Memories of when we were in India
If you would like to add to the memories,
send an Email to~gillpete@idirect.com~

Remember when...

Take a couple of minutes to read, it brings back great memories!
A Walk Down Memory Lane
To see if you are old enough (and I know you are), take a stroll with me.....close your eyes.......and go back...........back before the Internet......before semiautomatics and crack........before SEGA or Super Nintendo...........way back..............

====================================

Just wanted to say Hi !

I can think of a lot more things to add to the list !!!

Like

Having Jhal muri and green pea ghugni at the Back Gate !

Dhai Bharas near Majulas

Taking puri tack from the Ting Ting Walla at school..Jenny & I both getting a hiding for taking stuff 'on tick' ....."my mother will pay you tomorrow" !!!!

Good wholesome pasturized milk at Keventers

Ice-cream parties at Alan and Claude's place on the terrace.

Flying down Free School street with the Christmas tree that got stuck in the old banyan tree near Daranjo's place and Peter Huggett and gang having a good ole laugh while I retrieved the bottle brush specimen !

Walking home barefeet on the maidan and pushing Pete's java all the way home !

Getting caught in a South West Monsoon Thunderstorm in Madras ..the water was up to our ankles !

Andy sticking a lighted cigarette butt between someones toes when we walked back from the Rangers Dance one New Year's Morning !

An early morning tram ride with Uncle Farook in the driver's seat !

I could go on but I have to draw the line somewhere !!!

Christine Gill

====================================

That was great -- even though I'm "before your time", you brought back some

treasured memories -- how could I have forgotten, especially the Ting Ting

Walla, the Back Gate treats, the modi shop in the Kidderpore market, puchkas

near the Kidderpore post office and good old Lalla who used to pass us

hajmee golees over the wall that separated Remount Road from Mominpore!

What else ? Have to take that walk down memory lane more often.

Thanks for the memories!

Love,

Olive

===========================================

Thanks for triggering the memory bank!

Tripping down Nostalgia Lane, I remember ....

The experiments that Peter and I did on rockets on various rooftops! Scientists we were planning to become! ...

The parties and the forfeits and charades and other "games" at the Gills, the Fords ...

The climbing up and down lamp posts after Rangers' Club dances ... the dances and swimming and snooker at DI ...the snooker and cricket at DA ...

Uncle Joe's gentle smile ...
Aunty Pat's mothering ...

Leaning on the balcony at Royd Street overlooking the tram lines and the Assembly of God church and solving the world's problems ...

Designing and building model aircraft with Peter ...

The excitement when the Burma troubles brewed up and the cloak and dagger way we all had to remember the Mealins ...

The visit to the Gunj and sitting and talking with your dad about seagoing and piloting and learning how to shoot and eat flying foxes ! ...

Your dad telling me once about how Bobby had to eat every four hours ! ...

Honing my chart correction skills at EW Stevens ...

and so on, and so on ...

Cheers

Peter Lopez

==========================================

I remember

The carroms and "chippoo" football tournaments on the staircase landing, and cricket, hockey, football, even karate and wrestling(!) in the backyard.....all this masterminded and orchestrated by our beloved, ever inventive Maurice Saigal.

I remember the puchka walla - I loved puchkas and ate them nearly everyday - he'd come and ring the doorbell and ask "Sharon baba hai?"

I remember the wonderful parties at the Gill residence...laughter, dancing and crazy games - especially the "twine and spoon" game, where the spoon, tied to a reel of twine, went up the guys' trousers and down the girls' dresses, or was it the other way around?!

I remember wonderful motorbike rides, squashed between Peter and Kuku, the wind in my face and in my hair, feeling "nothing can beat this".....nothing did!

I remember going to the maidan to cheer Chilly's softball team....

And while on the subject of the maidan, I remember strolling there on a balmy evening to have the fabulous fruit flavoured kulfi....

And how could I forget the chooran walla?

I remember wading home from school during the monsoon in the filthy flood water and loving every minute of it!....rickshaw rides, cycle rides, playing cricket in the street on "hartal" days........

I remember, oh, I remember!

Loads of love,

Sharon

==================================================

Dear Iqbal,

You were senior to me but I remember you well. My elder brother was Carlyle D'Croix, junior to you also, passed in 1959 batch. I remember I was in class 1B with Ms. Martin and your kinfolk were Seth Stephens,Alvandi, Vincent Jacobs,Clive Slater, Shavers, Geofrey Smith, William Sutton. John Kriska, Istiaq Ahmed (He was the prefect who used to say "Shet Ep, Shet Ep" everytime we tapped our feet to Pa Meneezes' American Patrol March just before Mr. Chalk would get to the stage for assembly every morning.

I remember, I was 8 years old sitting on the grass at the finish line on Sports Day and there you were chin out, long and lanky, doing the 100yd dash but I think Vince Jacobs had a longer chin and came 1st, beating you by a hairs breath.

What beautiful memories.

I trust this finds you well and happy with your lot in life.

Best Regards
Rodney D'Croix

LMC-1954-1964( Sorry Iqbal, but I was in Martin House) Captain then was Seth Stephens.

=========================================

To the wonderful kids who were born in India and survived the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's.

