Keen on Kindle at 100!

The function bore the stamp of the person felicitated: dignified, understated, bereft of toasts, speeches or an audiovisual presentation celebrating her 100 years of existence. Babsy Gandavia individually greeted each of the 75 or so invitees who had gathered to observe her 100th birthday at the Poona Turf Club on June 15, 2014. Soft-spoken, and alert, she replied to all questions put to her inquiring of her long years. Her nephew Firdaus Gandavia, the only offspring in the family (his father had four siblings and his mother one), recalls that Babsy was born in Poona on June 15, 1914 but "the family shifted to Bombay and she studied at the Alexandra Native Girls’ English Institution from 1920 to 1928. The family was compelled to leave Bombay and shift to Poona again due to her father’s loss of vision. She continued her studies at the Sardar Dastur Nosherwan Girls High School and passed the Matriculation Examination of the Bombay University in April 1931. She taught drill and games in various schools till she joined Nowrosjee Wadia College, at the request of principal V. K. Jog to teach drill and games twice a week to the lady students of the College.

"In 1942, she was selected to join the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps India and was posted to No. 3 IBGH (Indian Base General Hospital) to work in the administration department. ‘Convoys arrived at any time and we had to leave immediately for the Hospital. Once, I was going to the cinema and the ambulance arrived to take me to the Hospital,’ she reminisced. She was selected to represent the Southern Command for the Victory Parade to be held in England in June 1946. From the Indian women’s contingent only she and another colleague were found physically fit to participate. However ‘we had to merely watch the parade instead of taking part in it... Though we were given front seats, it was very disappointing.’
"On her return she worked with the Hospital till it was wound up and in April 1947 she joined the Poona Cantonment Board where she worked in various capacities till she retired after 27 years of service. No sooner had she retired than she was called by the late Tehmi Grant to take charge of the administration of the new Cobalt Unit at Ruby Hall Clinic. When asked if she felt depressed to work in a cancer unit, she retorted: ‘Certainly not! I am myself a cancer survivor!’ She worked till she retired in 2006 at the age of 92 much to the regret of Grant who was unhappy with her decision and was very reluctant to let her go.
"She had an unfortunate fall in March 2011 and since then her outings have been restricted but she continues to knit, a gift which she has inherited from her mother and is an avid reader on her recently acquired Kindle!” concludes Firdaus.