Each year in the middle of December, I start reminiscing the
Christmases of my early childhood in India.
The tree, beautifully decorated with ornaments and flashing candles and
the great expectation of the visit of Father Christmas who always dropped in
with a large bag full on numerous multicoloured parcels with gifts.
My first tricycle was a Christmas present when I was
three-years-old, which delighted me and make me so proud of being a big girl.
However, I was told that I had
another one when I was almost two, which I, obviously, don’t remember.
 |
| The Parthenon at Sunset |
 |
| The National Archaeological Museum Athens |
The years went by, and, as I have previously mentioned, we went on home leave
to Greece every two and a half years.
In
1940, we left Karachi on a Peninsular and Oriental vessel called Celicia and
after twelve days of smooth sailing, we arrived at Port Said where we
disembarked.
From there we boarded a
Greek ship and sailed, with choppy waters, to Piraeus.
We stayed for fifteen days in Athens and we saw
the Parthenon and the Archaeological Museum, visited our dear relatives and
friends and then we left for our island, Cephalonia.
 |
| Argostoli |
 |
| Pre-Earthquake Argostoli |
 |
| The Corialenius Library |
 |
| Argostoli |
 |
| Platis Yialos |
Argostoli was a beautiful small port and the capital of the island. Built amphitheatrically it is surrounded by mountains and verdant
forests. Then, it had blooming parks and
magnificent buildings constructed so many years ago according to Venetian and, later, to Neoclassical Architectures. Yellow, sandy beaches run across the coastline and I still recollect the great pleasure I felt when I swam and splashed in the deep blue Ionian Sea, at Plati Yialos.
Meanwhile, a terrible war was raging in central Europe, between England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxumber on one hand and Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on the other. It was a devastating war, which is still considered "the deadliest combat in human history."
Most Greeks, living
in a fool’s paradise, refused to believe that the Italians and the Germans would
attack a small country like ours, despite the fact that the Italians had
already torpedoed a light cruiser of the Royal Greek Marine, called Ellie.
Unfortunately, Mussolini declared war on Greece, on the 28th
October 1940. As the Italians had, already, invaded France, British Somaliland and
Egypt, they considered Greece an exceptionally easy target.
Although greatly outnumbered, the Greek forces fought bravely and successfully and they advanced deep into Albania, to the admiration of both allies and foes. This
compelled Hitler to send German reinforcements to support the Italians so, unfortunately, Greece was occupied by the axis, during the early spring 1941, despite unrelenting resistance and bravery, as mentioned above.
Naturally, we were devastated by the turn of events but also
very proud of our armed forces. During
the occupation, not only did the Nazis embezzle the bullion from the Greek
state, requisition houses and stole cars from individuals but they also
stripped the land and shops of food in order to provide nourishment for their
own troops.
My parents and I, obviously, did not return to India as
planned, so we were compelled to stay in Argostoli during World War II, with
terrible consequences. Our house was
requisitioned by the Italians and as the drachma was daily. greatly devalued, my
parents’ money was just enough to buy a pound of pulses. As we were in deep poverty, my mother's jewellery and several paintings were sold for peanuts. My father had a friend, Dr Marketos, who
offered us a flat in the middle of the town. My mother’s cousin and dear friend, Cosmetos Cosmetatos, and his wife Evanthia, who had a farm just outside the
town, brought milk, for me, every day and a basket of fruit and vegetables
every weekend. Moreover, because he spoke French like a Frenchman he tried to teach me the language with frequent lessons. We were always deeply grateful
to the doctor’s and my uncle’s and aunt's thoughtfulness and generosity.
Christmas 1941 was bleak and cold, but my parents insisted
that we should try to enjoy ourselves, almost, like pre-war times.
My mother made soap with aromatic herbs as
gifts and she knitted a fantastic pink cardigan for me.
She, also, served us a delicious bean soup, piping hot, and my uncle brought a
bottle of red wine to celebrate the occasion.
My dear cousins Ioanna Papas, her husband Vassilis and her sister Aliki
baked a bobota, a cake with cornmeal and brought it with them.
So we had a wonderful Christmas, full of fun and laughter, despite the difficulties.
 |
| Auckland House School Simla |
When the war ended in1945, we went back to India and I was sent
to Simla, a hill station in the Himalayas, to attend Auckland House School for two years.
I always returned home for the Christmas holidays and went back to school by the end of February. This was planned so that children would not be spending the extremely hot, tropical summers in the plains.
