I have a tenuous but still cherished connection with the fabled Ruttonjees of the cover story "Wealth and welfare” (Parsiana, May 7-20, 2025). My granduncle, Rustom (Mamaji) Desai was their gher jamai (resident son-in-law), leaving his Calcutta home to marry Tehmi, after whose early death from tuberculosis the family endowed the celebrated Ruttonjee Hospital. With his three piece suits, manicured nails, clipped Gujarati and aura of what I later identified as Eau de Chine, he was the most dapper man we’d met.
His arrival every two years was as fraught as it was awaited. Mummy, Daddy, Dhun fui (paternal aunt) and......