have been worse - and undoubtedly was at many
other more remote RAF stations. Still, apart from the climate, there were many
drawbacks that home based admin and civilians wouldn't understand. One of the
things was loneliness - complete separation from loved ones - as no home leave
and even a lack of knowledge of where or what people were doing. Mail was
erratic and uncertain. I would estimate that about a third was lost either to
enemy action or RAF or P/O inefficiency. When mail did arrive it was a very
major event in our lives even though the news could be months out of date. We
were not even living in a particularly friendly country. The "Quit
Harry Tweedale, RAF
Signals Section, Barrackpore, 1943
(source: A6665457 TWEEDALE's WAR Part 11 Pages
85-92 at BBC WW2 People's War'
on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
Meeting Nan
[…] She was older than I by about six years, tall, grey eyes, good
hands, a generous figure. 'Ample', she used to call it, or, in a kinder manner,
'my Edwardian body'. Which it was. She wore her hair in a plait bound round her
head, and had an ever ready capacity for tremendous laughter and a surge for
living. She was like a crested wave, always about to tumble, full of
excitement, cool, grey-green, poised, crest tilted towards whatever shore.
Never quite breaking.
I first saw her in the Mess, the
evening I arrived after five days of travel on wooden seats from
'Are you van den Thingummy ... or are you Wallace?*
Eyes grave, mouth smiling.
'Van den Thingummy.'
There were two of you on the Posting Order. I didn't know.' She took her glass and
prodded the ice cubes with a straw.
'What is Thingummy? '
'Bogaerde.'
'Goodness'All of it? How grand. What are you called for short?'
‘Pip.’
'Better. For Philip?'
'No. For "you give me the pip",.. my first Commanding
Officer's groan every time he saw my face.'
She laughed, and bent her head, placing the book beside her on the
bar. 'Were you so awful then?'
'Pretty.'
’ I’m Nanette Baildon. Squadron Officer.'
'Goodness! All of it? How grand. What are you called for short?'
She snorted a laugh, choked on smoke. 'Touche!
’Is it all right, to call you that?'
‘
I liked her very much. A large gecko ran up the wall and slid
behind a picture of Their Majesties.
'I don't really know what I'm doing here actually.'
'You are Photographic? An interpreter, I mean?'
'Yes... ex Second Army.'
'I saw the little ribbons. Jolly. Come at the wrong time, haven't
you ?'
'The monsoon started as the train pulled out of
'Always the way. They want you in a hurry and then nothing. No
sorties now, no flying possible for weeks in this.'
She indicated the rain thudding down into the sodden Elephant Ears at the door.
'Still, the planning goes on, doesn't it? From the sorties flown?'
Her eyes widened slightly, she took the butt from her holder and
squashed it out in a puddle on the bar. It hissed.
‘What planning do you mean ?'
'
'Defences! We are up to our eyes in defences, been at them for
months and months; you really are late! I don't know what we'll do now. You
know it's unconditional surrender for the Japs, or else, don't you? A matter of
time I'd say, really. Otherwise God only knows.' She sipped her Gin Sling,
clinking ice.
‘It's so marvellous to see a woman in evening dress again.'
'We always wear it for dinner. Evelyn and I are the only two girls
in the Mess so it rather falls on us to keep up standards, don't you think? And
it's nicer.'
'Much; and you are wearing a scent?'
She looked at me steadily, grey eyes smiling.
'Clever old you. The last dregs of "Je Reviens"...
almost squeezed the bottle dry. Do you want another drink? On me ...'
People started to wander into the room, gruff exchanges, hand
shakes, drinks ail round; then hands in pockets, rocking gently on heels,
laughter too loud, conversation bored and falsely jolly. Straight from the
showers, all of them, talcumed, scrubbed; crisp uniforms already starting to
sweat slowly down the backs, under the arms; foreheads beaded.
Evelyn (apparently) came in, a flutter of green silk, a white
flower in her hair. Scattered applause, she bobbed a curtsey, someone handed
her a drink and she waved to
'What's the book?' I turned it up on the bar, covered in coarse
brown paper, the word 'Poetry' in big ink letters.
She shrugged, and her shoulder strap slid down; pulling it up
gently she took the book and opened it. 'An anthology .. poetry, prose ... this was a poet's house so it seems
appropriate ... do you know Tagore?'
My blank face betrayed me. She hurried on, amused, confused,
finding a place marked by a dead leaf.
'Do you like this?
"The yellow bird sings in their tree and makes my heart dance
with gladness.
We both live in the same village, and that is our one piece of
joy..."'
She stopped and looked up. 'Perhaps not. It's from the Bengali, of
course; perhaps not your cup of tea.'
'No! No ... No ... I did tike it. It was just suddenly so odd.
Poetry, evening dress, scent . .. civilized; I didn't expect it, I've had six
weeks on a troop ship and five days and nights on a train ... I rather expected
the Japs to be hissing from every bush and tree, and that I'd have taken my
cyanide pill by now.'
She closed the book gently, replacing the dried leaf to mark her
place with Tagore.
'We are an awfully long way from Kohima or
At dinner, she at one end, Evelyn at the other, she placed me on
her left in someone's place who had gone to the Hills on leave. She rang little
silver bells and Bearers flitted about with tinned tomato soup and a mild curry
...
