The life and times of an ancestor, Dr Rustom Manekjee
Kalapesi, come alive through a 120-year-old correspondence
discovered in an old rolltop desk drawer
Gool Ardeshir
At the back of a drawer in a rolltop desk which once belonged to my maternal great-grandfather Dinsha Manekjee Kalapesi, there was a small cardboard box. In it were over a hundred picture postcards dating back to 1902.
I began to go through them, and slowly pieced together the life of Dr Rustom Manekjee Kalapesi, MB (Bachelor of Medicine) (London), LRCP (Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians) (London), MRCS (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons) (England), DTM (Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene) (Cambridge), LM & S (Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery) (Bombay) from his correspondence. He was just......