My grandfather’s secrets

My grandfather’s secrets
Margurite Mumford, and my Grandfather Albert Scott, Ooty & Bombay. 1930s

Margurite Mumford, and my Grandfather Albert Scott, Ooty & Bombay. 1930s Image & Narrative contributed by Jason Scott Tilly, United Kingdom I will never be sure if my grandfather Bert Scott, would have wanted me or anyone else to find these negatives; They were his secrets for all of his adult life. He had after all kept them very safe, hidden from the moment he left India. Bert Scott, (lower right) was my grandfather, and he was born in Bangalore in 1915. He was educated at Bishop Cottons school and he joined the Times of India in 1936 as a press photographer, where he worked until the outbreak of World War II. With trouble brewing during Indo-Pak Partition, he and his family fled and he left his whole life behind; his country of birth, India, his friends and home. Travelling with minimum luggage would have been conditional so he chose to take only the necessary in just a few metal trunks. Inside one of those trunks were several photo albums and pocket-sized blue negative holders that I came across many years later in my grandparent's cupboard in 2006, a few years after Bert, my grandfather passed away. The little blue pocket-books held as many memories as it did negatives, about 100 precious moments of reflected light captured on film of our family and of some places where they had lived, but inside one particular folded grease proof sleeve were four negatives that were cut up into single frames and they were of one particular young lady; of a Margurite Mumford, a beautiful young Anglo Indian girl. I remember one Sunday when he was alive, sitting with his photograph albums on my lap, my grandmother…

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“Our entire big Gujarati Family migrated out of India”

“Our entire big Gujarati Family migrated out of India”
The Patel Family, Surat, Gujarat. 1978

The Patel Family, Surat, Gujarat. 1978 Image and Narrative contributed by Mitul Patel, Texas, USA This picture was taken at a fair in Surat, Gujrat.  It was supposed to be only a close family photograph, however, some of our family friends' and their families joined in and this picture was clicked. I remember it used to be one of the only places where families, who couldn't afford a camera could get a picture taken. Most of these people you see in the Photograph, all of whom are of the last name 'Patel', migrated to USA and New Zealand, including my family. I was around three or four years old in the picture (top left, as a baby). Almost all of the Patels in the picture  now own and run businesses like Pizza Parlours, Liquor Stores, Motels, Hotels or work in the IT industry. My parents and I too live in Rockdale, Texas, USA and run a hotel called Rockdale Inn.

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