'What did you do before?'
The usuall question.
'Don't, for God's sake, ask me at dinner.
'Why ever not? Was it something dreadful?
'No, not dreadful. Embarrassing, that's all.'
'How curious. You must have been about ten. Can I guess?' She
handed me grated coconut. 'You sold yo-yo's in
'You're getting hot.'
'Really? In a circus? No? Something on a trapeze ... a trainee
clown?'
'You are an idiot! I was an actor.'
She laughed. 'Well, that's not so awful, is it? Owen Nares, Godfrey
Tearle, Ralph Richardson, all rather respectable, I should think. Were you any
good?'
'Hard to tell, they got me for this job before I could do much.
Out of the cradle,'
'Well, you have plenty of time now; you can start on your Shaw and
Shakespeare. And the poetry would be invaluable, stretching the mind, the
Learning Mind, don't you think? Do you want cucumber? Marvellously refreshing
with that...'
We read to each other on the cool of her veranda, and I learned
blocks of Poetry and we discussed and argued while Evelyn, our chaperone, did
lazy daisy stitches on cushion covers for her bottom drawer. Later I wrote a
play, which had been struggling about in my mind on the journey out, miles and
miles of it, which she bravely typed during the long, steamy days of rain.
Sometimes there was a gentle nutter of work, but very little; and our lives
started along a gentle, pleasant road together. We drove to the city and
explored every market, bazaar, street and alley; joined the Saturday Club, an
impossibly snobbish club, one hot morning by saying that I was Baron van den
Bogaerde and that she was the Comtesse de la Vache. Improbably, but with
sickening ease, we jumped a two-year waiting list and lunched in cool
splendour. The Club became our Place, even though we detested most of the white
clientele .. . Indians were not admitted. Apart from my Literary Education, Nan
was determined that I should try to understand India and the Indian I mind, and
1 was dragged from temple to temple, shrine to ' shrine and festival to
festival, and in the evenings, when we rested up from MacNeice, Dorothy
Wellesley, Spender and Wilde we talked about Gandhi and Congress and the Raj.
It was a crammer's course. Her unashamed passion for this vast country was
infectious, and 1 began to look about me now with clearer eyes and compassion,
trying to understand as much as I could, before they threw us out.
Dirk
Bogarde, Air photographic intelligence officer. Calcutta
(source:
pages 138-145, Dirk Bogarde: Snakes and Ladders London
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Dirk
Bogarde)
New friend during the trouble
This is the time when K.G. Morshed, ICS, our
next-door neighbour, came to our rescue. He suggested that his two sons who
were also at St. Xavier’s should accompany us in the car taking us to school.
The Muslims wouldn’t dare intimidate us with the Morshed brothers acting as
protectors. We went to school regularly through the raging riots without ever
being harmed.
The Morsheds became lifelong friends and we
were in constant touch with each other till we left for
Another Muslim boy who joined us at this
period from the neighbourhood was Abdul Khaleque. His uncle, Maulvi Mohammad
Ameen, lived in a red brick house with a character of its own, where we once
had kebabs sitting on the roof. Today the same building houses the
At this time, Hitty Banerjee from my
brother’s class added to our numbers. Another recruit to our group was Butu
Das, also from St. Xavier’s and capable of remarkable feats on the badminton
court. All of us used to assemble in the downstairs office room where we talked
our heads off and discussed plans for the future as if we were imbued with
tremendous foresight.
The Bilkul Bekaar Society came into existence
like this, reflecting our feelings and subdued aspirations. Our regular
sittings now acquired a respectable name. This was a time for day-dreaming and
building castles in the air. It was Kaiser Morshed whose eloquence made our
deliberations that much more exciting.
Ever so often we used to treat each other to
home-made delicacies. If the Morshed brothers and Khaleque brought biryani and
kebabs, we produced payesh or ice-cream and a variety of Bengali sweets
prepared with great care by my grandmother. All of us wore bow-ties and had
ourselves photographed in the garden before gorging ourselves on the succulent
fare.
How
self-sufficient our own world seemed, insulated from the wiles and cacophony of
the adult world, where children could be excited by the sound of their own
voices and express their feelings with gay abandon.
Samir
Mukerjee. Schoolboy. Calcutta
(source:
Samir Mukerjee: Keep the faith & the friends. The Telegraph: 31Oct2003)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Samir Mukerjee)
"Anne Gidney's gone to Sydney."
