Kitty Memsahib

 

                             Ketty Memsahib

        Born in 1952 being the daughter of Anglo Indian mother and Welsh father this 73 years old but attractive lady Catherine ‘Kitty Teixeria’ popularluy known as Kitty Memsahib Lives at a none descript place called McCluskieganj about 65 Kms west of Ranchi City, with a good motor able road crosses through high Sal trees is the drivers delight. So far Kitty Memsahib is concern she use sell fruits near the railway station for survival, which she use to grow in her farm, although she is the proprietor of acres and acres of land in that area but after the death of her mother in 1988, she left alone and after sometime she married a locale Tribal man and in due course she become the mother of four children and in this way her life completely changed. As she reminisces and expressed about her lovely childhood when she use to play around the area with her contemporaries friends.
She speaks fluently English as well as Hindi and local Chotanagpur’s dialect too. She is the only cynosure of McCluskieganj, and most photographed person, as her photos appeared on the cover of many magazine and periodicals.

            This mini England settlement was made by one Kolkata based rich realtor T.E.McCluskie by leasing about 10,000 acres of land by the Maharaja of Chotanagpur in the 1930 to establish Anglo Indian settlement. And he succeeded in establish ‘Colonization Society of India’ in 1933 and in  settling about 400 Anglo Indian families there with Club House, School and other amenities and the place slowly turned into a mini England. But lack of healthcare good educational facilities slowly the denizens disenchanted and started leaving this paradise one by one and migrated to in England, Canada, Australia and other European countries. So now only handful descendants of those settlers of this promised but beautiful, calm and quiet place remains and Kitty Memsahib is one of them.            Among them Lt General Misbah Mayadas  had heard about this salubrious place so in 1988 he bought a sprawling bungalow with 20 acres of land and lived there for 22 years till 2010, which he use to call heaven on earth, due to its wonderful climate, nature of soil and fruits, greeneries as well as calm and quiet place. Later he sold his property and settled in Dehradoon according to the locales.

            Luckily I had the opportunity of meeting with these two extremely different personalities and came to know about them and their lifestyles. Nowadays most of the bungalows are deserted, and in some bungalows boys and girl’s hostels are running by the descendents of English men, due to a famous school Don Bosco, and McCluskieganj Inter College opened by one Mr. Rozario, but the place is still worth of visiting once.

Text and Photos by- Ashok Karan,

Ashokkaran.blogspot.com

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