An Indian Debutante.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 September 1934, Page 18 (Supplement)

An Indian Debutante.

The only debutante to be presented at the second Court of the season by Lady Maud Hoare was Miss Philomena Thumboo Chetty, states an exchange. She and her mother, who is the wife of the private secretary of the Maharajah of Mysore, are also the first women to have been presented from this Indian State.

Ordinary Court conventions of dress and curtsey are set aside for Indian women who are to be presented to the King and Queen. Instead of the curtsey, they made a deep bow from the hips, which was accompanied by a graceful gesture of obeisance with both hands spread wide apart. Saris took the place of Court dress and feathers, and the traditional colours for a young unmarried Indian girl, red, gold and green, were worn by Miss Chetty.

Before going back to India at the end of the season, this Indian debutante is to give a violin recital at the Grotian Hall, for since the age of fourteen whan her playing aroused the attention of the Maharajah, she has determined to make the violin her career—-a pioneer resolution on the part of an Indian girl of good family.