Back in Bombay

Mona and I arrived in Bombay in early June, 1936. We stayed at Father’s place in Bandra, a suburb on the north of Bombay Island – about 9 miles from the city centre. The Monsoon had just started but, fortunately, the house was on the sea front so we had a lot of fresh breeze – often too much! It was the day after our arrival when we had an interesting surprise…

Just before Father left for his office after breakfast, he got a phone call from the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay. In those days, the Chief Secretary, an ICS officer, was a very powerful person under whom the Home Portfolio fell. This included the Police Department and Intelligence.

“Tyabji, I understand that a young English woman is your guest? I have also been informed that she has come to marry you!”

Father was taken aback, but after a pause he replied, with a laugh, “It is correct that I have a young English woman as my guest, but she is my son’s fiance”.

“Oh, I am sorry for the mistake, said the Chief Secretary, may I speak to her?”

When Mona came to the phone, she was greeted with the surprising news: “Mona, this is your Uncle Henry! What is this I learn that you are thinking of marrying Mr. Tyabji’s son! Of course, Mr. Tyabji is from a very respected family and holds an important post in the Government, but he is an Indian – and you cannot marry an Indian! It’s not done!” [ed. Officially, Uncle Henry was “Sir Henry Knight”]

“Well”, Mona replied, “I am doing it! I do not see what business it is of yours – we scarcely know each other.”

“Please don’t get upset”, said Uncle Henry. “If you come to tea this afternoon at the Yacht Club, we could have a nice talk and I’ll explain matters”.

“Oh! That will be very nice!, said Mona. “I’ll put on the nice saree that my future father-in-law has presented to me.”

“Oh my God! Don’t do that”, exclaimed Uncle Henry. “The Yacht Club is very strict that only white people are permitted in. Even the Indian Maharajahs cannot visit! I’ll get thrown out if you come dressed in a saree!”

[ed. Mona at her Father-in-law’s place in 1937 – dressed in a saree!]

Well, Mona went to the Yacht Club dressed in her Scottish kilt. Henry met her and had a long talk, explaining that, however educated and Anglicized Indians are, “British Society” do not mix with them socially, except for “formal” occasions. Hence, marrying an Indian would likely cause her embarrassment in her social life. Henry was generalizing to some extent as there were many instances of Indian Government Officers (even from the “Favourite of the Gods, the ICS”) who had married Europeans. One of these cousin, Akbar Hydari (son of my Uncle, Sir Akbar Hydari), who had a Swedish wife and went on to become the Governor of Assam and was given a Knighthood!

Before taking his leave, Henry told Mona that he would introduce her to some Senior Officers such as the Director General of Police and some of his staff. He felt that this would give her a chance to appreciate that type of society in India. One advantage of this offer was that Mona got a chance of getting some riding on very good horses from the Police and the Army and met some very nice young people at the same time. One such couple was the District Collector of Sholapur whom she met at a friends house where they had come for a visit. The “Wells” were Scottish and Mona became very fond of them. They invited her to spend a few days at Sholapur which she did – and had the fun of playing with their pet lamb!

The Journey Home

So, the fateful day arrived and we got on the train to Dover from were we would cross the Channel to the French town of Calais. We were going to Paris where we were to spend a few days. We had already sent off our heavy baggage for loading on the P&O (Pacific & Oriental) liner via Carter Patterson, a firm specializing in moving materials. Thomas Cook had arranged our bookings for the train journey to Marseilles via a round about tour of Paris, Milan and Geneva. We would catch the P&O liner in Marseilles for our journey to Bombay. We were travelling in “Tourist Class” this time – and “Second Class” on the Railways.

Whilst sitting in the dining car for lunch before reaching Dover, Mona and I got into conversation with an Italian gentleman from Milan. He told us that he had a palatial villa there and would be happy if we looked him up when we visited the city. He even offered us the hospitality of staying at his house. He was a charming person, very cultured, and we learned a lot about Italy from him. We told him that we would look forward to visiting him and take him up on his offer to put us up for three days or so.

We arrived in Paris in the late afternoon after having caught an Express train from Calais. With Mona’s fluency in French, we had little trouble in finding a nice middle-class hotel. We had decided that, as far as travelling in Europe was concerned, it would be more enjoyable and economical if we stayed together in a double room! We spent three days in Paris and thoroughly enjoyed the food and the gardens and palaces. We then made for Geneva on the beautiful Lac Leman. We spent only a couple of days in Geneva as there wasn’t much to the city but the scenery and the lake were marvelous! Geneva is an important place internationally as it was (and probably is) the Headquarters of many international bodies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Red Cross, etc… We were not politically minded and, at that time, this aspect of the city was lost on us. However, we did enjoy the delicious Swiss food – especially the pastries and chocolates!

We then crossed into Italy via the famous Simplon Tunnel. An Italian official checked our passports and other documents as we crossed the border. I had started a small moustache and the Italian official turned to Mona and said “the moustache suits your friend”! We arrived in Venice where it was quite warm and even slightly uncomfortably so! It was very enjoyable visiting the gondolas and palaces. We had read a lot about Venice and I was especially interested to see the location of Shakespeare’s play, “The Merchant of Venice”. One of the places we found very interesting were the glass factories. We visited one and admired the skill with which the worker drew up the molten glass and blew it to form a goblet and then turned it skillfully on the side of a metal mould to form beautiful shapes. As we entered the premises we were asked to sign a “Visitors Book” and, in turning the pages, I was pleasantly surprised to see the name “Badruddin Tyabji” next to a date indicating the late 1890’s! We also duly fed the pigeons at the front of the Doge’s Place, took a tour through the canals and saw a bit of the country outside the city.

From Venice, we went west to Milan and enjoyed visiting an impressive city. It had a very large glass covered “super” market selling almost everything one could think of. The trams, very modern, were also quite chic and better than the London Underground in comfort and appearance. Unfortunately, it was very hot! The temperature was over 100 degrees farhenheit as far as I remember and we did not have clothes suitable for the “tropics” as they were in the boxes that had been sent ahead to the ship! The villa of our friend, however, was pleasantly cool and a complete blessing.

We had an interesting 3 days and then took the train to Marseilles to join the P&O liner. It was quite an old ship but quite comfortable for the trip home….