ABSTRACT
For me, a return to Calcutta after a trip to the Sunderbans was always an anticlimax. In the Twenties it was, however, a beautiful city with the huge Maidan 59 called the lungs of the city. Nearby were smaller squares with a tank in the centre, a red gravelled pathway all round it, beds of flowers at the sides and sometimes a greenhouse with maidenhair and other exotic ferns. And the lovely flowering trees that lined the streets, particularly the gulmohur 60 . It was a city with a soul and possessed a definite personality of its own. A city that any country could be proud of. Dada was posted to Calcutta and he and his family were staying with us. Kido, my little niece, was about three years old and Laddie, her brother, was a baby of four months. She was very attached to me and spent the best part of the day in my room, chattering away all the time or sitting on the floor playing with her toys.
