TIME IS THE ESSENCE IN LIFE

TIME WAS FLEET-FOOTED THIS AUGUST, VANISHING IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE,  AS SEPTEMBER CAME TOO SOON!

I'm not out of the woods yet

The main problem with retirement is time that refused to stand still; each moment gone before you realised it.   Like a fallacy, you could never find time; Roy and I had thought that we would have plenty of time to do all the things we couldn't do when running our business. How wrong we were!  Time, which you had plenty when young, dissipates in retirement. 

In spite of my race against this volatile and invisible time, I am determined to pause a while to ponder on my Life's Journey, by stepping back in time to 1948 in India.  A country that had journeyed sedately through centuries of British East India Company and British Raj & Crown rule, to be suddenly granted her Independence in the aftermath of World War 2.  A war that so depleted Great Britain's resources and manpower, that to continue governing India, with its vast ethnic and economic problems, became untenable.  Independence was subsequently also granted to many other British colonies.

Leaders of the newly partitioned India and the newly created East and West Pakistan were thrown into chaos and disarray with the speed at which Britain granted their Independence. For a few years following 15th August 1947, there were uprisings, strikes, protest marches and religious killings that flummoxed the new leaders and hampered their organisation.  The changeover was not easy, nor was the enormous task of dealing with the mass movements of Hindus and Muslims across several borders after the Partition. 

Most daunting of all was taking over the reign of government for this vast sub-continent of many princely states and principalities, with as many varieties of culture and ethnic languages, that had challenged the British Empire for the hundreds of years of its colonisation.  Just finding a common language to replace English, to communicate with all the ethnic tribes and princely kingdoms, was difficult enough, let alone forming a Government for the administration of the whole of India.

Throughout this period of change, my father's focus was on finding our family members in China, and bringing them to India. He discovered that they had finally escape from the Japanese-held areas, but not yet within the enclave of the Chinese Communist regime, though every province in China was ready to embrace the promises made by Mao Tse Tung's communist party, that with equality, each citizen was entitled to be fed, clothed and nurtured. 

Yee Shong & Yee Chong, aged 6 & 4  

Towards the end of 1948, father's agent in Hong Kong managed to secure passage on a ship bound for India for our step-mother, three sisters and a brother.  For three months, my two younger brothers and I were mesmerised by the many changes to our small apartment above the grocery shop. Carpenters came and went, measured and quoted, and returned with timber and tools to build beds and partitions to fit the different areas to accommodate eleven.  

Older brother Yee Leong

My older brother seemed to understand the situation better, and helped our parents with the relocation of goods into the newly re-vamped warehouse in the backyard, to free up space directly above the shop, for a bedroom for four boys.  They then partitioned the long and narrow landing above the stairs to create a room 8 ft by 25 ft, for four girls, with an 8-foot square bed against the end wall to sleep three, and a single bed along one length of wall up to the doorway. Along the opposite wall, they constructed a wide wardrobe and a four-draw chest unit with a mirror above, ingeniously leaving just enough space for climbing in and out of bed. Cosy it certainly was.

Other alterations were carried out whilst we waited excitedly for the ship to arrive early in 1949.  As children we never questioned the whys and the wherefores of our enlarged family; we simply accepted that we have another brother, three sisters with another mum arriving from China to join us.  At age 12, 9, 6 and 4, my brothers and I were happy enough to simply welcome the extra company, and being Chinese, we were naturally gregarious.  

Big Sister May

Even so, it took a couple of months for us to settle into our new arrangements, especially hard for our siblings, not used to the ways of India, with so many ethnic languages, culture and customs as expressed by the colourful festivals, so different from the ones they knew. Suddenly, I found myself ranked seventh instead of second, and my oldest brother Yee Leong in fourth position, and to show respect for our elders, we addressed each other by their ranking.

Second sister Yolande

Our two oldest sisters were May, addressed as Big sister; Yolande, Second sister; a third child was a son who died at birth; my eldest brother Yee Leong ranked fourth; Olive, our fifth sister; Yee Sing from China was sixth brother; myself at seventh; my younger brothers, Yee Shong at eight; and last but not least, Yee Chong numbered nine.  Father was called Ah Pa,  Mama came next, being older than my mother, whom we called Ah Ma. 

