Countering male biases and financial hardships, Allan
Mistri strove to receive an education
Extracts from Roshan G. Shahani’s Allan: Her Infinite Variety, published by Sparrow, are reprinted with permission from the author.
My mother was born Allan P. Gimi on February 15, 1904 in a house on Sachapir Street in Poona. The eldest of four children, she had a younger sister, followed by two brothers. However, her father had had five other sons by his first wife, my grandmother’s sister, before he became a widower. It was such a common occurrence in those days. When women died young, often in childbirth, men remarried, seeking out not only a companion but also a caretaker......