A Book In A Month - Chapter 27

The three spent a few more days in Dhaka. With the help of Keiths extended family they were able to build up more of the family tree. Jane and Clara recorded all the details and took photos of the photos, and copied the name tags for each person. By the end of their third visit they had images for four generations and names for another two. Keith was overwhelmed and thanked Clara for spurring him on to find out more, even though it had turned out that he was from bastard stock.

The three decide that as relations with Keiths family was now so good, that they should take a chance and ask Keiths family for more detail about his mothers reasons for leaving India and about her lost family and her hatred of the country. A little more information about Natasha mother would be helpful too. They had a name for her and the two facts, she was unmarried and a mother, a rare combination in India. Who was this man that she was so in love with and why did they never marry? These outlines he had been given had left many gaps and only served to whet his appetite for more information. He needed the voids to be filled with hard facts, and only the Indian side of his family could do this. Already he had been told that Natasha had left almost as soon as Bangladesh was formed, following the uprising which they had said was a brutal, murderous time in their countries history. As Christians, the family were particularly victimised. Natashas' husband and all of her children were murdered and she was 'violated'. Naturally her desire was to get as far away from Bangladesh as she could. Eventually they received a letter from Dheli saying that she was in safe hands and then, nothing, until Keiths arrival almost a year ago. It had been a branch of the family that had brought 3 generations of shame.

Keith asked incredulously, “Where did she go in Delhi and how did she get to the UK?” Now suddenly, Delhi was in the mix. The family had not mentioned it before. In all the excitement of building up the family tree, they had glossed over the details of peoples lives; important details. With only a few days to go before the little group headed away on their site seeing journey, Keith urged his relatives to help him understand his mothers life.

An aged aunt, Natashas sister, who had travelled nearly 200 miles, to meet Keith, from her home, carrying with her her family shots, said with huge bitterness, “She went off to her fathers bungalow, of course. That man would never give her up. He brought great shame on us. He thought money could put right everything. Typical English with their arrogant ways.”

Shocked to the core Keith croaked, “Her father was English?” He felt sick. This family had not been as open with him as he had thought.

Sneering, his old aunt retorted, “Of course he was. Did you think an Indian would behave in such a shameful way?”

Keith was incredulous, but held on to an even tone as he stated simply, “But you're Anglo Indians, we all are, present company accepted,” He looked at Jane and Clara. “Why would having an English father be so shameful?”

Why? Why? You understand nothing. You sit there looking Indian, but dressed like a westerner. You don't think like us. You have no morals, no values. That man ruined Marys life. She should have married the boy we had chosen for her. He would have been a good provider, from an excellent family. We had to pay the dowry, but we kept the bride. The whole town laughed at us, taunted us for our decadence. To them we were British. British! She was thrown out, of course, and off she ran to that man. My God if I had ever seen him I would have killed him dead, as God is my witness. He had no right to to …. bring shame to our family. No right at all.” She looked at the gathered group.

Keith was hold on tight to his voice, and with great calm posed the question he was dreading putting. He could tell that the elderly woman was about to explode. This was clearly something she had needed to get off her chest for a long time “Can I ask, what was the man called that caused you so much trouble?

“What was his name? How would I know such a thing?” She sounded savage.

“ Surely Natasha or her mother would have mentioned his name?” he urged very gently.

“We never talked of it, any of it. Why would we want to know of him. Death was all I wanted for him. Death.” She hissed.

“Surely happiness is important and a British partner would be acceptable?” Keith added naively.

“Never. We're Bangladeshi and don't you ever forget it.” She snapped back. “There are no Anglo Indians any more. The British left us here to rot and went scuttling back to dear old Blighty. And they never looked back.” She waggled a finger at the three holiday makers. “We don't have partners, we don't have lovers, we have good Indian husbands. That is how it should have been and that man ruined everything for us. Three generations blighted. People still talk of our shame today. It will never leave us. And you wonder why I feel such anger?”

“Did Natashas father go back to England and take her with him?' Keith pressed, “Is that how she got there?”

”Your mother was disgrace, even her father did not want to have her around, as far as we could tell. She stayed there a while, a few months at the most, and then went to the UK. And no, her father did not escort her to England, he stayed on in Delhi, all alone. As far as I know he never left. He'll be dead now, of course. He was very old when Natasha came along, at least fifty. I hope he rots in hell.” She snapped her fingers and a servant materialised, “Tea. Now.” She commanded in what appeared to be her normal abrupt tone. Turning her attention back onto Keith, she oozed sweetness and said, “Less of this bleak talk. Tell me Keith about your family in Blighty. Are you married, children?” She was like a hawk, homing in on her prey. Clara and Jane winced. It would be their turn soon.

*

John and Dylis had fallen into a second routine; the first one being their daily coffee and lunch break together when they were both at the college. Their second routine was to share an evening meal together every evening. Dylis, was, not surprisingly, a great cook; he was hungry. It was a perfect combination. She was happy to eat the meals that Clara had pre-cooked for John before she had gone away on holiday. They were really rather good and even better once Dylis had spent a little time adding a few embellishments. The more they chat, the more Dylis realises that John is concerned about the safety of Clara out in India. When pressed he says, “There's a lot of things to see and do there. For a young woman, it can be a dangerous place.” The longer Clara is away, Dylis observes, the more worried John becomes. She begins to develop a plan.