Jean and Olive, 1950

Meanwhile  Ah Ma, was doing what she did best, organising to get us all into English-medium schools, but found that we had to attend a private school first, to get our English up to entry standard, particularly difficult for our older siblings from China.  Hopefully these new challenges helped them forget some of the terrible hardship they endured. 

Jean and Mum in Hong Kong 1957

Strange that our new-found sisters and brother didn't talk much about the dangerous time they had to face, even in all the years we grew up together.  We always enjoyed each other's company, and found a lot we had in common.  As a big family, we had a lot of fun.

Mama was ingenious

Only a few months ago, our Second sister Yolande, now nearly 81, decided to cast her mind back to recall for us, some details of Mama's ingenuity in planning their survival in China.  She stitched money and the Calcutta address in the hem of each child's clothing, in case they were separated or she got killed.  By being extremely polite when questioned by the Japanese, she showed them due respect and managed to keep the family out of harm's way. Others in the village were not so fortunate.

As they fled from their village, Mama made sure a bag of rice was tied to each child for their individual survival.  She was a calm and patient mother, teaching the children to be serene, abiding their time to make good their escape.  She was inspirational, and I loved her as much as my own mum.  In 1952, Mama gave birth to our youngest sister Katy, who was a delight for the whole family. A lovely baby whom everyone enjoyed coddling and I loved feeding her when she started to eat solid food, especially eggs. 

Katy was born 1952

At aged ten I left Chinese school and we all did an intensive course in English language before being registered into three different schools.  Fifth sister Olive and I went to Loreto Secondary school run by lovely Irish nuns.  For three years I struggled to make the grade, but it was much tougher for the older siblings, brought up speaking only Chinese.  However, I managed to learn many Nursery Rhymes in order to sing them to Katy, and years later, got her interested in songs and lyrics, as we listened to old favourites around a radio.  And when I was reading English for my B.A. I got everyone involved in a home production of the Shakespearean play of Macbeth, with Katy taking several roles 

I made great progress in English in year four, thanks to the fabulous teacher Miss Moony, who had the whole class on our feet round the classroom every day, each given a word to spell; if correct, you sat down, otherwise you went round again for another turn until you spelled your word correctly. Miss Moony was extremely good at teaching English grammar; her analysis and parsing lessons were superb; her style and method of teaching got me interested in learning other languages all my life, first French, then German whilst in India, and later Spanish at Salamanca and Central and South America.

I even got to grip with Hindi and some Bengali, obtaining nine Senior Cambridge 'O' level equivalent, by December 1958, to join Loreto College for the Intermediate, 'A' level, and the Calcutta University's Bachelor of Arts degree in English, French and Education in 1962.

Family Portrait in 1953 for Mama & Dad's 25th Anniversary

Once we were settled into our new school routine in 1952, my mother decided that she could bring in extra income by opening a shop in the town centre of Calcutta.  She found suitable premises on Lindsay Street, near the New Market, which she acquired along with three incumbent shoe-makers, who made bespoke hand-crafted shoes to order, a business she continued whilst fitting out the shop and waiting for the Chinese imports to arrive.  

Golden Arts and Crafts was established in 1953, and when the beautiful Chinese porcelain ware, silk and cork painting and ivory and soapstone carving arrived, the shop was the first of its kind in Calcutta, and the whole of India at that time.  I loved every item on display, and learned a lot about China's history through various items of import.  Every day after school from 3.30 pm I joined my mother until closing time at 8 pm, and my brother Yee Leong helped with book-keeping, and took up accountancy for his B.Sc. Degree.

My mother had one assistant, Molly, to help her in the shop, and as I helped with packing the purchases, I regretted the loss of every piece that was sold! Much of our sales were bound for the UK, as Chinese artefacts were also favoured by many Britons returning home from their postings in India, at Christmas and holidays. 

Be in touch again in a few weeks' time, to continue my Journey to England.