LIFE IN INDIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 January 1944, Page 5

LIFE IN INDIA

SEETHING MASS OF PEOPLE

VISIT ,TO CALCUTTA AND ELSEWHERE. INTERESTING HILL RAILWAY. Life and scenes in India are described by Flying Officer F. L. Gray, formerly of Master tor, and now serving with the R.A.F. in India, in a letter to Mr J. McGregor, Masterton. Flying Officer Gray writes:— My first impression of Calcutta was not so good. As I left the station there seemed to be a seething mass of people, bullock carts, man carts, rickshaws, taxis, and lorries, all seeming to be going in all directions at once. On the footpath in front of the station, several holy bulls (very big ones) wandered about unmolested, The driver of the transport, by the vigorous use of his horn and seemingly many escapes from running into people and other vehicles at last passed over the Howrah bridge and entered the city proper. Here it was better —modern buildings, fast, up-to-date trams, traffic lights, parks and open spaces, cathedral, department stores, cinemas, etc. With a population as much; qs. that in the whole of New Zealand Calcutta is a very busy place. The traffic is almost continuous. It is always very hot in the city, with temperatures of over 100 degrees. The coolest places are under a fan or in an air-conditioned cinema

“Out here the life of a European in a civilian occupation could, be and is very pleasant. Most of them live in the European quarter in palatial homes or in modern flats. Motoring, golf, tennis, swimming, polo, riding and the inevitable club life fills in spare time. One can have bags of servants for 10s to £l.per week each. Modern conveniences are available such as leectric current, fans, refrigerators and radios. For holidays, one goes to the hills, Darjeeling, Simla, Musoorie, Poona, Dephra Dun. . . . For the sporting man there are plenty of race meetings, for the hunter plenty of game, big and small. There is only one catch in it —you must have a secure income of at least £l2OO a year or you would always be in debt. Referring to a visit to Darjeeling, he stated that the views of the Himalayas from that place were simply magnificent. “The railway,” he writes, “was the most amazing I have travelled on, for it was the Baby Austin of trains. I was in an observation car, sitting in an easy chair. It was like sitting in a doll’s house but the views of gullies, valleys, trees, waterfalls, a monastery, tea estates and. villages were excellent. The grade was very steep and in places, switch-backs were arranged to facilitate climbing. Here we reversed going up hill, a peculiar experience.