The letter highlights the affectionate and enduring relations between her and the author.
Jawaharlal Nehru had two sisters. Vijailakshmi Pandit (1900-1990) and Krishna Hutheesing (1907-1967). The latter’s sons, Harsh and Ajit, were in Scindia School with me. I got to know Krishna Masi—that is what she asked me to call her. The letter below highlights our affectionate and enduring intimate relations.
Anand Bhavan
Carmichael Road
Bombay-26
30 March 1958
My dear Natwar,
I thank you for your letter of the 22 March and also the one you wrote on hearing of Maulana’s death. I was in Delhi for nearly a month where I went to recoup and I rested a great deal and came back feeling much better. I was there during the exciting days of TTK’s resignation and I attended Parliament regularly throughout the three days of debate.
I met the R.K. Nehrus at a lunch Bhai gave for Ho-Chi-Minh to which they invited themselves by repeatedly saying that they were leaving for their son’s wedding and might not get a chance of seeing Bhai, so at the last moment he invited them! Mrs R.K. tried to show off her Chinese, and when I mentioned to her that you spoke rather well she shrugged her shoulders and said that it wasn’t correct Chinese that you spoke and that you had to take a lot of lessons in Peking. Anyhow her Chinese did not seem to go down with Ho-Chi-Minh and his party. So, just to be difficult I started talking to them in French which I know she did not understand. This upset her quite a lot. I do not think either of them are happy to go to Cairo.
I shall be in Bombay round about the 10th of May and so you can certainly come and stay with us. I do not know why you are under the impression that Harsha and Ajit will be here then. Ajit has to do three months’ work in some factory in Germany as part of his Course, and Harsha is going to do six weeks or more of work in some newspaper office in Minneapolis. He is not willing to stay on in America. So, after that he may return to England and continue doing his Law. Harsha has been begging me for several months to go to him and hence I want to do so. I have not quite planned when to leave, but it might either be at the end of May or the beginning of June. In case I am not able to get passage then, I might go a little earlier. But, I should be here around the 10th when you are expected to arrive.
I wonder if you could do me a favor. A friend of mine, who returned recently from Hong Kong, bought a short coat there, which had black Chinese silk or satin on one side and white fur, something like Astrakhan, on the inside. Actually it was reversible. You could wear it both ways, with the white fur outside and the black silk lining inside or the other way round. It was very smart and light, and not too expensive. I am giving you below the address of a friend of mine in Hong Kong—she is a Chinese married to a Parsi—to whom I am also writing and I will tell her to try and get this and give it to you. But in case she cannot or if you can find something like it in Peking and bring it to me, I shall be very grateful. The coat length was about 29” long, may be 27” or less. But it was very light and as I have said very smart looking, yet very warm and it would help a lot to carry a thing like that instead of a thing which is heavy and hefty.
Yes. I have seen Tara’s book and read bits and pieces of it only, because she gave a copy to Bhai and being an American publication it is not sold here. I see now that it is going to be serialized in the Illustrated Weekly. I did not see Mandy’s review, but I was told that it was a very flattering one. The little I read, I couldn’t make out a story what the story was about or what exactly it meant to depict.
More when we meet and do try and find out about the coat. I shall look forward to having a long chat with you here.
With love,
(Krishna Hutheesing)
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Two countries in the world still have active communist parties. Cuba and Nepal. There has never been a Nepalese Fidel Castro. The present Prime Minister of Nepal is a non-Castro like head of government. It would be necessary to invent him, if he did not exist. He constantly provides comic political relief. His knowledge of Hindu mythology, history and geography of India and Nepal is, to put it politely, somewhat erratic. The other day he pronounced that Lord Rama was born in Nepal and Ayodhya was located in Nepal. It is folly to be wise when ignorance is bliss.
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The Chief Minister of Pakistani Punjab, Janab Usman Buzdar, has approved plans for creating a new “Dubai-like” modern city near Lahore, to reduce congestion, water storage and environmental pollution in Lahore. It will be called the Ravi Riverfront project. The cost Pakistani Rs 5 trillion. No time frame is given. For a near bankrupt country this is an imaginative undertaking. We wish the Buzdar government luck, success and long tenure in office. He will need all three.