Friday 8

The day has come! We got up at 6:00 and caught the Madras Mail going up. I met “Porky” at the station she had been in Khargpur for a week or so. She was very shy when I asked her if she still wrote to Bill Dye. “Ye Judge” met us at the station. He took us boys for some shopping. He had to buy me some ties (3) for the “uncharitable remarks” he made about my red tie when I was here last time! He also bought Gene a camera and six spools of film! After tea we went and saw Wheeler & Woosley at the Elphinstone in “Cockeyed Cavaliers.” It was quite a funny (& mushy) film. Gene took my picture on the roof. We had ice cream for supper. Went for a ride on the Strand. It is a cool place due to the river right next to it. I have decided to give my tie box to Mr. Ellis. I will make another one out of “Peer Saal” wood. I might make it better than the first one!

[Gene’s first camera maybe??  Would love to see those photos!   Looks like the Elphinstone was the first permanent theater (not in a tent) in Calcutta, opening in 1907.  http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090827/jsp/opinion/story_11410877.jsp ]

Thursday 7

Finished all my packing for Calcutta in the morning. Mrs. Singh gave me a letter from Bulu. I have three letters to answer now. Gene & I went for a long bike ride. Told him all about killing snakes in Contai and the swell times we had on the ships – Genoa, Minnekata, Leviathan, Mashobra. Bulu said he was going to send my tie pin soon. I hope he doesn’t forget because he is an awfully forgetful nut. Mr. Ellis wrote saying we could go to the Russian Ballet if we promised not to go around to the stage door after it was finished. The ass! I don’t think we’ll go anyway.

[This is a cover from the 1936-37 season, couldn’t find one from 1935.  I wonder if he means the SS Leviathan, Wikipedia says it sailed from 1917 – 1934.  And says Mashobra: is a town in Shimla District of Himachal Pradesh. It is connected to the state capital Shimla (earlier Simla [which is what dad always called it]) through the historic Hindustan-Tibet Road built in 1850 by Lord Dalhousie.]

Wednesday 6

Finished making the box. I will have to put a good polish on it now. I think I will give it to Mr. Ellis. We got a Christmas parcel from John.  He gave me a 10 cent rayan (?) – the dirty skunk! I got a letter from Lal. Will answer it when I feel like it. The whole “marshap” smells of sandalwood. It is my favorite wood.

[So this was just in his genes, he always had a project going, or in the planning stages. Or sometimes the project was making a box to send the previous project to someone, like Carol’s whirligig and the box it came in!]

Tuesday 5

Spent all day in making a nice wooden box for my ties. This of three kinds of wood: Ebony (ablas Kaat), peer soal, and sandlewood (chandan). I paid 1/14/- for the chandan kaat it is 1/12/- at a seer. People burn it in their temple. It sure has a swell smell. I have put some shavings in my box so it will smell nice. Lee & Gene went to Kgp. in the morning to get some shoes. Got an answer from Joan. She thinks it will be O.K. “with everybody else” if we write once in 2 or 3 months. Man, what an age to wait.

[Lee and Gene in 1931, and Gene appears to be missing one shoe… ]

Monday 4

Cloudy all day. I cleaned my suits and ties. No letters from anyone yet. We cut puppy’s tail off. Gene held him, Lee held the tail and I chopped it off with an axe. I thought it would be lots of fun at the time but I felt kind of sick after doing it. The Berg kids came over and we raked leaves and made a big bonfire out of them. I am going to make a box out of a good kind of wood.

[ugh… budding doctors… ]

4th after Epiphany. Sunday 3

Went out in Guru Das’s car to Dad’s last camp. Tried to see the Rajah of Narayanger’s palace but he wasn’t there. Came back to Khargpur and went to church. On the way home we were challenged 4 times and had to stop the car. One fellow would challenge and the other would stand by with his gun pointed at us. There was some hefty puja at the River. Everybody was bathing. It rained awfully hard this night, everything is a puddle. Sure cooled things off.

[Yikes!  Dad never talked about having had a gun pointed at him at this age.

I Googled Rajah of Narayanger and only ONE thing came up, a paper about community forest management in Eastern India.  Here’s an excerpt:

According to Lokhun Sahu, a sixty-five-year-old Chandana Villager, the surrounding forest was once comprised primarily of first-growth sal (Shorea robusta) trees. During the years of British colonial rule, a zamindar named Bhuwan Chandra pal, who lived 20 km away in Hundla, near Narayanger, controlled the forest tracts of Chandana. In part to pay his taxes to the British raj, the zamindar periodically leased tracts of jungle to contractors for logging. During the felling, local villagers were allowed to purchase lops and tops for fuelwood at the rate of Rs1 or 2(US.$.03 to $.06)per cartload. The Zamindar didn’t allow villagers to cut poles or logs and posted guards to protect the forest against local users. Periodically, the zamindar sent his men into the village to see if they had hidden poles or timber. The guards beat anyone found to have stolen wood, sometimes fatally. After a contractor finished logging his concession, the sal tree sent up coppice growth, and the forest reestablished itself. Older tress, including sal, mahua, and cashew were left to act as seed and fruit sources.]

Saturday 2

Dr. Mary vaccinated me for small pox in the morning. Played “Hit the Bat” some more like we did yesterday. I read a chap. a day of the “In the Steps of the Master” book. It is quite interesting. It will be a good help for me when I go thru Palestine. Dad bought some more curios for me and made me check up on storm before grub.

Rural vaccinator in United Provinces, British India, c.1930, private
collection of Dr. Sanjoy Bhattacharya

February 1935 – Friday 1

Played “Hit the Bat” all day. Went to prayer meeting at night. Daddy came back. He went to the buzz to try and buy a whole pack of curios for me. It sprinkled a little at night.

[buzz must be bazaar]

Thursday 31

Started reading “In the Steps of the Master” by H.V. Morton. Hope it doesn’t get stale by the time I finish it. Mrs. Harris and Hakman came for tea. Mr. Hakman was very disappointed because he had trailed the magistrate about all day and had not seen anybody shoot him. Went for a ride to the old gope. It began to rain so we scrammed back quickly.

[Mr Hakman, LOL!]

Wednesday 30

Got a letter from Bulu. None from Mr. Ellis. I suppose he is working too hard on his case. Poor guy. Mailed Martha Welle’s letter. Found out there are no more soldiers here now. They must have gone on the 26^th. Popular Mechanics and the American came today. Gene found a little “pooch” and has adopted it. He has made a three storieyed house for it.