Jenabai Sunderji Mitha

Children

"In one’s life, certain events have such a transformative impact that they literally alter the individual’s anticipated or imagined trajectory." "For me it was the untimely passing of my beloved mom at a young age of 47; I was only 24 and felt gipped. This personal loss was so deep that even with the passage of time, I had not come to terms with it; to use a modern-day expression, I needed some kind of closure with the knowledge that my mom would never ever leave my heart and my very being. To say that I still deeply miss her would truly be a gross understatement."

"So, in 2009 – 36 years after my mom’s passing – I decided to return to Tanga, Tanzania where I lived and grew up for 19 years."

This is a personal biography of Naznin Hebert, which is also a lively, poignant life history of both sides of Naznin's large family. The book makes great reading and is available for a modest price of $10 plus shipping from Naznin here [email protected])

My dadima, Jenabai, was born in Changa-Chela, Gujarat, British Indiain 1896. She married at a very early age, in British Indiato my dadabapa. She was also a child bride like many in those days. After their wedding, she travelled to Nairobi, Kenya with my dadabapa. They had ten children, five daughters and five sons, my dad being the eldest son. Dadima was religious as was dadabapa. I only remember visiting them once in Kampala. They had a very simple home. But I do remember well dadima visiting us in Tanga. I have fond memories of her telling us stories. The language they spoke at their house was Kutchi, a distinct dialect of Gujarati. But we spoke Gujarati at home, since that was the language spoken at my mom’s house.
Dadima did not visit us often but when she did it was a real treat. They lived in Kampala, Uganda. She came one time: I must have been fifteen years old. She stayed with us for at least a month. In the evenings, we would sit outside in front of our house and listen to her stories. She was old and had red hair that she wore in a bun. She had a mole beside one of her eyes. Her stories and her facial expressions were impressive to me. When she said: “It was a looooong time ago” with her eyes closed and her mouth open to exaggerate the O, it sounded like a really long time ago! We used to sit outside and look at the sky full of stars that looked like fireflies.
Travelling in East Africa was difficult in those days. We travelled mainly by train or car and it would take days to get from one place to the other. The road conditions were not great, then we had to cross borders, and the immigration process was exceedingly long and disorganized. When dadima and dadabapa moved to London in 1972 (due to the Asian Exodus), I was already living in England. I visited them while pursuing my nursing credentials. They were living in a small government provided flat with four of their children. The others had all moved out. Dadima lived a long life and passed away at the age of 84, in 1981, five years after dadabapa, in London, England.

In late 1932, the Maherali Rahemtulla Nanji and Jenabai Sunderji Boys’ Hostel was officially opened. Dadabapa was not only generous, but also lucky! He had bought a lottery ticket to encourage the sales of it. The money from the sales of the tickets went half to the winner and half to the community where it was needed. Well guess what? He won the lottery of 30000 EA shillings, which was a huge sum of money in those days. Once again, he donated it all towards the hostel.