Danny on dry land again.
"An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay" (Kipling: Mandalay)
I wasn't in the Bay of Bengal of Kipling's fancy, but two thousand miles West in the Arabian Sea. No matter, I could see the force of what he wrote. We'd been eight long weeks in the Stirling Castle and were due to dock in Bombay that morning.
Up at first light, like children on Christmas morn, a group of us had gathered on the foredeck to watch the sun rise over the ship's bows. It was a clear golden dawn, not a wisp of cloud in the sky or on the horizon. Slowly, out of a flat-calm sea, inched up the biggest, blazing red-gold sun I've ever seen - or ever would see - magnified by the dust haze over the land ahead.
We gazed in silence as the first waves of heat broke across the cool decks. Years later I watched many a clear sunset off the Malabar coast, trying to catch a glimpse of the mythical "Green Flash". This you are supposed to see if you look at the exact moment (but no sooner) as the sun disappears. But I never saw a sun so magnificent as on that December morning.
*****************
At this point, I propose to go off Thread and ride one of my favourite hobby-horses. (If Mr Moderator doesn't like it, I shan't mind if he chops it out). In these pages I shall have nothing to do with Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai et al (was poor Delhi hiding behind the sofa when the new names were being given out ?)
As far as I'm concerned, the good people of Bombay can call it what they like in Marathi, and I don't mind. Why should it trouble them what we call it in English ? After all, we say London and Paris, the French say Londres and Paree. The Germans say Koln, we say Cologne (sorry, can't do umlauts), and no one gets on their hind legs about it.
It's all part of an attempt to expunge every trace of a colonial past - to pretend that it had never been. If you look up the main railway station in Bombay, you'll find "Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus". A month or so ago, I was watching one of the BBC's mini-travelogues of India. "Victoria Station" said a sophisticated Indian Bombay resident, without a hint of irony. I smiled. The Raj lives !
Another example: last year I Googled "Chowringhee, Calcutta" and drew blank. (It's like Googling "Piccadilly, London", and getting nowhere). Of course, it's now " Jawaharlal Nehru Road" (after the first President of India). But what was the matter with "Chowringhee" ? It's not even an English word. And I bet, if you asked a dozen Calcutta folk at random: "where's the Oberoi Grand Hotel ?", eleven of them would come right back with "Chowringhee".
And many British place names today come directly from our Roman or Viking invaders, so what ? It's Bombay/Calcutta/Madras for me from now on - that's all I have to say about it. And perhaps I should remind some that "India" meant the whole subcontinent then.
********************
The ship sidled into her berth in front of a massive arch, "The Gateway of India". It was just over a week before Christmas of 1942, and I was glad to get down the gangplank and see the back of the Stirling Castle (and my tree-house existence on board her!) I later learned that the Bombay waterfront had just finished getting back on its feet after a colossal explosion eight months before. An ammunition ship had gone on fire and blown up.
Bit late now, more about this soon,
Goodnight, all,
Danny42C
Up to Scale !
Last edited by Danny42C; 25th Apr 2012 at 16:12.
Reason: Add Title, close up spacing.