Barbara's book is finally printed!

A View From The Indian Road

 Missionaries, Maharajahs, and Missahibs

A Memoir of a Childhood in Changing India

By Barbara Cattell Brantingham

My first consciousness opens to the memory of two women—one brown, one white. I called the brown one Ayah Bai, the white one Mummy. I was not entirely clear which was my mother. There is a rather blurred memory in which I am crying and running towards Ayah Bai, of Mother suddenly appearing, swooping me up in her arms, and of me squirming to free myself. In the struggle that ensued, I was yanked from the arms of one to the arms of the other several times. Mummy finally gave up and walked away. I buried my head in Ayah Bai’s neck.

Thus begins this sensitive and insightful memoir of a most unusual childhood in India. 

Barbara Cattell Brantingham grew up in India during those historic years of 1936 to 1954, which marked the last fading decade of the British Raj, the end of the rule of Maharajas, Independence of India from Britain, and the Partition of India and Pakistan. 

Her life flowed  from the mission bungalow to the British Political Agents’ home for afternoon tea with a visit from the Maharaja on State business, to the villages where a whole family lived in one room with a mud floor. Their family cook was a Muslim, the nanny a Christian, the gardener a Hindu and the sweeper an Untouchable. Part of the year was spent on the Plains, the other in the Himalayan Mountains at Woodstock School. 

This is Barbara's Brantingham's very personal journey to reclaim her childhood, and to discover her own personal history formed by Quaker parents, extraordinary missionaries, British India, village India, and boarding school.  


A hardcover,  limited edition will be available for $40. including shipping within the US on July 25th. Please send check to J. Hayes at PO Box 204, Coupeville, WA 98239 or  contact  Jeanneming@gmail.com