May letter July 22, 1920

ગુજરાતી

Baroda July 22, 1920
I was so glad to get your letter from the cottage a Burnham.  It all sounds so nice and I do hope you all three will enjoy the change and go back all the better for it.  It's rather a different holiday from mine but these quiet holidays can be very enjoyable.  The place you mention is Loharkhet - a little village on the side of a steep mountain.  We stayed there a night both going up and coming down.  I was very glad to get Gee's address.  I do hope it's an authentic one as I am shortly writing to her and don't want any more letters returned through the D.L.O.  It's such a slap in the face from such a distance.  I am very busy up to the end of this month, as everything I want for the school before the end of next school year (our school year ends in July) I must ask for now.  The recognized way in this state of asking for anything is to send up a "tippan" i.e. a request couched in special words and written in a special form, which goes the round of all the most important governing men of the State.  The last to write is the Accountant General and alas too often when everyone else has written favorably he "puts the topper on" - to use a school boy's phrase - by declaring that there isn't money enough in the Exchequer.  Well I'm asking for no end of things this time - furniture and equipment for our new classrooms and lady teachers salaries to be raised pretty nearly all round. So he'll howl!!  Well good night darling.  I expect you're back by this time.  My dearest love to Ethel and all, not forgetting yourself.  Ever your loving daughter May


Baroda India July 29, 1920
It was nice to get two letters from you yesterday.  Both were from Burnham.  I am so glad you are having this nice change from the heat of Cambridge and that you are able to make little expeditions in the neighborhood.  The "Times" arrives regularly and is always very welcome.  It is so nice to get the home news from a home point of view.  The Literary Supplement too is very interesting.  I am still hard at work though most of my tippans are in.  But the finishing business is still going on  Good by darling.  If I have time I may put in another sheet.  But if not adieu for the present.  Very much love to all from May  -So glad to hear of Gina.


Baroda Aug 4, 1920
Very many thanks for your last letter written from Burnham.  I am so glad you are having this nice change by the sea instead of being in Cambridge all the time.  So S. went to Cambridge to bring back a friend of his?  That will be jolly for him and Dot.  Tell them I wish I was with them to come boating.  Dear little Dot, how nice for her to be her old self once more.  I think it is time she wrote me a letter by the way.  I am very busy.  I wish my mastery of the Gujarati language was complete.  But, I am still very far from possessing it and I have to spend time daily over it.  I have been several motor turns lately.  Been four times round the Race Course this evening.  The fashionable car here is the Ford.  The Clarkes, the Hirits, The Hendersons, The Widgery's and now Mrs. Strong all have a Ford.  I want John to build me a strong plain car, suitable for traveling over bullock cart tracks - for many of the roads here are no better - as I could see much more of the country with a car than with a tonga (?).  Well good bye darling for another week.  I expect I shall have one more letter from Burnham.  Much love to all and especially your own self.  Always your loving daughter May

See this site http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/research/show.php?set=doclife&id=4
wherein tippan is described as a formal proposal, i.e. an Indian term.  Spelling is correct.
Interesting, budget requests over time have always been "couched in special words and written in a special form".  The more things change the more they stay the same.  Sometimes only accountants know the language, i.e. the special words and forms.

Apparently,  May and Gina are not directly communicating that much.  I always thought that they were very close.  Now I wonder.  Grandma's big drama has not yet occurred.

I don't know who Gee is or if spelling is correct.

Re: the language Aunt May was attempting to learn.

Gujarati (ગુજરાતી Gujǎrātī^?) is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is native to the Indian state of Gujarat, and is its chief language, as well as of the adjacent union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
There are about 46.1 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, making it the 26th most spoken native language in the world. Along with Romany and Sindhi, it is among the most western of Indo-Aryan languages. Gujarati was the first language of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the "father of India", Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the "father of Pakistan," and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the "iron man of India."

Apparently, May drove race cars as well all the other "stuff" in her life. :-)

Dad, et. al.

Candy I'm trying to find a map.  Can't find any suitable at this point.  Will keep trying.