I was so
shy and introverted that I had been in the school for six months before I even
spoke to anybody apart from saying "Good Morning" or answering when
somebody spoke to me. The first person to break through this shyness was a girl
called Anne Gidney who must have been the loudest girl in the school. She came
up to me at break time one day and said, "Everybody thinks you are stuck
up because you do not speak to anybody but I've decided I am going to speak to
you." She became a friend but unfortunately she left at the end of that
school year and went to
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. La Martiniere for Girls, Calcutta
(source:
page 48 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
"I am going to take you under my
wing"
Rosemary,
as I said, was very extrovert and was completely the opposite of me. She did
the same thing as Anne Gidney and said, "I am going to take you under my
wing". She used to bully me awfully, but I thought she was wonderful. She
was so brave and would say things to the teacher and answerback, which I never
would do. She gained my friend until she left
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. La
Martiniere for Girls, Calcutta
(source:
page 50-51 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Colleagues
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
Roommates
After I wrote you last night, I expected to get to bed in
reasonable time, but that was not to be. No indeed. Gus came in in a disgusting
state of inebriation, and was so argumentative that I finally had to tell him
off...after which he rather sullenly went to bed, lay there looking and
sounding greatly like a dully animated porcine structure. I was about ready to
turn the lights off when Captain Parsons entered, awakened Gus, and both of
them indulged in drunken horseplay. Then they decided to gave some more drinks,
and to satisfy them, I had a bottle of beer with them. They talked about
everything, with Parsons rather rational, Gus clever enough, but belching
hoggishly ever few moments. Not an inspiring sight, I assure you.
If my previous description of him sounded unflattering, it
was because I was so impressed with the pig-like characteristics that his nose,
mouth, and receding chin, with that crew cut lend his features at such moments.
Shove an apple in his mouth and you might be very surprised indeed. If sound
effects oinked, that would do it, and you could never tell the difference.
At any rate, Parsons wanted me to go outside to talk to him
privately. He wanted to tell me something in my professional capacity. It was
largely to the effect that he was drinking too much, realized it, and wanted to
know what was wrong with him. From what he said, it seems that he feels
inferior because he has only a fifth grade education; has been overseas before
but this time he had to leave a wife and the only home security he ever knew.
He hates his own people, and dislikes his present job of utilities officer very
much. He kept me up until 3:30, and of course I did him no good. I understand
now why he stresses that item of rank so much...it is the only thing he can
pull.
Richard Beard ,
US Army Lieutenant
Psychologist with 142 US Calcutta
(Source: p.217 of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From
Calcutta With Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard”
Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Texas
Tech University Press)
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servants
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
Chuck Chatterjee, Houseboy
Glenn
Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944
Houseboys
We
Americans had little opportunity to get to know Indians personally. About the
only Indians we had close and regular contact with were the men we hired to
help us keep our barracks clean and orderly. At Alipore, our
"houseboy" was an elderly man by the name of (and I don't know whether
I spell it right) Kheromet Khan. He was a really fine gentleman, honest,
humorous (spoke English well) and did his job well. He told us of his sons but
we never got to meet or see them. He lived somewhere near the air field there
at Alipore.
Glenn
Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944
(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with
Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August
2001)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of
Glenn Hensley)
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
Our staff
Our staff –
the Bearer as head of house, a chokra as his assistant, a khansama, and a
jimadar ; apart from our khansama who was a Mohamedan, the other members were
Hindu.
Kenneth
Miln, son of a ‘jute wallah’. Jagatdal/Calcutta, 1945-49
(source: Letter sent to us by Mr Kenneth Miln himself, July 2006/
Reproduced by courtesy of Kenneth Miln)
his father and grandfather had always
worked for the military “sahibs”
I recall the reaction of Abdul,
my bearer, when I told him I was leaving shortly for the
Eric Forsdike, Royal Air Force, Calcutta
(source: A6165678 353 squadron at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
an army of servants
There was
a cook and his assistant called a Masaichi, a gardener and waterman (there was
no running water in Ranchi in those days and our water supply was from a large
well in the garden), two Ayahs, one for me and one for general work, two
sweepresses - one for the loos (no sanitation either in those days) and one for
the house, in the tropics the floors are usually concrete or mosaic tiling and
they are swept and washed twice a day to keep them shining and spotless. A
bearer who waited on table like a butler and a young boy who ran errands etc.
There was also a man who looked after our two cows and the hens, geese, etc. We
used to have all our own milk from which my sister Ida learned to chum our own
butter and the local baker was just around the comer and delivered hot loaves
every afternoon for tea which was a great treat to me and my brothers. To this
day we love hot bread and fresh butter although I have never tasted home made
butler since those early days.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi
(source:
page 15 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Family Events & Ceremonies
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
Dedication
& Coronation
The Maharaja of
Walking in his socks while his" mustachios
curled magnificently skyward, the Maharaja carried a takri (basket) of earth
from the site of the shrine. While thousands of his subjects chanted: "Sat
Sri Akal!" ("Truth is eternal!"), the Prince bore his burden on
his turbaned head in token of his total humility.
On the
other side of
(source: TIME Magazine, New
York
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Weddings
_____Pictures of 1940s
Calcutta_________________________
_____Contemporary
Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___
Family Circles
Gertrude
("Gorgeous Gussie") Moran, 26, U.S. tennis star whose lace-trimmed
underthings stole the show at Wimbledon last year, announced her engagement in
New Delhi, India to Calcutta Businessman Anthony Davenport, 28, son of British
Economist Nicholas Davenport. Said her prospective father-in-law in London:
"All I know is that she is a very good tennis player and there was a lot
of fuss about her panties." Said her mother, Mrs. Emma Moran, in
The
romantic life of Tennis Star Gertrude ("Gorgeous Gussie")
(source: TIME Magazine, New
York
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)
Maiden's
Lament
When the high priest of tiny Manipur heard that
the Japs were drawing near (see p. 29), he advised the youthful Maharaja to
take a third wife; in time of crisis, he said, three could better rule the
ruler's heart than two. The Maharaja complied, then issued a ringing challenge:
Manipur would resist the Jap to the last man. The young men of Manipur, busy
dancing and throwing crimson and purple powder on one another, paused. Wedged
between India and Burma, 400 miles northeast of Calcutta, 200 northwest of
Mandalay and just south of the realm of Bong Wong, the Ang of Namsang. Manipur
has one smooth, green valley, 50 miles long. The rest is towering,
jungle-covered mountains.
