Surangi, The Child Bride

Part 67

On board the SS Ranchi!

"Dear Dr Madhav Oak,

It may seem unusual for the wife of a British subject to address her husband so formally in a letter; but we haven't really conducted ourselves as a married couple so far, so my salutation is apt. If you had not insisted that we maintain distance this letter would be more poetic than it is.

I suppose by the time you receive this mail you would have resumed your busy hospital routine, leaving you with little time to brood over my absence. I do hope all is well back home. Convey my Namaskar to the elders and my love to Madhu and Gaju and my regards to Waman, Dinkar and Rohini. 

There is so much to write about, I simply don't know where to begin! You may imagine that I would whine about being seasick or about the limited victualing on board the ship but far from it, the journey so far has been rather interesting. I have not been seasick even for a day. Compared to the modest steamship that we had boarded to come to Bombay this ship feels luxurious, like a large floating hotel filled with Englishmen and a few Indians like me.

Since this is my first ocean crossing my excitement has known no bounds. I have been reading up information about the ship. The SS Ranchi was launched by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company in January 1925. She is 547 feet long, her beam is 71 feet and most of the interior has been designed by Elsie Mackay, the daughter of Lord Inchcape. She has a speed of 17 knots which explains why she makes the journey so quickly.

One among the many R Class liners belonging to the company, her sister ships are the Rajputana, Rawalpindi and the Ranpura. The journey to England will see us call port in Aden, where I shall post this letter to you, followed by Port Said, Marseilles and Gibraltar.

Our ship's hulls and funnels are painted black. Maybe the dark colour is easier to hide stains and practical for the crew to maintain, the poor men are constantly chipping away the rust marks brought about by the salty water and repainting the sides. I think if the hull is painted white the crew will have to work harder to maintain it but at least it will feel cooler as the sun's heat will be reflected instead of being absorbed. 

We have been roomed on the lower deck, unlike the first class passengers who have upper deck state rooms with a better view. Unfortunately our accommodation is on the port side (left of the ship if you are facing the bow) and it gets quite warm. Apparently the state rooms on the starboard side are airy and cooler. 

Ironically the higher the accommodation the more severe is the impact of the ship's rolling and pitching movement. Some of the ladies in the first class get seasick every now and then, suffering from nausea and dizziness. Most of the officers and the lascar crew are old hands. With their sea legs they could not be bothered by rough weather. So far, however, we have not experienced very choppy seas.

The first class passengers have their dining room forward while our second class dining room is in the aft. The ship is carrying nearly six hundred passengers in both the classes along with 350 crew, whose accommodation is in the forward section, though the Navigating Officers who keep the ship's six watches, have their living quarters beneath the bridge.

I am sharing my two -berth second class cabin with another girl who is also part of my programme. My bond with my on board companion is getting stronger by the day, I think by the end of our three week voyage we would be practically sisters. Lakshmi belongs to the Kerala Palakkad Iyer community but has been brought up in Baroda as her father works for the Maharaja of Baroda. She is studying Mathematics at Baroda College and is quite accomplished in Carnatic vocal music.

She is a polyglot, being able to speak several languages. At home her family speaks a dialect which fuses Tamil with Malayalam. Because she grew up in Baroda she also speaks Gujarati and Marathi, along with Hindi and English. Our conversation is mainly in Marathi and English though she is attempting to teach me the Carnatic languages too, since there is so much free time on board. Gujarati I can manage, because it is widely spoken in Bombay, but the South Indian dialect is tougher to master.