At home the confinement would have been a very special happening—the traditional ceremonies, in spite of the fact that they were Roman Catholics, would have to be observed. Gifts of gold for the baby, special food for the mother, herbal baths—where could all this be done ‘in Abroad’? The body to be laved with the boiled concoction of medicinal herbs in an English bathroom with the porcelain bathtub and tiled floors? The boiling of the herbs on an electric cooker would have been impossible. All that had to be dispensed with. When the second baby arrived, Neela flew back home on a holiday. Now they had the money to search for a maid. ‘A thousand pounds a month they will pay,’ Sulo and her mother had said, ‘but it is difficult to find one.’

‘What about a convent girl? An orphan, perhaps?’ advised some of their friends.

‘A thousand pounds a month? For a maid? How to believe. So much for a maid you think they will pay?’

‘I don’t know, but they said they will,’ said Sulo.

Strange, but no one seemed willing to go to England. Yet, they clamoured to go to the Middle East in search of jobs where they faced much harder realities. Neela, however, was to be envied. She had found a wealthy, professionally qualified husband. Staying here, at home, living on a teacher’s salary, married to someone whose salary would not be much higher, in a small annexe or in some remote, out-of-the-way place, with no car, no holidays abroad, was much less to be desired. Romance, compatibility, exciting relationships, were out. It was the fashion to be married and living abroad. Yet Neela was always trying to persuade her mother to come and live with her, to help cook, look after the babies and provide companionship. The mother preferred her life in the country of her birth.

Sulo felt left out in the cold. She would come and say, ‘I’m going abroad in August. I’m going to Canada to be married.’ Those were the first intimations of the winds that blew in from foreign lands laden with promise—‘The Quinquereme of Nineveh’ which would bring her all the exotic gifts she so desired.

Quinquereme of Nineveh from distant Ophir
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.