Lakes dot the
Saddest of all in food-loving, fun-loving Manipur
today are the maids of marriageable age. When no war threatens and the moon is
right, custom lets them waylay young men, strip and hold them until they pay
the price demanded. If the victim demurs, they may lock him up until he changes
his mind. When next the moon is right, no men will be on hand to play—if they
heed the Maharaja's call.
For the Manipuri with their rusting muskets and
their home-ground powder made of goat dung, war is better as a sport; the
modern, murdering, burning, bombing kind is hard to understand.
(source: TIME Magazine, New
York
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)
Milestones
Engaged. The
Hon. Patricia Edwina Victoria Mountbatten, 22, great-great-granddaughter
of Queen Victoria goddaughter of the
Duke of Windsor,'eldest daughter of Viscount
Mountbatten, debonair Admiral of the Royal Navy, former Supreme Allied
Commander in Southeast Asia; and Norton
Cecil Michael Knatchbull, sixth Baron Brabourne, 21, son of the late cricket-playing Governor of Bombay
and Bengal; in London.
(source: TIME Magazine, New
York
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)
Milestones
Married. The
Hon. Patricia Edwina Victoria Mountbatten, 22, great-great-granddaughter
of Queen Victoria, elder daughter of
Viscount Mountbatten, suave Admiral of the Royal Navy, wartime Supreme Allied Commander in
Southeast Asia; and John Ulick Knatchbull, seventh Baron Brabourne, 21, son of the late Governor of Bombay and
Bengal; by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, in the presence of King George, Queen Elizabeth, the Duchess
of Kent, attended by Bridesmaids
Princess Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, Princess Alexandra; in Romsey, Hampshire, England.
(source: TIME Magazine, New
York
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)
_____Memories
of 1940s Calcutta_________________________
The most important event
The most
important event occurred when I purchased a diamond engagement ring and sent it
home to the girl I left behind, I entrusted it to the care of one of our
officers who was being returned in disgrace to the U.K. To my relief she
received the ring and happily agreed to marry me, we are still happily married.
Douglas Frost, Army engineer,
Calcutta, 1945
(source: A2397350
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
a Methodist minister`s son had to organise
a Catholic nuptial mass in Calcutta
Eventually there was a change of general - who was a
Catholic widower and who wanted to marry the chief of the Red Cross in India,
so a Methodist minister`s son had to organise a Catholic nuptial mass in Calcutta!
David Ensor, wireless
operator with Royal Corps of Signals, Calcutta, 1945
(source: A4255427 Early Promotion at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
A proposal of
marriage
One day a Pathan (one of the Kabuli hill people a few of
whom lived in
1 replied automatically, "I'm only fourteen."
And he said, "I will come to see your mother
tonight." True to his word he turned up later that evening and asked my
Aunt if she would let me be the chief wife to his son and he was willing to pay
quite a large sum of money. I found this quite amazing and was rather afraid
although I knew she would not agree. She had great plans and hopes for me. She
wanted me to be something wonderful and famous. She wanted me to be a doctor or
a lawyer and she, for want of a better word, kept pushing for me to be
"top" in everything.
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 41-42 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
‘do something irrevocable’
Then, to my horror, his permanent re-pat (repatriation
orders) came through and we were going to cross in
However, we did meet in the end. Then what to do? Being
engaged was nothing to the powers that be, and he was going down to
We went to the top medical man available. He was very
sympathetic and said “what I always say is, ‘do something irrevocable’”. So we
did.
We organised for a service to take place in the New
Cathedral. I rushed round to the place that was making my dress and it fitted,
which was lucky, and mother had the family veil sent out to me. It arrived in
time, thank goodness. On paper, the wedding was in the Old Cathedral,
Another great spot of luck was that when David went back to
his room, he found his younger brother (Pat) had arrived from
In the 3 days before we had the wedding arranged, David,
Pat & I took a look at the
Being September, by now the weather was pleasantly warm. We
both had a few friends who just happened to be in
On arrival at the mess, we were surprised to find that all
the food we had ordered was still in boxes, sitting on piles of plates. So it
was all hands to work. Also, the weather was warm and we were very thirsty. I
had a long fruit drink and soon realised that it had a lot of alcohol in it! I
made a beeline for food as I realised that I was a little unsteady. The vicar
had just arrived at that moment and remarked “I’ve never seen a bride with such
an appetite!”. I found out later that David had made the fruit drink before
going to church and put half a bottle of gin in it. Patrick had come in later.
