We had many Anglo-Indian neighbors living around my house during my childhood/school/college years. They introduced me to western- music, fashion and lifestyles. I enjoyed all the delectable cakes, sweet confections from their house during Christmas.
I loved to watch the Christmas tree/decorations in their homes. I had a secret wish - to be a Christian during Christmas just to get a gift from Santa Claus. Well ,sometimes our secret wish can come true after many years. I loved the unique interior decorations in the house. My desire for mid-century modern furniture and home decorations was influenced by them.
Most Anglo Indians from my town immigrated to Australia during my high school years. These are some of the memories of them from my childhood.
Nordmann family lived opposite to PS mama's (my dad's best friend) house on the first floor . My family lived in the same neighborhood. I used go to PS mama's house often after school especially when my mom was in the hospital.
Nordmann family had 4 adult kids all in high school. I vividly remember their daily evening routine . They had this huge dining table near the front door and they never closed the doors except at night. I remember seeing Mary amma - the tamil Christian house keeper who worked for Nordmann family, taking out huge cut/blocks of cooked beef from the huge pressure cooker and placing it on a huge plate. The hungry teenagers usually ate the meat with knife and fork. I was seven or eight years old girl then. I always ran back to PS mama house when I spot Maryamma bringing the cooker to the table. I hated the smell of meat and I would watch them eating dinner from PS mama's door step.
The eldest one - Cleito was a funny guy. I used to call him Cleito anna (big brother) . He would take a big chunk of meat in his fork just to scare me. Now when my American friends order beef in the restaurant this scene comes to my mind every single time. I had a lot of funny colleagues like Cleito . During lunch outings, they would eat the steak (cooked to rare which look like a raw meat to me )with all funny expression just to make me feel uneasy.
Childhood never stops at school for some happy guys. I had a group of colleagues/buddies at Intel who were kids at heart in spite of having kids. We got the attention of serious faced techies at the cafeteria almost every afternoon thanks to our thunderous laughter. The curious CB used to sit with his team mates (desi guys mostly tamil guys) few tables away from us. Atleast one of them would always come and aske me "Enna eppadi ragalai everday ? (why so much laughter everyday) . We had such fun/happy times like kindergartners though we all worked on core security prodcuts for a world famous tech giant. I missed them big time when I joined qualcomm.
Mr. Nordmann daughter Sandra’s collection of faux pearls in pastel colors mesmerized me. I was 8 years old, when I had a first glance at them lying on a dressing table in her dimly lit bed room . Till date, I love wearing huge colored bead necklaces because of her. She reminds me of sultry actress from American/English movies from 1960’s. She ranks first in the list of pretty girls I knew from my childhood.
Cleito anna's pet - a white mice . He was like a magician with his mouse. The white mouse would come out of the attic when he whistled to eat the food. He was sad to have lost that mouse in train while travelling to Banglore before leaving for Australia. He was a gorgeous guy who had this short girl friend. Both were famous hockey players in our town.
My first ball room experience was at an annual Anglo Indian’s New year celebration. I was in elementary school then. Fancy dress competition was a regular event at the new year's gala. A guy came dressed like leper sitting on a wheeled cart. I stared at him thinking he was a real leper and wondered about his presence in the New Year’s party. I cried out loud when he came closer to just scare me.
I was scared of lepers during my childhood. I heard factious stories from adults about lepers abducting kids. My school was located next to a famous cathedral in town. And many of them used to line up and sit against my convent's wall asking for money. Growing up I was very touched by our convent nun's kindness - embracing poor kids in the school and helping the lepers. This aspect of Christianity made me an admirer of that religion. And my Montessori school nuns helped us tremendously during my mother's long stay at the hospital. Two decades later I was married in that famous cathedral.
I remember my favorite baby girl - Kitty Paul from Paul's family dressed like a cute yellow chick for new year's fancy dress competition. She was then a 2 yr old beautiful chubby girl with catchy blue eyes. In 1999, I met her as a beautiful young girl along with her mother Mrs. Paul and Sister Ruthie at the railway station while travelling to Bangalore. My mom and Mrs. Paul were admitted in the same hospital when my mother went for kidney operation and Mrs. Paul for open heart surgery.
Mrs. Paul was CB’s kindergarten teacher. She hasn’t seen him after 12th grade and could not believe that tiny little guy from her class has turned into a tall and broad guy and married a Hindu girl she knew well . We were friends with Michael Paul’s family. My father used to call him Mickey Paul.
Rozario's family with seven kids lived just behind our home. They were loud all the time. They had six girls and one boy. While returning from school every day I would see at least one Rozario kid talking/flirting with the boy friend in front of their house. I also remember their loud parties with loud music. I loved hearing loud western music playing round the clock in their house. Candy a reputed hockey player from this family was my batch mate at college.
During Indira Gandhi's death we were in Chennai enjoying our Diwali break with our extended family. On returning home, we heard the news about the hush-hush marriage Andrea since she got pregnant. She was the prettiest of all Anglo Indian girls from my town and her parents were very conservative people. The marriage took place on fateful day when Mrs. Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Her younger brother was CB's classmate. During my trip back home in 2002 my cousin showed me the infamous hotel in our town which was hot spot for Anglo Indian lovers during those days : ).
My college dress code was liberal which meant Anglo Indian friends wearing backless formal dress, Kaftans and spaghetti strap dresses to college in late 80’s. My college provided us with micro mini divided skirts for sports day parade (inter department parade). And as a NCC cadet I had to take part in the dept parade every year. Every tom, dick and Harry from my neighborhood got a sport's day pass by citing some imaginary sister's name during our sports day parade just to drool over the hundreds of girls wearing micro mini skirts. Our college watchman never allowed us to go outside the campus to get some refreshment after our NCC drill during college hours . My Roman Catholic college had some weird rules like this.
My good friend Anita my collegemate is a guitarist. She was a famous guitarist (in campus and in our city) and would play for us during lunch times. Me, Anita and Nachal represented our department in fashion parade event. Anita for western dress, moi for cotton sarees and my married classmate Nachal for silk. Anita's dad was CB's french teacher at school. Anita was the first friend to know about CB . She used to call me "saint" during college days . She was pretty surprised to hear that I had fallen in love , that too with roman catholic guy . CB played soccer at school and she knew CB well during high-school years.
Anglo Indian friends had a good influence on my life growing up in small town in Tamil Nadu. I cherish the best memories of my childhood thanks to their Christmas and New Year parties and their friendship. Though CB and I went to different schools, after marriage we realised that we had many Anglo Indian friends in common. And we talk often about our friends from our native place. This is best part about marrying a guy from your home town who knew your friends too. When I share a memory about our life/friends in our hometown with CB, we both go back to that time.
This week we fondly remembered and shared our memories from our home town. Thanks to FB, I was able to see the pictures of all anglo Indians friends who left my home town in seventies and eighties, especially picture of Sandra N in her late forties and other Nordmann family members. That night I went to bed feeling like an eight year old Montessori school kid.
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