More Family Life

Audrey had continued to learn more about the country we were living in, as far as she had time from the children to do so. One particular interest she developed was Indian dancing, called Bharatnatyam. She had a teacher come and instruct her weekly for a while and became quite accomplished. 

During those first five years we had gone through the changes from traditional weights, measures, and currency to metrics and decimalisation. First we had to learn the traditional Indian system: rupees, annas and paisa for money, and maunds and chattaks for weight and so on. Mixed with these were imperial measures occasionally. 

To start with, of course, Indians count differently from us. There are specific numbers for one –and-a-half and two-and-a-half; and once you get above thousands you reach lakhs (100,000) and crores (ten million). 

After we had got our heads round this and learnt to count on our left finger joints in the Indian way (1-4 for each finger, indicated with the thumb moving up from joint to joint), the currency was decimalised, so we had 100 new paisa to the rupee. That was relatively simple. 

Then weights and measures were changed, so we learned about kilograms, millimetres and litres. Unfortunately, when we got back to New Zealand each time we had to go back to the Imperial measures until New Zealand caught up with metrics.

Leave 

1963 was our turn for a year’s leave in New Zealand; some of which was to be spent doing “deputation”, which involved travelling through the country speaking at church meetings about our work. 

So, as planned, we left Agartala in December of 1962, during the war between India and China, with the Chinese army invading across the Himalayan mountains towards Assam. We flew to Calcutta as normal and then took the mail train to Bombay in the usual way. From Bombay we caught the P+O liner Himalaya to Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney and eventually on to Auckland. 

 The war stopped a few days later, much to everyone’s relief. My senior colleagues told us that local Indian officials had already decided who should remain in place to work with any Chinese occupation forces to provide communication between the general population and the invaders, and who should evacuate to the main part of India, and how such an emergency plan would work. In the event it was not needed. 

Travelling on an ocean-going ship with two toddlers was a hair-raising experience; after that journey, and a similar one a year later I always wonder how nineteenth century emigrants on sailing ships coped with four or five months of it.

In New Zealand we fortunately had the use of my parents’ bach at Murrays Bay. We bought a small car, a Ford Consul, which served us for family travel around Auckland, and for both of us or me alone on work journeys. Sometimes we were able to leave the children with grandparents and do our deputation together; at other times Audrey stayed home with the children and I went away alone. 

For these presentations, we made some visual aids. I had a model of the mission compound built and painted. It was contained in a large wooden box, which fitted comfortably on a roof-rack on the car, securely most of the time; it only came off once, with almost no damage. I also prepared some large diagrams, similar to Power Point slides, which were written in felt pen on calico glued to part-sheets of Gib-board, which could fold up and lie in the boot of the car. 

These diagrams explained the structure of the school, who the teachers were, what were the aims of the school, and the different backgrounds of the children. They included maps and photos and would be set up quickly around the room each time we were speaking at a meeting. We also had examples of the children’s handcraft work to display. 

We joined in with the regular activities, religious and social, of the local church at Murrays Bay, and became friendly with the minister, Roy Bullen, and his wife, Mamie, who was an old family friend and sister of my favourite schoolteacher, Owen Lewis. I had several long chats with Roy about my worries about the church and our work in India; Roy was one of the members of the Council of the national church, and of the missionary society, so was a good person to talk to, as he knew as much as anyone in new Zealand about the work and circumstances in Agartala. 

And we also repainted areas like the ceiling of the front room of the Murray's Bay house. In these ways we were kept busy for some of the time, up to about three or four months of 1965. 

I also made arrangements to complete as much of my Diploma in Education as possible; I enrolled for the remaining three papers and attended lectures for them whenever I was in Auckland. I came to appreciate the contributions of my lecturers Minogue and McNaughton, and of my fellow-students, all of whom had had several years of teaching experience. 

(Once 1965 studies were complete I just had a long essay (or short thesis) to complete when I returned to Agartala, which I did in 1964.) 

But generally after a few weeks’ holiday we were keen to get on with our real lives, rather than sitting around waiting to go back to India. We enjoyed catching up with relatives and friends, especially our close families, but you can only do so much of that! 

One other event of 1963 can never be forgotten; the day in November when we heard on the radio that President Kennedy had been shot.