He was newly arrived in
We both contacted our units and were told we couldn’t
expect any answer to our repatriation requests for at least two weeks. We found
that the YMCA ran a hostel for married couples and moved in. Meanwhile, it was
still a crowded city and we both longed to see something else.
Kitty Calcutt, Nurse, Calcutta
(source: A1307026 Wartime Memories of a Nurse at
BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
My big sister’s
wedding
One of the most particular memories is of my oldest
sister's wedding. She was nineteen and it was an arranged marriage. We had the
most wonderful reception. Everything was ordered from
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi
(source:
page 16 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
we were married in Barrackpore Cathedral
Anyway -
we were married on April 5 1953 in Barrackpore Cathedral - Since we had little
or no money. Aunty Dolly made me a wedding dress from one of her white
georgette saris and I had a bouquet of gardenias - the smell of which 1 shall
never forget. Gardenias have such a heady, heavenly scent and almost every
garden in
We had a
wedding breakfast at the Bishop's Palace and I remember there was fresh salmon-
I have never been able to eat fish in any shape or form and - not wishing to
appear rude, I got through this by swallowing the fish with gulps of water,
making myself feel quite ill.
We spent a
mini honeymoon in Barrackpore. The Bishop's Palace was wonderful with en suite
bathrooms and running water - a rarity in many parts of
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Barrackpore,
1953
(source:
page 55-57 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian
Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
We decided to get married in Calcutta
During a trip from Bombay to Calcutta, when we were nearing
the station the Ballet-master told all the girls to lie down on the floor as
there was a lot of rioting ahead.
Our ENSA residential trucks were burned out and so the
company was stranded, but not for long. The Army made room for us overnight and
then escorted us to our hotel the following day - we were so grateful to them.
We decided to get married in
BORROWED A RING
The lead dancer offered her own ring but we eventually
found a hotel that sold jewellery. The Best Man shaved himself in toothpaste -
I remember - and had the nerve to complain!
The company organised everything from a bouquet to a double
room and the Ballet Master acted as Father to the bride. ALL THIS IN THREE
HOURS.
I became Mrs Barbara Craig the very happy and honored wife
of Lt Tom Craig of the Royal Engineers. I had always tried to help others in
the company and now this was returned without measure.
Barbara Craig
nee Lang, ENSA, Calcutta, 1945
(source: A3868941 Wartime Romance Memories of an
ENSA Ballet Dancer at BBC WW2
People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial
educational research project. The copyright remains with the original
submitter/author)
My mother’s
dramatic wedding
The story goes that at the age of 15 Mummy was abducted by
an Indian Maharajah. The Indians were crazy for white girls. My Aunt's second
husband to be and my grandfather eventually got her back by some nefarious
means and decided to marry her off quickly to squash any hint of scandal. My
father was fourteen years older than she was and quite a confirmed bachelor. By
some means an arrangement was reached and she was married on 2 April 1923 in
Elizabeth
James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta
(source:
page 26 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale:
The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi
A Marriage in a Hurry
One day
in April 1938, Ashok received a telegram in
Ashok
was then shooting for Vachan. But he immediately took leave and set out for
Khandwa the same night, worried to death by the unexplained 'urgency' of the
telegram.
When
the train reached Khandwa Kunjalal was waiting for him. "You need not get
down." he said, stepping into the compartment."! am also going with
you."
"But
where to, father?" Ashok'wondered.
Kunjalal
chose to say in Hindi, "Together we shall go to
Always
scared, in his early years, of his father, Ashok dared not ask why they must
travel to
At
Jabbalpur Kunjalal seemed to be in a better mood. Speaking once again in Hindi
he said, "Go and look up your Bhabhi in the Ladies compartment. See if she
requires any help."
Ashok
alighted and met his Bhabhi, the wife of a cousin. The son of Kunjalal's
sister, his cousin, too, was a lawyer practicing at Khandwa.
Ashok
asked her, "What's up Bhabhi? Why are you all rushing to
Bhabhi
could not check her laughter. "Don't fake ignorance Ashok!"
"I
swear Bhabhi." Ashok said, "I don't know anything!"
"What
a shame!" Bhabhi laughed heartily. "My poor devarji (husband's
younger brother), your marriage has been fixed."
"What!"
Ashok laughed aloud at the shock, "Don't pull my legs."
"But
it's God's truth," she asserted.
The
train whistled its intent to move ahead.
Ashok
ran back to his compartment but did not look at his father who sat with a grave
face, looking out of the window.
All
Gouri Rani said when she saw Ashok in
"So
you have come!"
"What
do you mean?" Ashok said in a vexed tone. "You all have arranged my
marriage, wired me to come and I have arrived."
Gouri
Rani watched her son as she queried, "You will marry, won't you? Or do you
want to remain a Devdas?"
Ashok
felt irked. "Why cross-examine me Maa, you have fixed up the marriage and,
I presume, also sent out the invitations?"
"Yes,"
said his mother. "So have the bride's party."
”And
now you are trying to know my mind?" Ashok was offended, it was clear from
his tone.
"No
no," Gouri Rani said, "see the girl my son. I wonder if you will like
her."
Ashok
shook his head, "It is meaningless to see the girl now. You have already
selected her."
"No
no, you must see the girl," Gouri Rani said, stressing every word she
spoke, "or else I will stop this marriage."
