Off The Beaten Path

Victor, Nina and Blanca

Victor's first memory of Nina was when she was just six years old. He had come to call on her parents, Anna and Safdar,and she had rushed unknowingly into the drawing room not knowing there was a visitor. She shyly mumbled a soft "Hello Uncle", but when her mother urged her to sit awhile she whispered, " I have to feed my rabbits!" and dashed from the room.

Nina's first memory of Victor was when she was eight years old. She and her mother had travelled from Lucknow to Deokahi, which was a small hamlet a couple of miles from Saraya, to visit Rajan and Satyavan Shergil, who were close family friends. Victor also happened to have driven over in his jeep, and offered to drop the ladies back to the Gorakhpur station for the journey home. He was casually attired in trousers, shirt and cap and little Nina thought he was extremely handsome. She remembers that he drove very fast in the open vehicle, and she kept staring at his head gear wondering why it was not blowing off  in the strong wind!
Over the next few years they  rarely saw each other. When Victor would drop by to visit Anna and Safdar, Nina would  usually be away at school, busy playing outside or tucked into bed. He was a very eligible bachelor and there was no dearth of female companionship, so on the few occasions she did manage to catch a glimpse of him it was always with a different glamorous lady on his arm. 

Victor and Nina

By 1954, Amrita had been dead thirteen years, Victor had taken on Indian citizenship and his practice in Saraya was flourishing.The Majithia family considered him as one of their own, his mother lived with him and ran the household with an iron fist and his social calender was sometimes too full to keep up with.  In the summer of that fateful year he arrived in NainiTal for his annual vacation alone, without the usual girlfriend, and the stage was set for one of the most talked about romances of the day.
By this time Anna and Safdar had amicably divorced and Nina was living with her father in Lucknow. They would holiday in NainiTal as Safdar had a beautiful summer retreat there called Mauldon Cottage, where Anna would  join up for a few days of  family time every year. It was at the Boat Club where Victor sailed regularly, that he encountered Nina again after a gap of many years. She was a stunning twenty one year old, whom he could barely recognise as the little girl who had called him uncle and scuttled off to feed her rabbits!
There was no motorable road up to Mauldon Cottage, and it became a common sight to see Victor riding up with flowers,chocolates or a bottle of wine. Rumours about a romance between Anna and him began to  surface since she was only a couple of years older and they had been friends for years. When he eventually asked Nina out for a movie, she was thrilled but nervous, and asked her mother what she should do if he held her hand! The feeling of attraction between the two was strong, but being twenty three years older, Victor's common sense told him the relationship was an improbable one, and he tried to dissuade Nina from thinking about a  future together. On her part she was absolutely certain that this was meant to be and sensing his hesitation, she was the one who proposed to him and asked him to marry her. He knew he adored her but suggested  they wait a year without any contact, and if she felt the same way after that, he would be happy to make her his bride.

Victor and Nina

They parted ways, he back to Saraya and she to Lucknow. Nina was convinced that what she felt for Victor was not infatuation, so the stipulated trial period did not bother her at all. She was ecstatic when just two months later she got a letter from him saying that if she was sure of her feelings, he would like to set  a wedding date instead of wasting time waiting. They were formally engaged on her birthday in September and were married on the fifteenth  December 1954.

Nina arrived in Saraya as a   shy and under confident young girl who had until then led a very sheltered life with her father in Lucknow. As she got to know the Majithia's better she found herself more and more overwhelmed by their suave poise and sophistication. Jibes of "cradle snatching", followed by cruel remarks about her immaturity and youth   made socialising dreaded occasions, which she began to make excuses to avoid. The ladies would pointedly exclude her as they gossiped together, which would make her feel more awkward and embarrassed. Victor sensing her discomfort, began to refuse invitations for parties and other social functions so that Nina would not be put into uncongenial situations. This made the couple quite unpopular and once Nina overheard one of the Majithia women cattily remark " The Egan's are such a dead loss!"

It took years of determined effort to find acceptance and establish her place in the family, but in the process Nina forfeited a lot of her joy and happiness. Victor was always supportive and made sure she lacked for nothing but it was a difficult situation at the best of times.

Victor and Nina

Apart from this Blanca, who had been ruling the roost for years, began to resent Nina's presence and Victor's devotion to her. She had the habit of waking before dawn to finish all the household chores and would complain to all how lazy and useless her daughter-in-law was. Her hearing was not very good and Nina was very soft voiced, which sometimes caused misunderstandings, since Blanca could not hear Nina's subdued replies and thought she was being rude and not answering her. When Nina and Victor would go to the club, Nina would be the one to sign the bar slips, which horrified Blanca who was somehow convinced that Nina was consuming all that alcohol herself. The situation worsened after 1959 when I was born, with Nina having to confront Blanca on many occasions about her constant interference regarding my upbringing and discipline . Blanca finally decided to return to Hungary for the sake of Victor's marriage as the situation was getting completely out of hand.
Nina was never deliriously happy in Saraya, but she  loved Victor dearly and would have done anything for him. All the predictions of a doomed marriage proved false and they stayed married for forty eight years. Victor pampered and protected her as long as he could, and when his health began to fail, she took over and did the same for him.

Nina was just sixty four when Victor died in June 1997, just short of his eighty seventh birthday.  She felt a  deep sense of loss and sadness tinged with relief, as he had been suffering terribly towards the end of his life. She knew she would lack for nothing, since he had left enough and more for her to live comfortably on, but  would always miss his strong calm nature, gentle strength and unique sense of humour.