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The
political changes in 1940s Calcutta, such as independence and partition, led to many leaving the city. Others took the conscious decision to stay on
and make Calcutta their hoe for good.
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Meanwhile life around Calcutta
continued much the same. Firpo’s was
still the place where people foregathered to enjoy a first-class meal. Clubs and places of entertainment
flourished. The New Market continued
going strong. The numbers of beggars had
not decreased not yet were the poor any richer.
Sacred cows, as ever, meandered freely or reclined on the busy pavements
of Chittaranjan Avenue. I counted up to
sixty-odd one day while on my way to Calcutta.
(source:page 191 of Eugenie Fraser: “A home by the Hooghly. A jute Wallahs Wife” .Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing 1989)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Eugenie Fraser)
The attitude to the Indians,
however, was changing – we were drawing closer and getting to know them better,
not only the men but also their wives as well.
(source:page 191 of Eugenie Fraser: “A home by the Hooghly. A jute Wallahs Wife” .Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing 1989)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Eugenie Fraser)
Like P.T. Nair, I hail from Kerala.
In February 1945, I first came to Calcutta at the age of 16, when Lord Burrows
was the Governor of Bengal. I am 76 now and have stayed on. I go back to my
home state only as a tourist. My two daughters and son were born and brought up
in the city and they are in no way different from Bengalis of their age.
I retired after working in
newspapers for 40 years and took up a job in a college. My byline has appeared
in many city newspapers, including Hindustan Standard.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with N.S. Mani )
Everything remained much the same as
before. I had been with the job for some considerable time and I had no desire
to go anywhere else. Also I had been promoted and didn't see any reason to
leave.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Trevor Royle 1989)
'I liked India and the
Indians very much. In fact I felt just as much at home in India as I did in
Britain.'
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Trevor Royle 1989)
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 UK the parents, and in
some cases the wives, of servicemen were complaining to the War Office that
their men folk were not coming home. As a young man I had no dependants at home
and had met and become attached to Eunice, the daughter of a local Police
Inspector, who had been born in Calcutta. I had also been offered employment on
a local plantation which I had accepted and intended to take up after my demob.
I think my romantic letters to Eunice hastened my end in Calcutta. It was at
about this time that it became orders that servicemen had to return to the UK
for their demob, brought in, no doubt, in response to the many complaints the
War Office had received. Anyone wishing to return abroad like myself would then
have to pay their own passage and accommodation. My life could have taken a
very different turn if my demob had been a few weeks earlier.
As it was three of us
picked up our rail vouchers for the three-day rail journey from Calcutta to
Bombay, eating and sleeping on the train. We stayed for about two months in
Bombay in 1946. I remember the city appeared cleaner than Calcutta and there
were fewer beggars, and whilst there we became involved in the Indian Navy
mutiny. One day we were detailed to block all the roads leading from the
harbour to the town. This would have been fine had we been armed but our only
defence against mutineers carrying weapons were pickaxe handles. The officer in
charge waved his about so wildly we felt we were more in danger of being
wounded by him than by the mutineers.
(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)
They came back to England several
times but Dorothy could not stand the cold and the damp and always went back to
India. On her last visit to England in the sixties she developed Pneumonia and
once she recovered they went back and Burra-Aunty died at the age of 85 in
Calcutta.
Dorothy last worked as the school
secretary at my old school La Martiniere - and she was well into her seventies.
I think she only left when about 78 or 79 due to the fact that she could no
longer see.
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