She called up her brother, "Shyam, Ashok will not marry here. Find him a
fairer girl."
"Have
you gone crazy, Maa?" Ashok found himself getting angry. "We're into
Wednesday, and the marriage is supposed to be on Friday. And now you're saying
that unless I like this girl the marriage will not be ceremonised!"
"Yes,
indeed," Gouri Rani interrupted. "You must see the girl, and that's
the last word."
Ashok
had no choice but to obey.
The
girl's family had then put up at a place in
Gouri
Rani went straight inside the house to see if the girl was all done up to meet
her son. Ashok sat in the drawing room along with the others. He suddenly felt
shy and started sweating. After quite some time Gouri Rani, assisted by two
ladies of the family, ushered the girl into the room. A swift glance revealed
to Ashok that the girl was dressed in a purple-coloured silk sari, a Kanan Bala
blouse (the design was named after the ageless actress), and a liberal dash of
lipstick.
Ashok
wanted to look critically but couldn't, overcome as he was by shyness. When he
again looked at the girl she too was glancing his way. For a moment their eyes
locked; the next moment, both of them turned away their gaze.
"What
is this Ashok," Shyam Mama addressed his nephew, "look at her
properly. You know the girl."
Ashok
was startled, "Oh no, I don't."
"Oh
yes, you know her," Mama stressed his words. "Don't you remember that
you once visited the house of my friend Captain Banerjee in
Goodness
gracious! But she was a girl of eight then, bare-bodied, oh God, she is 18 now
and Ashok is 28!
"Don't
be shy Ashok, talk to her," Shyam Mama said.
"You
talk Mama," Ashok muttered, "on my behalf."
Mama
asked the girl: "Tell Ashok you name, my daughter."
The
girl murmured with a smile, "Shobha Rani Bandopadhyay."
'Are
you adept at cooking Shobha?"
Shobha
looked up for a second, then replied: "Oh yes, I can cook both kinds —
Bengali as well as English."
"Wonderful,"
Mama responded. "Now tell me Shobha, can you sing?"
Shobha
remained silent.
"Do
you?" Mama repeated.
"Yes
sir," Shobha said.
Someone
shouted, "Bring in the harmonium."
Shobha
sang. In those years every girl belonging to the middle class had to learn two
or three songs, for it was customary for the elders in the groom's party to ask
the girl to sing. If they didn't, the bride's party would urge them to, saying:
"Our girl sings beautifully — people say she puts the cuckoo to
shame."
So the
cuckoo named Shobha Rani had to sing. She sang a hit song of her times, sung by
Kanan Devi and written by Tagore — Aaj sabar range rang meshate habey (It is
time to blend in your colours with that of the others).
The
singer in Ashok Kumar felt that Shobha Rani was not quite in tune, that she had
learnt the song, learnt to play the harmonium too, but her heart was not in it.
Yet Ashok could not belittle her abilities. He remembered how deftly the girl
had rolled the rotis ten years ago! The same girl, now a woman of 18. Looks
sensitive, yes. Has a kind of charm too. But her singing...
Shobha
Rani stopped her song.
Gouri
Rani knew that the girl's performance was not upto the mark, so she voiced an
excuse. "I do not appreciate this custom of 'Sing a song daughter.' The
custom is no longer given any importance in respectable families. But what does
Ashok say now, Shyam? His verdict?"
"Yes.
we've liked Shobha, Ashok," Mama looked at him.
"Now
what is your 'verdict,' as your mother puts it."
Ashok
glanced once more at Shobha. Shobha too stole a glance at him. Then Ashok
stared at the ceiling and muttered. "I don't dislike her --"
Shobha
shyly lowered her face, a smile creeping on to her lips. Others laughed out
aloud.
Gouri
Rani said, "Call the Purohit."
The
pandit who would conduct the marriage ceremony came up to draw out the details.
"On which day of the week was Sriman born?" asked the aged pandit.
"Friday,"
Gouri Rani informed him.
"Impossible,"
the pandit vigorously shook his head.
"There's
no question of the marriage being solemnised on the day the groom was born. And
there is no second auspicious day within the next two months."
"But
he must get married this time," Gouri Rani said.
"I
can't wait for two months," Ashok protested. "I shall leave tomorrow
and complete the shooting for Vachan."
Gouri
Rani looked sternly at the pandit. "Please solve the problem sir,"
she said.
The
pandit frowned as he looked from one face to another. Then he said, "In
that case, let the marriage be solemnised tomorrow. It is Thursday, and there's
an auspicious lagna (hour) for marriage too."
"But
—" Gouri Rani said and stopped.
"But
—" Mama also could not complete.
For,
Shobha's father was yet to arrive. Sasadhar Mukherjee and Sati Rani were to
arrive on Friday! And so many invitees have to be informed!
But
there was no other alternative. Gouri Rani would not trust her son to wait for
long. He was in films, wasn't he, a film-hero!
But the
next day there were no men to run errands, complete the chores or conduct the
ceremony. There were only the five persons of the groom's party — Kunjalal,
Shyam, Bhabhi, her husband and Gouri Rani. Yet, none of these problems came in
the way of the auspicious ceremony the next day.
