Chapter 10: Harold and Leonard

Tales of Treselda Cottage (Part 10).

Harold and Leonard. 

After Bridgette had left Africa and returned to her hometown Anjengo, Leonard continued to be immersed in his work on the estates. The young Harold D'Costa who had travelled to Africa with Bridgette, become Leonard's shadow of sorts on the estates. Leonard had taken to the eager young man and showed him all aspects of tea-making, setting him up at the factory. Harold had discontinued school in Anjengo at an early age and lacked the finesse that a Jesuit boarding school education had given Leonard and other young men from the community. But he was a fast learner with a keen sense of observation and soon took to both the discipled rigour of long hours of work and the relaxing bonhomie that Leonard and his friends slipped into easily in the after hours. Perhaps because he felt a lack when it came to communicating well in English, Harold strove to make up for it, taking every opportunity to listen and learn, and over-compensating too, always being among the best dressed, tending to the most foppish, in fashionable clothing. Harold couldn't pronounce certain words properly, and often got names wrong. Leonard liked recounting how Harold was ticked off by his boss once for calling him "Mr. Pilip". "I've been given a good name by me parents, young man and I'd like you not to change it", Mr. Philip had quipped. What he didn't know was that Harold had grown up around an "Uncle Pilip" in Anjengo, and that's how he had always said the name. 

Harold married into Leonard's family. The Moreiras of Margaret Cottage in Trivandrum were looked up to in the community, and for the youngster from Anjengo, it was considered equivalent to climbing a notch up the social ladder. Yvette Pereira, Margaret's daughter, Leonard's niece, had hardly tuned eighteen when they were married. Ammachi, being related to Harold's family in Anjengo had a soft spot for the handsome youngster. The fact that he had settled well on the estates and had the wherewithal to support a family, was good enough reason for her to consider him a match for Yvette. 

Harold now had reason and motivation to chase his dreams, to provide the best for his wife and prove his mettle to his mentor Leonard (now his grand-uncle in-law) and his other in-laws. He had taken an interest in furniture, commissioning some pieces on behalf of Leonard for the estates, and saw a potential for getting into the business himself as the suppliers were slow, and were turning out pieces of poor quality. Being a Malayali who had cut his teeth on the beautiful hardwood carpentry work that was popular back home, and having a keen sense of aesthetics, he then started taking on commissions, and was soon known for going beyond the call of duty to supply beautifully crafted pieces to his customers, well within schedule. 

Yvette and he had settled into life in Nyasaland, starting their own family. Conrad was born there, as was Ava and their other siblings. Yvette was a charmer, popular in the social circles, and Harold loved showing his family off in the clubs and in church on Sundays. He would stand a little taller when Yvette said "Philip" with ease, and would watch adoringly as she got complimented for her beautiful chiffon and silk saris. Harold had set up a furniture factory by then, and took it upon himself to donate new pews for the small church they went to. Taking a cue from the grand old furniture at the cathedral in Bombay he had visited, he built sturdy benches with backrests and cushioned kneelers. He had spent more time staring at the furniture than concentrating on the mass, he had said, and the details of the metal joinery were impressed in his mind. Harold would tell Ava about the church at Mampally, Anjengo that he had attended as a small boy, before it fell into disuse. It had been built on the waters edge in the 15th century and over the decades, the shoreline had gradually receeded, with the waters finally getting at the old church, eating away at it. Half a building remained at Mampally when Ava saw it, surrounded by waters. The brand new pews at the little church in Nyasaland had wide, comfortable seats that were beautifully polished, showing off the grain of the teak wood. At the corner of the backrest of each was a little metal plate, engraved in italics: "HD Furniture Mart". 

Harold D'Costa's furniture mart became popular in the little East African town, with customers of all nationalities. After the war, German and Italian families were asked to leave the British Protectorate of Nyasaland, having been on the wrong side against the Allies in the war. As they were selling their houses and belongings and moving away, Harold, who especially knew the catholic families from church, would acquire their furniture, restoring the pieces for resale. It was from one such sale that he had acquired a picture of the Sacred Heart, set in an elaborate gilt frame. Said to have been blessed by the Pope, this Italian piece eventually found its way to Trivandrum, into the safe-keeping of Margaret and graced Treselda Cottage.

The countries along the East African coast were either protectorates or colonies under the British, the Poruguese and Germans, at various times. Mozambique was under the Portuguese and had two major ports, Beira and Lorenzo Marques (now called Maputo). The Indians from Kerala, with Portuguese surnames, got along well in the Portuguese colonies up until the time when Goa was taken over by the Indian government in the 1960s. The Portuguese were asked to leave Goa, and as with all unplanned exoduses, they faced hardship, having to uproot from a land they called home for generations and leave by sea. As a tit for tat, Indians were asked to leave the Portuguese protectorate of Mozambique and were herded into boats from Beira and sent back to Bombay. Up from Mozambique along the coast was Tanganyika, a British protectorate, which was formerly under the Germans, but captured during World War 1. It later merged with Zanzibar to become Tanzania. Tangyanika's port city of Dar e Salaam was another exit point to sail the seas to Bombay. Ships would stop at Madagascar and go on to cross the islands of Seychelles before reaching Bombay. Harold, in his heydays in Africa in the 1940s and 50s, drove to all these cities of changing settlers, procuring and selling furniture, besides manufacturing new pieces at the factory. 

Leonard had watched Harold's progress with pride and often accompanied him on his trips across Africa. He was failing in health as he became older and years of smoking had caught up with him, leaving him weak, with a racking cough. He began to lose sway over all the young men he had brought to Africa, fair weather friends who made use of the opportunity when they saw it, and abandoned their mentor as he weakened. Finally, he had only his estanged wife Bridgette's nephew Harold and his grand-niece Yvette to turn to in his time of need. They took care of him during his last days, till he painfully succumbed to pneumonia. The pioneer from the community, who was looked up to for his grace and elegance, his intelligence and phenomenal capacity for work, who had brought many a young man to the tea estates of Africa and mentored and supported them until they could find their feet, passed away alone, a feeble shadow of his former self. 

The family later found that Leonard had been supporting an illegitimate child that he had had late in life with an African woman. On hearing of it, Sophia sent for the child, a young girl named Angela, and had her brought to Trivandrum. She was schooled in Anjengo convent and Sophia subsequently got her married. Although some members of the family had seen and known Angela briefly, they fell out of touch with her after Sophia's time. Ava wondered at the strength of her great-grandmother in those times, the only one in the family who could proudly acknowledge and claim her son's illegimate child. Ammachi was simply glad her eldest son had companionship during his last days. Angela inherited her father's fortune, left in Ammachi's safekeeping. Bridgette, Leonard's estranged wife had come into Ammachi's confidence. She had never remarried, choosing to dedicate her life to the upkeep of her plantations in Anjengo. When Angela was sent to the convent in Anjengo, Bridgette, by then quite aged, visited her. She took to the young girl and, perhaps to make up for the unfortunate turn her life with Leonard had taken, or even as a manner of atoning for past mistakes, took the girl under her wing. They became companions for each other, the older one making up for the past and the younger one getting accustomed to a new life, as a bedrock for the future. Ava could see why her great-grandmother in all her prescience had chosen to send Angela to the convent in Anjengo. It was fated then, but also guided by the hand of Sophia, that the two women's lives should overlap, filling their voids across generations, bringing them full circle. 

(To be continued...)

The picture is on Beira Port. Source: Alamy Stock photos.