When I finished high school, having passed the Matriculation Examination from the St. Xavier High School (Bombay University), the question arose as to what type of future education I should take up. Firstly, it was to be decided as to whether I would prefer to take up a “Service” career in the Government (such as father’s and many of my uncles); or become a “professional”; or go into the commercial line.
I had been greatly attracted to the type of life led by father: moving about in forests, building roads and bridges or dams across rivers, and not being tied to office routine in a town. Touring and moving from city to city – or from one type of country [ed. landscape, as opposed to political] to a different one was exciting, and I found that father enjoyed it. Also, there was considerable prestige attached to belonging to the Senior Service of the Government of India, Indian Service of Engineers (ISE). Unfortunately, the majority of candidates for this service had English University degrees. Only two candidates were accepted each year from the Indian Engineering College of Poona and two each from the Roorkee Engineering College and the Bengal Engineering College (Calcutta). So, unless one was brilliant, and topped the list within the first four in each of the Colleges, there was little chance of getting a post.
As I was just above average in my studies, it was decided that I would be sent to England to get my degree. My father had passed out from the Coopers Hill Engineering College near Virginia Water (not far from London). This College was no longer in existence as it had been run by the Government of India to train engineers for the colony, but as London, Cambridge, Sheffield and even Indian Universities had developed Engineering degree courses, this College was abolished. It was suggested by my cousin Aasaf Fyzee a “double tripos” (Maths and Oriental Studies) from St. John’s College, Cambridge University (not to mention a half’-blue in tennis), that I should apply for St. John’s. However, the College wrote that I’d have to wait two years for a vacancy. In the meantime, I had discovered that the Matriculation Exam standard of the Indian Universities was not considered high enough for entering Cambridge so I decided I had to improve my qualification. As a result, I enrolled in the First Year course at Bombay University at their Deccan College in Poona. After passing through, I continued my studies at the St. Xavier College in Bombay, taking up the BSc (Bachelor of Science) course with Maths, Physics & Chemistry as the subjects , since I was aiming for a degree in Engineering. Unfortunately, St. John’s, Cambridge, wrote that I may have to wait yet another year before there would be a vacancy! After this letter, I decided not to bother and after getting through the first year of my BSc, I joined the Engineering College at Poona.
Whilst I was studying in Poona, father happened to mention the circumstances to a colleague in his Department (an Englishman with a degree from London University). This Mr. Manson emphasized that the best training in the Civil Engineering line was to be obtained in London. He had been to the City & Guilds College (C&G), a part of the Imperial College of London University and , in his opinion, the “Best”. When father put the matter to me, I felt that I would like to study at the Guilds so, after completing my 1st year at the Poona Engineering College in April, 1933, I went back to Bombay and made arrangements to sail to London. The C & G had written that there would be no difficulty in admitting me provided I passed their entrance Exam or the Special London Matric Exam meant for students wishing to take up Engineering. This meant that I would have to be in London before July to take the Exam even though the College term did not start until early September.
The London Matric required a second language as one of the subjects. I had taken Latin as a “second language” in my Bombay Matric but I was not very good at it. The London standard seemed to be higher, so I decided to arrive in London sometime in May and take a little tuition to brush up my Latin skills.
April onward was the heavy “rush” season for sailings to England as all the “Memsahibs” and lucky British officials were going “Home” on leave or to escape the heat. Hence, getting a sailing to England at short notice was not easy. My uncle, nicknamed “Aga Couchik” (Hadi Tyabji – married to my mother’s sister) had quite a lot of influence and helped tackle the problem. At that time the Pacific & Oriental (P&O) line was giving a concession of 50% off to students travelling to England so he took me to the P&O office on Ballard Estate. The officer dealing with the bookings was very sympathetic and, after going through the lists, he said that there was one First Class single berth cabin available as the booking had been kept pending for a final answer from an English Government officer.. However, the person had come about an hour previously and had still not made up his mind – so I could have the cabin. The fare was £30 as I was a student! Uncle agreed immediately and signed the form. Just then the pervious passenger returned and said “I have now decided to take up the booking”. “I am very sorry but the cabin has just been booked by this young man!”, said the official. That was a lucky break for me as we had found that all the well known lines (Messgerie Maritime (French), Lloyd Trigtino (Italian)) were also full and, in any case, were more expensive. It was considered that these other lines provided better value in food and service as the P&O had the monopoly for taking Government of India officers who were travelling on Government money per their service contract and could, therefore, be less exacting with their service!