The
memorable day was April 14, 1938. The groom's party sat in a room. under a
hired old fan that had been installed for the day. It made a horrible
screeching noise. In an effort to silence the protestations someone poured some
engine oil on the fan.
The
pandit had started to chant the mantras. The shehnai party at the gate played
with gusto. Perhaps angered by all this, the silent fan now started to throw
out the dirty oil along with the cool air. Soon the shirts and kurtas, saris
and dhotis, as well as the heads of the invitees in the room were riddled with
black spots. They looked like a horde of leopards.
Through
all this, the marriage vows were exchanged and the next morning Ashok returned
with his destined wife Shobha to their house.
Soon
after Sari Rani entered, jubilantly saying, "So you've agreed to marry,
Dadamoni? You are tamed?" Right behind her was Sasadhar. Ashok warmly
welcomed them and said, "Meet my wife Shobha."
"What!
You are supposed to get married today?"
When
the story was narrated for their benefit, Sati Rani looked disappointed. She
turned to her husband and said, "Then let us return to
Sasadhar
laughed, "So what, we shall attend the Boubhat!" This Boubhat is the
function where the bride serves all the senior members of the groom's family, a
symbol of her acceptance as a member of the family.The shehnai played on a
happy note.
Nabendu Ghosh, writer, Bombay,
Train&Calcutta, April 1938
(source:
pages
132-138 of Nabendu Ghosh: Ashok
Kumar. His Life and Times. New Delhi : Indus ,
1995.)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non
commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Nabendu Ghosh 1995)
Preparations for a wedding
Because it was
wartime, Jai went back to Jaipur immediately after our betrothal ceremony,
while we returned to
All through my
convalescence impatient letters arrived from Jai. He couldn't be bothered with
the doctor's advice that we should wait for several months before we got
married, giving me time for the long convalescence that diphtheria requires. He
was determined that the wedding should take place on April 17, as the
astrologers had suggested. When Ma explained that I was very weak and should
put no strain on my heart but must rest, rest, rest, Jai said he was not a
barbarian; he would take good care of me and allow me to do nothing strenuous.
As usual, he got his way.
Preparations for
our wedding started at once. Ma, with her remarkable foresight, had already
bought a good part of my trousseau in
The rest of my trousseau had to be bought
in
No sooner had I
left than he called up Ma, begging her to come down and see what my selection
had been. She arrived in a judicious frame of mind, but when she saw my choices
she couldn't restrain herself. "Rubbish, rubbish!" she exclaimed over
each sari I had chosen. She left the shop imperiously, remarking that the only
good thing about my selections was that they might be a success in Rajputana,
where the untutored eye of the common people might find some pleasure in the
bright and gaudy colours. For herself and her daughter she couldn't stand them.
She undertook to shop for me herself, and by the time she had finished I had
over two hundred saris of various kinds—in plain and patterned chiffon, with
and without borders, some hand-embroidered, others appliqued, some embroidered
in gold, and others of simple, heavy silks. Each one was superb, and over the
next few years I felt deeply relieved that my own choice had been superseded.
My wedding sari was a heavy red
Other preparations
for my wedding went on in
Jai was to travel
to
Gayatri
Devi, princess of Cooch Behar Calcutta
(source: pp.
135-136 Gayatri Devi / Santha Rama Rau: “A Princess Remembers. The
Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur”. Philadelphia
& New York
Aristocratic wedding presents
Even such a
tragedy, so close to home, couldn't entirely dampen my excitement about, at
last, being married to Jai. As the date of the wedding drew nearer, I started
to receive magnificent presents. My favourite was a beautiful black Bentley
from the Nawab of
Two other exciting
presents were a two-seater Packrd from one f the nobles in jaipur, and a
house in Mussoorie, in the foothills of the
Himalayas, from my
Gayatri
Devi, princess of Cooch Behar Calcutta
(source: pp. 137-8
Gayatri Devi / Santha Rama Rau: “A Princess Remembers. The Memoirs of the
Maharani of Jaipur”. Philadelphia & New
York
A Royal wedding
Three days before the marriage ceremony, I
had to make the correct preparations. I had to bathe in perfumed oils and rub
my skin with turmeric paste to make it more beautiful. I had to perform the
prescribed devotions and prayers, and after that to fast for the last
twenty-four hours. Bhaiya, as my senior male relative, was giving me away, and
he too had to fast. The night before the wedding, strung up and unable to
sleep, I spent the time talking to Menaka and Baby.
Jai was due to arrive in the morning and was
to be installed at a guest-house with his party. The first indication that I
had of his arrival was when I heard the firing of the nineteen-gun salute from
the
Soon after Jai's arrival, the customary
presents from the groom to the bride were brought in procession to the palace,
where they were ceremoniously laid out in the durbar hall. They consisted of
the traditional Rajputani jewellery and ornaments for a bride and, added to
that, ten or twelve sets of Rajputani clothes for women, also dictated by
custom, and trays and trays of dried fruits, nuts, raisins, and other auspicious
food.
