NOTE: A friend from Australia sent the following article to Brian Vint. It was also e-mailed to me by Blair Williams. No one seems to know the source of publication - i.e., whether it is from an Indian newspaper, or was printed elsewhere in the world. However, it does make for rather interesting reading, so here it is.
There aren't too many of them around any more, rues Samir Mukerjee. In a salute to a community that once made its presence felt in every sphere, he remembers some Anglo-Indians he admired.
The Anglo-Indians are a dwindling community in Calcutta now. You don’t see many of them wandering in the New Market in search of a good bargain. One finds very few Anglo-Indian girls at bus stops, decked up to go to office. Fewer still frequent the bars and restaurants they once patronized. During my childhood days in the '30s, Anglo Indians were very much in circulation and at the height of their glory. They made their presence felt in the railways, customs, nursing services, police force, schools, colleges, swish restaurants, mercantile offices and on the playing fields.
I remember my two governesses, Nora Allen and Nellie Elder, who introduced me to nursery rhymes like Hickory Dickory Dock and Little Miss Muffet and gave me a thorough knowledge of the spoken word. If it weren't for their efforts, I wouldn't have been able to join the first standard in St. Xavier's with so much confidence.
As schoolteachers, Anglo-Indians were unrivalled, specially in the primary and middle sections of the school. I had some of the best teachers that St. Xavier's ever produced, amongst whom Maurice Pires stood out like a beacon. In his own way, he became a sort of legend and even his son, Alan, followed in his father's footsteps to start a school in Rainey Park. It is difficult to forget teachers like William Ferris and T.D. Bellettey who were so painstaking and kind, taking the trouble to reach out to all of us. One felt like confiding in them.
In the corporate world, Anglo-Indian girls played an important role as competent stenographers and confidential secretaries. They took orders without flinching and became objects of trust in no time at all. They were invariably well turned out and added a lot of colour. Now that most of them have migrated to England, Australia and Canada, the vacuum they created can never be satisfactorily filled. Our old company, Martin Burn Ltd. Had a large contingent of Anglo-Indian girls and they made themselves indispensable when it came to hard work and delivering the goods.
The nursing profession in Calcutta has been severely hit by the absence of Anglo-Indian girls. This is one field in which their efficiency reached its peak. Their solicitude for patients was of a different order and their cheerfulness was infectious. No one seeing teaching hospitals like SSKM and Medical College and Hospital nowadays would believe that these institutions once had a bevy of bright, cheerful and smart nursing staff who gave the atmosphere a glow. The nurses played tennis with the doctors, gave splendid Christmas parties and Christmas Day would see the children's ward decorated with festoons - and a welcoming cake-nuts-and-coffee spread would be awaiting the medical staff on duty. They worked wonders for me when I was laid up with polio for over a year.
The police force during the Raj was manned by tough, duty-conscious Anglo-Indian sergeants and officers. They could tackle any situation without losing their composure and political interference couldn't ever cramp their style. Once again, we see a decline in standards in the police force with gallantry belonging to an age that has vanished forever. I can remember Ronnie Moore as a formidable police officer who could cope with difficult situations without batting an eyelid.
The railways gave the Anglo-Indian drivers and guards a chance to display their mettle. Their dedication ensured that accidents did not ever happen and passengers arrived at their destinations in time and in one piece. After Independence, we have been burdened with a bloated railway staff, where efficiency and responsibility are totally lacking. The track record used to be impeccable, for which the railways were justly famous.
The Anglo-Indian stewards working in Firpo's - one of the smartest and most sophisticated Italian restaurants that adorned Calcutta - were models of propriety and knew how to treat their diners. I remember the Farnworth brothers who had spent long years taking on Firpo's upper-class ethos.
Henry Spears was another steward to conducted himself with exemplary dignity. Later, he moved to the Calcutta Club and gave the dining room the uplift it needed. He became associated with high class and fastidious tastes.
Crooners like Arlene Manuel, Pat Tarley and Pam Craine once filled the air with their haunting voices and made our evenings a rare treat. Here was a community which, unfortunately, kept to itself and lived in ghetto-like enclaves. Not being able to draw close to mainstream Indian culture and master the Indian languages, they nursed their insularity and special way of life with great tenacity. Social intercourse between Indians and Anglo-Indians was probably never on the agenda in those days. Their unique hideouts, like the Graille Club, Clem Brown Institute, Ranger's Club and the Dalhousie Institute, resounded to the sensuous and rhythmic music of Brazil and Chicago. Music was in their blood and dance halls gave them a chance to let their hair down.
This peace loving community understood the meaning of hard work and wherever they went, their image never lost its lustre. Independence saw an exodus of Anglo-Indians from Calcutta because they were not sure about their reception in an India where Western values would, in time, lose their pristine importance. What we see today around us is a confirmation of their fears and suspicions.
The Anglo-Indians who chose to stay back in Calcutta have adjusted themselves to a new set of circumstances. My friend Father George D'Campo, learnt Bengali in the '70s and read Sarat Chandra's novels. A lot of them have adapted to the Indian way of dressing. Derek Munro is a well-known Kuchipudi dance guru with a large number of students under his tutelage. The O'Briens are an inextricable part of Calcutta's social and cultural scene. Fiona Munro speaks elementary Urdu and understands it reasonably well. The winds of change have developed into a gale and ancient prejudices are falling away like autumn leaves. The beautiful Anglo-Indian women have left, leaving behind them a whiff of perfume, the touch of cool, manicured hands, slow waltzes, and memories of yesteryear.
In our heart of hearts we miss their colourful presence and reliability and they really seem irreplaceable in today's context. In some ways, their espousal of Hedonism was a welcome departure from the Puritanism and moral posturing of Indian society. Since tomorrow is shrouded in obscurity, why not opt for vodka, razzmatazz and wickedness today?