The ship I was travelling in was the “Viceroy of India”, coming from Australia as I recollect. It was the latest type, fitted with “stabilizers” on its sides to reduce rolling. The rolling was a considerable problem due to the high seas during the pre-monsoon and monsoon season in the Indian Ocean. The ship was also one of the largest in the P&O fleet, its DWT being over 28,000 tons with a speed of about 18 knots. The voyage took 11 days to Marseilles, with a short halt at Aden, and another 3 days to Tilbury at the mouth of the Thames. We passed through the Suez Canal where the ships had to wait a short time to allow the line of ships coming from Port Said to to clear the section to the first crossing basin. Many passengers got down to visit the shops and many others took tourist buses to travel up the canal road to see the country. Once we got to Tilbury, a connecting “boat train” took us to London.
I do not have much recollection of the couple of months before I sailed. One thing I remember, however, was being told not to make or take clothes from Bombay, even the Army & Navy stores were known to have English tailors. I just took a couple of grey-flannel trousers and a navy blue blazer plus the normal summer clothes for the journey across the Indian Ocean.
The voyage itself was very enjoyable. It was very pleasant to be awakened, about 7 am, by a fresh-faced young cabin steward bringing a cup of hot tea and biscuits and an apple, or an orange, as you liked. Then at about eleven there was “beef-tea” or cold drinks. Breakfast was a full meal, all sorts of dishes, fruits, cereals, fish, meats, etc…plus tea, coffee or juices. The lunch was on a par, with a menu of about a dozen dishes. And, of course, the dinner at 8 pm was really a treat! And we young people, and also most of the active grown-ups, saw that the food was not allowed to waste!
Our appetites were kept in good shape by the games. Deck-tennis was a very strenuous game, especially when the ship was rolling. The game was played on a court marked somewhat like a badminton court, but slightly smaller. The “quoit” was a tarred rope ring with a canvas cover about 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter. There was a net across the centre of the court, and the game was to throw the quoit diagonally across to the opponent who, then, had to try and return it. By placeing, twisting & spinning the quoit, you tried to make him drop it. A drop caused the point to be lost, and so on. The scoring was the same as badminton and you could play singles or doubles.
Another game very popular was “Deck-quoits“, where the rope ring was substituted for the “rock” in curling, and the deck was the “ice” rink. The distance to the central spot was about 20 ft (6 metres) and the object was to place your quoit nearest the centre, knocking off the opponents, if possible! The game required a lot of skill, as besides the smoothness of the deck, the effect of the pitching and rolling of the ship had also to be accounted for! I had partnered a tomboy-ish Australian girl, about 18 years of age, and we managed to win the tournament. In Deck-tennis, I also managed to win the singles. One of the reasons for my good performance was that very few passengers were able to “enjoy” the voyage when passing through the Indian Ocean, as the rolling and pitching were quite intense, even with the stabilisers! I, and a few of the younger set as well as some of the seasoned travellers, were able to ignore the motion and take full advantage of the menus and the sports!
Sailing through the Suez Canal gave a strange feeling of the ship moving on land! Standing about the middle of the deck, the Canal banks were not visible. All one could observe was the desert sand and dunes, and the traffic on the bank. After the rolling and the pitching in the ocean, the slow (about 5 miles per hour) speed, smooth and quiet, gave one a feeling of floating on air. However, it was very hot and in those days there was no air conditioning, so no relief from the hot dry air of the desert. Fortunately, the swimming pool could now be used and the water was comfortably cool. Incidentally, all water for washing and bathing was salty sea water! For washing one’s hair, we had to ask the steward to get a jug of un-salted water. One of the reasons for stopping at Aden was to replenish the sweet drinking water. This had to be done at each of the stops.
Suez had a very large “super-store” (Simon Artz) where duty free stuff was available – English, European and also curios manufactured in Egypt. It was very popular and a “must” for passengers, especially as there was practically nothing else of interest in this place! I also followed the herd but did not find anything of particular value or interest.
After the uncomfortable heat of the Red Sea and the discomforts of the rough Indian Ocean, it was wonderful to sail through the balmy air of the Mediterranean and its calm waters. The passengers were determined to make up for lost time and the ship’s officers did their best to put up all types of entertainments, dances, games, fancy-dress events and, with the help of the passenger talent, plays and magic shows. I had not learned ballroom dancing but that did not prevent me from joining in the fun – and no one was critical! I even managed to get a prize “most original dressed” and for acting as a “gully-gully” boy – ie. one of the Arab boys who would come to the ship and give Magic shows while shouting “gully gully” as they were showing a trick.
Whilst at Suez and Port Said, we had a lot of entertainment watching the Arab boys diving quite deep to catch money as it was chucked from the ship’s side. The boys dived as the coin was sinking and caught it before it had gone down too far. Still, they often had to go down to quite a depth! Then there were the vendors bringing their wares in boats alongside and trying to entice you to buy “wonderful bargains”…
[ed. Next post: London & Mona]
Retroblog of Najm Tyabji (1930+) 