Then a number of things were placed in my
lap, a peculiarly Cooch Behar tradition (I was supposed to hold them all day
until after the marriage ceremony)—a conch shell bound with silver, a small
silver mirror with a package of betel and areca nut tied to its handle, a
handful of rice mixed with the auspicious red powder that we call kumkum, folded in a banana leaf—all
symbols of good fortune, all auguring longevity for my husband and many
children for myself. Still carrying these, I went to say the special bride's
prayers and make offerings to that god of universal beneficence, the
elephant-headed Ganesha, and then sat down to what seemed like an interminable
wait.
Later I learned that Jai had phoned Ma
asking if he could come over and have a drink before lunch, and she had
replied, "Certainly not. Have you forgotten this is your wedding day? None
of us may see you until the ceremony!"
For days the palace had been buzzing with
activity as all the traditional wedding finery was brought out and all the
proper things assembled. Under Ma's exacting eye, rehearsals had been held—and
I had watched them—so I knew exactly how the slow unfolding of my wedding day
would take place. There was music everywhere, starting at daybreak, continuing
on into the afternoon, coming to a climax in the evening when the actual
marriage was consecrated. The low, penetrating sound of conch shells, the
lighter, happier music of the reed instruments we call shenai, punctuated by the rhythm of drums, filled the air.
I went through the horrid business of being
dressed and decorated with jewels. I hate being fussed over, but I forced
myself to stand still while this essential part of the ritual was accomplished.
The adornment of a bride is, in India, a ceremony in itself, and I was prepared
for my wedding by a shoal of chattering married ladies while my own friends
looked on, giving me smiles of encouragement. In the bustle and confusion,
somehow my insteps got painted with henna, my sari and my jewels were put on,
and one by one the ivory bangles of a Rajputana bride were slipped onto my
wrists. Finally, my forehead was decorated with sandalwood paste, and I was
ready.
Suddenly the cannons boomed out and the band
started to play in welcome to Jai. This meant that the bridegroom's procession
was at the gates of the palace, and in a flash all my companions dashed off to
see his arrival. With my memories of the rehearsals I could imagine the
magnificence of the scene outside. First some "messengers" would be
walking down the long drive, next a troupe of dancing girls, then a procession
of forty elephants and many horses, behind them the bands, and finally Jai
himself, followed by his guests, the Jaipur nobles and the rest of his retinue.
As Jai crossed the threshold, he raised his
sword to touch the lintel with it as a sign that he came as a bridegroom. He
was then received by the palace ladies, family members and wives of noblemen,
courtiers, and visiting friends in the durbar hall. They held silver trays
containing the proper offerings: kumkum,
turmeric, a coconut, chilies and other spices, and a small oil light to signify
the sacred fire. They waved the trays slowly back and forth in front of Jai,
chanting prayers.
I was left standing in the dressing-room,
too nervous to sit down, while everyone else milled around the bridegroom.
Eventually a few of the women did come back to put the finishing touches to my
clothes and appearance and to escort me to the silver palanquin in which I was
to be seated when my male relatives carried it into the courtyard.
Against the pervasive background of the
music and of the priest chanting, the ceremony of giving the bride away took
place. But before that, as was the custom in
At last the final responses were made, the
last prayers were said, and we left the pavilion in the courtyard to go
upstairs where the family was waiting for us. We had to touch everyone's feet—a
peculiar moment for Jai because he had to make his obeisance even to Indrajit,
whom he had always treated as an insignificant, teasable younger brother. Even
as he touched his feet, he muttered, "For the first and last time!"
Then we were offered the traditional thai to share, and in the proper way
I offered him the first mouthful of rice from my fingers, and he did the same
for me. We had a bottle of champagne on ice to accompany this ritual meal.
After that, Jai went off to join the other men, while my sisters and Baby
stayed with me, and Indrajit popped in and out to check on how I was feeling.
When I was permitted to change my clothes it
seemed incredible that I had been decked out in all my finery only a few hours
before. I still didn't really feel married; I'd seen so little of Jai. However,
intensely relieved that it had all gone all right, I could at last relax and
wait for the time when Jai would be finished with his part of the ceremonies
and we could finally be alone.
The day after our wedding there was a great
banquet for the men at which Jai, Bhaiya, and Indrajit all had to make
speeches, and they and their friends were entertained with Indian music and
dancing girls. Meanwhile the rest of us had a ladies' dinner. During the day
there had been sports events and special tournaments held for the visitors. The
celebrations in
Leaving
Gayatri
Devi, princess of Cooch Behar & Maharani of Jaipur. Calcutta
(source: pp.
138-143 Gayatri Devi / Santha Rama Rau: “A Princess Remembers. The
Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur”. Philadelphia
& New York
After the wedding on the way to the
honeymoon
The day after our
wedding there was a great banquet for the men at which Jai, Bhaiya, and
Indrajit all had to make speeches, and they and their friends were entertained
with Indian music and dancing girls. Meanwhile the rest of us had a ladies'
dinner. During the day there had been sports events and special tournaments
held for the visitors. The celebrations in
Leaving
Originally, Jai
and I had planned to go to
Gayatri
Devi, Maharani of Jaipur. Calcutta
(source: p. 143
Gayatri Devi / Santha Rama Rau: “A Princess Remembers. The Memoirs of the
Maharani of Jaipur”. Philadelphia & New
York
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