In August 1947, India was liberated from the
British rule but was, separated into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. As we
were living in Karachi which was then the capital of Pakistan, I, unfortunately, never returned to Simla, which I loved so much.
 |
| Alexandra College Dublin Earlsfort Terrace Dublin |
I attended the Karachi Grammar School for one year and then
I went to Alexandra College, Dublin, for two years. I wished to continue my studies in history in Trinity
College but my parents were adamant, so it was out of the question. Instead,
I went to a finishing school, called Irena, in Neuchatel, Switzerland for a year. We had a lovely time improving our French, studying French
literature, and taking music and elementary cooking lessons which were called l’Art de la
Cuisine! We went to the theatre, to fashion shows, and skiing in Arosa. For Christmas, I travelled by train to London where my
parents were staying. London was. then, a
lovely, busy and bustling city but still so devastatingly destroyed by the
blitz.
After the end of the school year, I flew back to Karachi and
I was delighted to meet my parents and old friends.
I, fortunately, found a fantastic job with the
Belgian Embassy in Pakistan, settled down beautifully and made many new friends.
Christmas came once again and was celebrated
with parties and official balls, where I had a wonderful time, dancing with
my friends until dawn.
 |
| Argostoli after the 1953 Earthquakes |
When we went on home leave in 1953, we first arrived in London, then we travelled to Venice, with which I fell in love, and finally, we sailed to our island Cephalonia, beautiful as always and packed with tourists. On the 14th August a monstrous earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, rocked and
flattened Cephalonia, Zakynthos and Ithaki, leaving 600 dead and many
injured. A terrifying, horrible disaster. After a few days, we left for
Athens and Loutraki, a spa in the Peloponnese, only two hours away from
Athens. We were invited by Aleco
Cocalis, one of my father’s young colleagues, to meet his family in
Kifissia. We had a wonderful time and
when I told Aleco how much I loved Venice he promised to take me there one day.
We returned to
Pakistan and on the 8th of June 1954, I got married to Aleco, the
love of my life. We were extremely happy, very much in love, and as we were, apparently, rather popular, we were invited daily to parties and official receptions.
We spent Christmas with my parents and my mother, with the help of her cook
Hussain, prepared, among other delicacies, the traditional turkey, with Greek
stuffing with minced meat, pine nuts, raisins and chestnuts, and of course
Christmas pudding, pineapple sorbet, a superb chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. We were
invited for New Year’s eve at the Dendrinos, a wonderful, elegant Greek couple, and
had a fantastic time, as always. Alec Dendrinos was Aleco’s boss and we were
very fond both of him and his lovely wife Pitsa.
Just before leaving for home leave, in 1956, thanks to the
Dendrinos who were both Corfiots, we rented a small country house by the sea, in the village of
Perama, in Corfu.
We also ordered a Fiat
Cinquecento from Turin.
We sailed to Italy
by Victoria, a Lloyd Triestino cruiser, arrived at Genoa after 12 days and then, we immediately left for Turin to collect our
new car.
 |
| The Family House in Kefalari Kifissia |
We decided to visit the South of France, so we spent a wonderful week on the French Riviera and then we crossed over to the Italian Riviera, Porto Fino, Santa Margarita and Cinque Terre. We also visited Piza on our way back to Genoa, where we boarded a ship for Piraeus, which was our final destination.
Aleco’s
brothers Pericles and Nico, were there to meet us and we drove to Kifissia
where we were welcomed by my Mother-in-law and my sisters-in-law
Dolly and Cleo.
They are wonderful, warmhearted people and the girls, over the years, became my best friends. We were terribly
spoiled by all the family and after spending a lovely Easter in Kifissia, we left for Corfu.
 |
| "Our Beach" as it is Today |
Corfu was a revelation for me, it was such a beautiful
island, Aleco had very fond memories of
the town, where he had lived with his family when he was a child. Early every morning we used to sit on the
patio, with a cup of coffee, waiting for the sun to rise over the mountains of Albania,
across the glittering blue Ionian Sea.
Then, we went swimming on "our beach” and later we either visited local
landmarks or explored the countryside. Corfu is
a gem of a town, with beautiful architecture and very interesting and friendly residents. Everybody thoroughly enjoys visiting both the
town and the island, young and old,
sportsmen and intellectuals, artists and bons viveurs, even students on a very
low budget.
