Neighbourhood: A Collection of Three Anglo-Indian Short Stories
By Warren Brown
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About this ebook
These short stories are based in "Anglo-Street", which represents an Anglo-Indian neighbourhood, a fictional area in Calcutta. The places, characters and events of the short stories are all existing, living and occurring in the period of the "Golden Age of Anglo-Indians" in Calcutta, between the 1960s to the 1990s.
The author has attempted to recreate a place in the fictional neighbourhood of "Anglo-Street" where all Anglo-Indians and those interested in the colourful tapestry of this mixed-race community would feel at home.
Welcome to Anglo-Street, your very own Anglo-Indian neighbourhood in Calcutta.Meet the residents, learn about their lives and experience life in a place now forgotten in the corridors of time.This book is part of the latest collection of Anglo-Indian short stories published by Warren Brown.
Warren Brown
Warren Brown is an Author who has written in several genres from fiction to non-fiction. Warren is a certified Life Coach and Hypnotherapist. Warren completed his Advertising and Copywriting training through American Writers and Artists Inc. (AWAI). I have been an Indie publisher for over eleven years now. I have been writing and publishing on the web since 1993. Website: https://warren4.wixsite.com/warren Medium: https://warrenauthor.medium.com/ Substack: https://warrenbrown.substack.com/
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Neighbourhood - Warren Brown
time.
EPISODE 1: SECRET PICTURE
The Anglo Bookshop at Royd Street was open for business as usual.
The radio was on in the shop and Rock Me Baby
by B.B. King was being played by the All-India Radio Station.
The afternoon music show of the latest English pop songs was a favourite among the Anglo-Indians of the community in Calcutta as was the evening English music programmes.
Aunty Agnes, as the readers of the bookstore like to call her was at the cash counter attending to her customers. Agnes was in her early forties, slender, of average height and attractive features. Her daughter Janet was arranging the books in the shop display. Janet was a teenager and she would help her mother out after school before going off to the home of her tuition teacher Mrs. Rebello, who lived up the street near the Post Office.
The Anglo Bookshop was in the city of Calcutta since 1890 and it was now an icon for the Anglo-Indian community living in the city of Calcutta. It was started by Agnes’s Grandfather Harry Westerbrook, when he came to Calcutta from Britain. Harry was always interested in travelling to India as a youngster. It was only when he was seventeen that he told his father that he would be leaving on the next ship to Calcutta to make some money and get away from his boring life on the farm in Dorset.
There was a ship bound for India and it was going via Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras to deliver commodities and to bring back silk and spices to England. Harry Westerbrook a young man of sixteen left his family, his widowed father and six brothers to make his way to the land of adventure, that distant land of India which he had read so much about. He was excited and could not wait to see the lions, tigers, elephants and forests of India.
However, all that changed once he came to Calcutta. Harry met and fell madly in love with Brenda D’Silva, they married and had two children Richard and Harriet. When Harriet grew up she got married to Cedric Rowan and they had a daughter, who they named Agnes.
Janet, have you put the latest books out on display?
asked Agnes.
Yes, Ma, I have put out all the books in the shop window,
said Janet.
I hope you didn’t display all the copies of the latest Sherlock Holmes book?
No, I kept just one copy out on display,
said Janet.
Good, we don’t want all the copies to get spoiled in the strong sunshine, especially now that summer has arrived and temperatures are soaring.
The old wooden door to the shop opens and an overweight elderly lady walks in with a number of plastic bags and an umbrella in hand.
The woman looks flustered and she seems to be feeling very warm and uncomfortable after her travel in the heat outside.
Elvis was singing Girls! Girls! Girls!
, on the radio in his rich velvet voice.
Mrs. Jonas come in, come in and sit down,
says Agnes, pulling up a brown polished wooden chair next to her counter.
Agnes switches on the small table fan next to her and increases the speed of the ceiling fan on her regulator on the wall.
Thank you Agnes,
says the old lady Jonas, placing all her plastic bags on the floor near the counter, looking relieved and exhausted after her walk in the heat.
It’s very warm outside dear, Janet can you get Mrs. Jonas a glass of fruit juice please and tell the boy to put some ice cubes?
Yes, Ma, I’ll get the juice from the kitchen,
says Janet rushing to the back of the shop where there was a small pantry for the servant to prepare tea and coffee. A young boy called Bunty would work and stay with the family for the last two years now.
Agnes, I won’t have any ice in my drink, I don’t want to catch a cold and cough again, the last one lasted for four months,
says Mrs. Jonas.
Janet, tell Bunty not to put any ice in the drink, did you hear me, no ice in the drink for Mrs. Jonas?
screams Agnes at the top of her voice.
I heard you Ma,
says Janet as she walks back from the kitchen dressed in a green salwar kameez outfit, which she picked up from Hogg Market a month ago for the school concert today.
Bunty the ten year old who did work in the shop and who was now adopted by the family comes rushing behind Janet, with a glass of lemonade in his hand. Bunty was dark complexioned and he wore an old grey vest, blue shorts and was bare feet.
Thank you my child,
says the old Mrs Jonas as she takes the cold glass of lemonade and gulps it down.
There are ice cubes in the lemonade,
said Mrs Jonas, now I’m sure to fall sick,
as she struggles to start coughing.
"Janet I told you to tell this chokra to make the juice without the ice?"
"I did, I can’t help it if he doesn’t pay attention and wants to run out to play with all the bustee children."
"Come here, Bunty, now go and make Mrs. Jonas lemonade without the ice and you better wear those chappals which Sahib bought for you from the bazaar yesterday," said Agnes as she stretched her hand and twisted the ear of the ten year old for disobeying her orders.
"No, I don’t want any more juice, thank you my dear. I’ll just pick up the latest copies of Sidney Sheldon