NigG (continuing commentary on your #302),
What a charming picture ! And how clever of the photographer - to use the "Bombay Bowler"; as a frame in that imaginative way ! Now, you say this is of your Mother in Quetta in 1942. I only got there in summer 1944, but alas - she would have gone to the altar with some lucky dashing subaltern (or the like) long before. Some people have all the luck !
Wildly guessing now, as you do not give your age on PPRuNe (nor do you need to, tho' I've always thought it should be mandatory - it enables the rest of us to put you in the correct time frame). But am I getting warm ?
To our Miss-Sahib: she is a Corporal in the WACS (Women's Auxiliary Corps). I knew of their existence, but never met any. They were to be found only in large cities (Calcutta - Delhi - Bombay), and raised by local recruitment. They wore a KD uniform similar to the US equivalent.
Wiki knows about them:
...a large part of the corps was formed from the Anglo–Asian community...
This ties in with what I know of the Calcutta ones. The young Anglo-Indian girls (and they rank among the most beautiful on earth - but it doesn't last) were extensively employed as clerks, typists and secretaries in the big business houses. But no matter how good and how attractive she might be, the bachelor Sahib who employed her would never ask her out to dinner - that was out of the question !
Their dearest wish was to marry an Englishman, they would then have British nationality and at one bound be free from the no-man's land into which the Raj (which had created them) now condemned them. (It was said: "God made the Indian, the British Tommy made the Anglo-Indian".
For these, the WACs were a heaven-sent opportunity, and they flocked to it. Now the chances of catching a lonely British soldier (or - dare they even hope ? - a British Officer) were immensely improved: and not a few were successful.
For that reason, a "Miss-Sahib" would rarely join the Corps (when her own social circle offered so much more scope). A Corporal ! - would the Club even let her in ? Perhaps in Quetta, up on the Frontier, there were few Anglo-Indians and the taboo was relaxed. Did they have officers ? - with pips on her shoulders, that would be perfectly all right, of course !
As to the uniform, looks like a very wide band over her left shoulder (a sash ?)- but what is that thing (much narrower, with three holes) on her right (I'm completely foxed).
Now for tongas, I learn from Wiki that they come in all shapes and sizes, and in some types illustrated, she could well have been sitting opposite her father. All tongas have only two wheels, and in the Calcutta version I knew best, the driver sat in front, and (up to two) passengers in the back facing the rear. In all cases, it was vital not to be too far out of balance. For if too tail heavy (say a trunk in the rear), the shafts could pick the pony up off the ground !
Stowed somewhere was the pony's fodder, usually green grasses of some sort. You could follow a pony around by the trail of green offerings ! Flatulent ponies would be a common enough occurence, I'm surprised that they embarrassed even a Miss-Sahib.
We did not use them much in Calcutta, most of the spots we would want to reach from the "Grand" were in rickshaw reach, and places further out (say the Victoria Memorial) were taxi jobs. In flat cities like central Calcutta, the tongas were one horse, in more hilly places like Hill Stations, two-pony tongas were necessary. Look up Rudyard Kipling: "As the Bell Clinks", for one such in Simla (not S
himla !)
Danny.
PS: If you want an unusual tale of Old India try:
"On Military Aviation", click on " Search this Forum" for "Military Life on the Malabar Coast of India in WWII". From the list of "Search Results", select the Thread of that name. Scroll down to my (Page 2 of the Thread, #25). The story is on that and following Posts.
D.