The baby girl lived to be 100 years old

Shanta Bhandarkar as a baby, with her English Mother Louisa Bishop, and father Dr Vasudev Sukhtankar (with turban) and her uncle. Bombay, Bombay Presidency (now Maharashtra) 1910

Image and Narrative contributed by Usha Bhandarkar

Shanta Bhandarkar, my Mother in Law, turned 100 on February 25, 2010. On the occasion of her birthday our family gifted her an album with a collection of these old photographs, one of which is this as a baby. Shanta Bhandarkar doesn’t have very good short term memory, but her long term memory is sharp. She remembers details like her mother’s Christmas Pudding and the cakes that they used to bake. She studied at Sommerville, Oxford , UK and has travelled the world extensively.


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This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. What an incredible story.
    Like Naina said, it would have been quite a radical wedding in those days.
    Would like to see the other pictures in the album gifted to her.

  2. Yes, please tell us more about her and her life and her parents’ marriage.

  3. Thats amazing! Again in those days this wedding would have been quite radical…would love to hear more…

  4. I am surprised and delighted by the wealth of stories that form the lives of people of India.

  5. Thank you Usha. That’s a very old but well preserved photograph. And very interesting story to accompany!

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