“Congratulations!I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but I hope to eat there before I leave.”
“I hope so too.”
“Did you think you made the right decision, moving?”
“I think so.There weren’t many opportunities for me where I was.There weren’t a lot here, either, but my skills and experience were more useful here.I’ll never know for sure, but I think I had a better life here.I still miss friends that I haven’t seen in decades, but overall I’m happy with my life here.My family is here, and my children don’t know any other home.But sometimes, I mention a place I loved in India, and they look at me in confusion.It’s strange to think they know nothing of the place I grew up aside from what I tell them.I just hope I made the right choice, and they will have a more comfortable life than I had.”
“You made sure they will.”Just like my parents did.By way of plane and not ship, but they came as teachers, just like Rajab.He nods in acknowledgment and returns to the bar to take us up on the free drinks.
After him, more feel comfortable talking with us, and drinking with us.They don’t tell me too much that I don’t already know big picture-wise, but they add human faces and human details that are often left out of history books, since most books on the subject rely on English sources talking about them instead of their own voices.
Some came over as lascars, who were dumped in London when the ships were done with them, at times had no way to get home, and faced increasing hostility from English people.But they still took happiness where they could find it, because it is a very human urge to strive for happiness in the worst of conditions.
The people here have lives, people they love, jobs they enjoy.Babu met and fell in love with an English woman who he’s currently married to.Hassan originally came to work at a country house estate up near York before they fired him.He got some partners and raised enough money to start a boarding house for Indians in Limehouse.
We speak to a royal who couldn’t prove his title and who had to basically couch surf until people in the West End got tired of him, when he moved to Limehouse to live in Hassan’s boarding house and is looking for work.Then there’s the medical student who’s studying in London and came to Limehouse to get Indian food that reminded him of home.
Some want to go back home but can’t find a way back, while others like the opportunities they found here.But none had the same experience.Their treatment was decided by factors like their class, job, wealth, and who they were interacting with.
Their experience here and now is so different from the experience of early Indians I’ve studied in books, even from before the East India Company started taking India over.The early Indians could define their own identity here, because Britons didn’t have any knowledge of them.I read about Emin, an early immigrant, who was constantly asked where he was from, and one confused Briton said that as long as he wasn’t French, everything was fine.
Things changed, and became harder, after colonialism.An Indian identity was set by the government, and it involved making England the heroes, and India in need of their “saving,” and “less than.”As hard as it was, and as many people were miserable, many also had good lives here and were successful.Because no group of people’s experiences are the same.Because history is complex and has so many nuances it can never be distilled into one sentence.
Leo relaxes enough to get food next to me, probably bored now that this has turned into long set of interviews in languages he doesn’t understand.When they’re in English, Leo looks interested in hearing people he’d probably never meet otherwise.Good.Maybe he can help.In Parliament.
Once the sky starts to get darker, Leo taps on my elbow.“We should probably head back now.Someone will be very mad if you do not get back before nightfall.”
“You’re probably right.”I don’t have to agree with a curfew to understand I don’t want to be kicked out of the palace.
We get up to leave.“Thank you, everyone, for your time.”A cheer goes up as we leave, since we’ve been buying drinks for the past few hours, and we’re very popular around here.
“We’re buying a meal for everyone as thanks,” Leo says on our way out, dropping money at the bar to pay for it to a chorus of cheers.
“That’s kind of you,” I say as we leave the pub.“Can you pay for that?”
“As I keep saying: I am already going down.That amount was not likely to save me.”Leo shrugs.“It was interesting hearing their stories.I never thought how hard…or how they lived…well, I just did not think about the lascars or other Indians at all, I suppose.Even though they are the reason for most things I touched today, from the linen of my shirt to the tea I drank waiting for you.”At least he sounds chagrined by that.“And they come from the same place as Mother…” He trails off, probably thinking that but for a few twists of fate, he would have been in Limehouse and not in his English country estate.Or in India.
“Maybe you can introduce bills in the House of Lords to help?”It’s changing the past, but he probably won’t be able to get it passed anyway.And it’s important to try.
“Yes.”He’s quiet.He keeps looking back to the pub, uncomfortable confronting his privilege.As most people are.At least he didn’t lash out like people tend to.
We get back in the carriage and I immediately start looking over my notes.But then the setting sun and low light in the carriage makes me admit defeat and I close the book.I look up to see Leo staring at me.
He shakes his head.“Such a curious woman.”
“Thank you for today.For bringing me here and staying with me.And being generally accepting about my…curiousness.”I remember last minute that we still have a chaperone and I can’t say,“Thanks for being cool about the whole time travel thing.I thought for sure that would scare you off.But it didn’t.Must be that stiff upper lip those posters that haven’t been drawn yet talk about.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Maybe tomorrow we could do another London day so we get seen out and about, and then the day after, we could go to Cambridge?Her Majesty’s all right with you taking me, as long as I take Anne to chaperone.”
“Let’s go!”Anne says, still a little drunk from her day of doing nothing but drinking.
“We have a plan then.I know just where to take you tomorrow.You will enjoy it immensely,” Leo says.
“And you’ll be seen carting around a temporary royal ward, right?”
Leo rolls his eyes, like he’s exasperated that I’m thinking about the deal.One of us needs to be concerned with him getting what he needs.
