v.                  Calcutta to Bombay

My last train journey in India before I emigrated to England was in December of 1948. It was a long journey and for 30 hours of it one of the travellers in my carriage was a Hindu gentleman who was not your usual train passenger. He had a servant who thrust enough pieces of luggage of a variety of shapes and sizes, including wicker baskets, tin boxes and cloth bundles, to fill a junk shop. Into every nook and cranny in the compartment he squeezed his master's "saman" (luggage) and, where necessary, pushed aside the luggage of the other passengers. It’s a good idea while travelling in India to take a servant to do the pushing and arguing for you. Towards evening the servant reappeared to prepare his master's dinner. To do this he set up a kerosene stove on which he cooked food. It was an example of Indian tolerance that no one complained that the place of the cooking was extraordinary, or even commented on it.