大象传媒

The general lay-out around us
The town of Camilla was about a mile away and there were always some bicycle rickshaws waiting for a job. Excellent slacks and jackets could be made overnight and always seemed to fit, but you had to produce a garment for them to copy. Materials could also be bought as the locals wore saris or the men lungis (just wrapped around and tucked in).
Fruit & veg could be bought. Bananas of amazing sizes and colours. Large, dull red, and tiny yellow ones with pips. The trick was to ask your beastie to buy them for you as the price was very different even if you gave him a cut. The town celebrated a harvest festival while we were there and the whole town went mad. Coloured powders were at the front of every little shop, in shallow dishes. People put their hands in these and slapped them on everyone. Their clothing started white for everybody, so the greatest number of hand marks showed your popularity.
We had an elephant for a ride that day. I never did discover who organised it but 4 of us were sitting high. I think they didn鈥檛 trust the crowd. In front of us was one of the Gods going for a week鈥檚 holiday. There was the figure sitting in a covered raised compartment on the top of a cart pulled by men. On the ground were people throwing fruit and veg up to the God and on the cart were others throwing bits back down again. It was all very messy but great fun.
In the hot weather Camilla was very humid and we were sweating profusely. So, one way to feel better was to go for a quick drive up the only tarmac road in the area. There were occasionally one or two jeeps available that could be used after work by the staff at HQ. We got much relief from the heat because of the speed of the air which was wonderful.
The road consisted of tarmac only in a one car wide strip down the middle. on the sides were bullock tracks which were uneven and gravelled. The priority rules were supposed to be: ambulances always had the centre. After that, in order, Jeeps, light goods vehicles and heavy lorries. As often as not it turned into: 鈥淚鈥檓 the biggest, you get out of my way鈥�. This was more easily remembered.

Ann Maliantovich
One day a girl joined us called Ann Maliantovich. She claimed she was the only Russian in the British army. She and her family were White Russians and had fled to Paris just before the war and so were safe.
She had relations in England and came over to visit them. Then she over-stayed and got caught over here and couldn鈥檛 get back to Paris. She did her nursing training and then joined the army. She was posted to 3 B.M.N.S.U. and was like a breath of fresh air. She was given the job of ordering our meals and trying to think of something fresh to do with them. We had one day used up all the sugar ration for the week in one exotic pudding.
Ann took the Red Cross gramophones to get them mended in Calcutta, flying with it from the local grass airstrip in a Dakota aircraft. It was easier to go to Calcutta by air and no cost as it had come forward full of supplies for the troops in the area and going back empty. People had to return to us from Calcutta by boat & train. On the boat she had become friendly with one of the officers (David Calcutt) also posted to Camilla and she brought him along to be introduced. I was very friendly with Ann and naturally saw quite a lot of David too.
When, subsequently, Ann went on 2 weeks leave, I continued to see him and we used to sit on the bed in my room talking. I learned a lot about his family and knew the area of Headington, outside Oxford, where he came from. I had started my nursing training at the Wingfield Orthopaedic Hospital which was almost in the next road. This, and the fact that he was from a family of 4 brothers brought us together. In fact, after a while, we were seeing a lot of each other and became engaged. My beastie took on the post of chaperone. It was his idea to come and sit outside on the step to my room when David was there to see that we behaved ourselves.

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