The Dendrinos introduced us to their friends, and as
Corfiots are very hospitable, we were often invited to their homes and parties
and, to our great joy, we soon became part of the crowd. We often met with Tony and Ellie Palatianos
and their young son. Also, the Manessi
brothers with their charming wives and mother often invited us to their beautiful
homes. We went swimming together and
they taught us underwater fishing, which for many years was our favourite sport. Also, Jenny Samandaris and her Italian
husband Carlo held two large cocktail parties that summer and often had us over
for the most delicious meals. I must, also,
mention a naval officer, Dimitris Soutsos, a childhood friend of Pitsa, who was, then, the aide-de-camp of King Paul I. He used
to, frequently, pick us up in his speed-boat and we visited small coves to which
no roads led to.
We left Corfu with great regret and sailed to Cephalonia,
which was desperately trying to heal its wounds from the massive earthquakes that struck and flattened
the island in 1953. With deep
sorrow, I showed Aleco where our house
and important landmarks of the town had been before the disaster and he was shocked by the destruction. Most of the houses were being
reconstructed according to very strict
anti-earthquake specifications, so there was an orgy of building going on.
My parents, who were also on home leave, were living in a
makeshift concrete building, so we stayed with them. We visited relatives and dear friends whom I was
delighted to see and recollected events that had happened when we were children, during the Italian and German occupation. We visited most of the beautiful Cephalonian
beaches and went underwater fishing with an old friend, Spyros Cosmetatos, and we were very happy and proud of catching a large number of various kinds of fish.
Our home leave was coming to an end, so we had to return to
Kifissia. As I have already mentioned
above, our destination would not be Karachi which we loved, but Mombassa, Kenya. Several years later, we were very happy, indeed, with this transfer because we lived in two beautiful East African cities, Mombasa, where our son Spyros was born, and Kampala in Uganda.
In early September 1956, we bid tearful (on my part)
farewells to our family and friends in Kifissia and boarded a BOAC aircraft for
Kenya. After 12 hours we arrived at
Eastleigh airport near Nairobi. My first
impression was the colour of the runway, which consisted of compact "murram", as the
red East African soil is called.
We were warmly welcomed by an English couple, we had known
from Pakistan, who was then with Ralli Bros. East Africa, and we remembered events
and situations that we had shared in the not so distant past. Then, we boarded a
British East African plane that took us to our destination.
 |
| Kenya |
Mr D C Sevastopoulos and his charming wife, Betty, were
there to meet us and took us over to their house for a huge breakfast. Soon after, we went to a lovely small bungalow on
Mbuyuni Road which the company provided for us, fully furnished, with a cook
and bearer. Our little Fiat 500, that we
had bought the previous summer from Turin, was shipped over, and we were delighted
to have with us, as we considered it part of the family
The garden of the bungalow was quite large with beautiful
tropical trees and shrubs. But the earth
was just a thin layer of murram covering a coral substructure. This was a great challenge for my husband who had the prospects of a keen gardener so, by
changing the soil and a lot of hard work he managed to grow a lush, green
lawn which became our pride and joy.
 |
| Elephant Tusks on a Busy Mombasa Avenue |
 |
| Malindi Beach |
We loved Mombasa, a beautiful city with a medieval Arab town and lovely. white sandy beaches, like Malindi, which we visited every
Saturday. As a coral reef protected the
shore from sharks we went underwater fishing and caught white snappers,
kingfish and stingrays that were very tasty either poached or
grilled. We also went on a
glass-bottomed boat to catch a glimpse
of marine life, such as multi-coloured tropical fish and purple sea urchins.
We made life long friends with people of various
nationalities. We invited friends over for
lunch and dinner and attended tremendous parties. As Mombasa was a very busy port we were often
invited aboard luxury ships for cocktails and fabulous food.
 |
| Libro d'Oro de la Noblesse de Chios by Philip Argentis |
 |
| La Famille Calvocoressi |
I wish to thank the Sevastopoulos for their support,
especially Betty who helped me settling down.
We went shopping together, she introduced me to many interesting women and
gave me subtle advice with the house. As
Aleco and Mr Sevastopoulos were both from Chios, he showed us a book by Philip
Argenti that included the history and family trees of twelve families from the
island. Besides being the manager of
Ralli Bros, he was also a very famous entomologist, specialising in moths and
butterflies.
I am extremely embarrassed with my fading memory for not remembering
the name of a Greek couple who had a chic boutique with women’s
clothing, in Mombasa, with whom we were very friendly and who had several very elegant dresses made for me. Shame on me.
To be continued