First, we survived being born to mothers, some, whose husbands smoked and /or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate whatever food was put on the table, and didn't get tested for diabetes. They were mothers who did not check their blood pressure every few minutes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs and bassinets were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. We were put in prams and sent out with ayahs (maids) to meet other children with ayahs, whilst our parents were busy. We cried, were picked up and cuddled by the ayahs" ( maids) and were quiet again.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking or going out on our own. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags. We sat on each other's laps for God's sake. Riding in the back of a station wagon on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We would share a dosa, dip a chapatti into someone else's plate of curry without batting an eyelid. We ate jam sandwiches or pickle on bread and butter, raw mangoes with salt that set our teeth on edge, and drank orange squash with sugar and water in it.

 We ate at roadside stalls, drank water from tender coconuts, ate everything that was bad for us from mumfalees to Bhel Puri to bhajias and samosas, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! There was never a child - not one single child -who was obese!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day during the holidays, we were never ever bored, and we were allowed freedom all day as long as we were back when the streetlights came on, or when our parents told us to do so. No one was able to reach us all day by mobile phone or phone. And we were O.K. We would spend hours making paper kites, building things out of scraps with old pram wheels or cycle rims, inventing our own games, playing traditional games called hide and seek, kick the can and rounders, ride old cycles and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

 We swam with an inflated tube which we got from somebody who was replacing their car tyres. We ran barefoot without thinking about it, if we got cut we used iodine on it which made us jump. We did not wash our hands ten times a day. And we were OK. Our parents trusted us to go on picnics with everyone and anyone, a friend of a friend would be OK and we survived.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no I-Pods, no internet or internet chat rooms, no TV, full stop.

We did not have parents who said things like "what would you like for breakfast, lunch or dinner". We ate what was put in front of us and best of all , there was never any leftovers. We polished the lot. WE HAD FRIENDS, great friends, whose parents we called Uncle and Aunty, and we went outside and found them!

 We fell out of trees numerous times, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no compensation claims from these accidents. We ate fruit lying on the ground that we shook down from the tree above. And we never washed fruit. We had a bath using a bucket and mug and used Lifebuoy soap. We did not know what conditioners meant.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode cycles everywhere and someone sat on the carrier or across the bar to school or the pictures not cinema, or you walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them! Not everyone made it into the teams we wanted to. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck and good fortune to grow up as kids in India, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives ostensibly for our own good, who changed what was good into bad and what was bad into worse.

Those were the days my friend !!

How do u like the above facts ????

===========================================================

THE 50'S ....."WE HAD IT SOOOO GOOD"!

 We ate jam sandwiches or pickle on bread and butter, raw mangoes with salt that set our teeth on the edge and drank orange squash with sugar and water in it. We ate at roadside stalls, drank water from tender coconuts, ate everything that was bad for us from puchkas, to aloo chaat to bhel puri to bhajias and samosas, but we weren't over weight because we were ALWAYS, OUTSIDE PLAYING!

There was never a child, not a single child who was OBESE! We would leave home in the morning and play all day during the holidays, we were never ever bored, and we were allowed freedom all day long as we were back when the street lights came on, or when our parents told us to do so.

 No one was able to reach us by mobile phone or telephone. And we were OKAY. We would spend hours making paper kites, building things out of scrap, inventing our own games, playing games like hide and seek, kicking the can and rounders, ride old cycles and then ride down the hill only to find that the brakes are not working! We swam with an inflated tube, which we got from somebody who was replacing their car tyres.

We ran barefoot without thinking about it. If we got a cut we used iodine on it, which made us jump! We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no ninety nine channels on cable, no CDs or video taped movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no I-Pods, no internet or chat rooms, no television, FULL STOP!!

This generation of ours has produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! Life was so innocent!

 ==========================================================

THE RAILWAY COLONIES

Anglo Indians who lived in the Railway Colonies across India enjoyed a close knit social life.
The picnics,socials,dances let the youngsters of most homes meet and remain friends.
Most of us were Boarders in Hill Schools who had 3 months winter holidays...early Dec to mid March.
They were called "THE RAILWAY KITES" by those who were'nt in the Railways,but were always invited to railway Get Togethers
paying a small contribution like Rs 3.00 for dinner and dance in the sixtees.

Looking back,these were my best young days.We ANGLO's were educated in the best schools those days.
The Anglo Girls were THE most Beautiful,the boys so Handsome. Our Moms and Dads worked hard and we lived thriftily.

No anglo left my home without being invited for lunch/dinner however frugal...
Dol n rice....Curry n rice...yellow rice n ball curry....Famous brown stew n rice...
Tea was suji halwa,chocolate with Church powder milk,cakes,guava cheese,gauva jelly, gooseberry jam on bread or leftover chapattis.
Nothing went bad because there was nothing leftover.
Remember the lipsmacking Brinjal kassoundi,prawn tomato pickle,Sweet kerala pickle (all in fresh mustard oil).

Anglo Indians were good boxers and fiercely fought any buggers who got on our wrong sides.
Money was never a driving force or such a nessicity in our lives ..We were happy with whatever we earned.
We were generous to the core...WE TRUSTED

ANYBODY and EVERYBODY(this was a trait which caused us much GRIEF often, because scheming bleddy basterds outnumbered us)
Anyway we got the better of them by brain and Brawn mostly.

We Were and Still ARE a BREED apart,WHEREEVER IN THE WORLD WE ARE.
I SALUTE EACH AND EVERY ANGLO AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.
WE ARE SO PROUD To BE ANGLOINDIANS!!!!
GOD takes care of us.

We'll NEVER VANISH.

Regards Dr Trevor Ian Ledlie (Cawnpore LEDLIES)

===========================================================