Remembering Nora Raymond, by Clara Zawawi
St Pierre & Miquelon, 20 th October 2023
For a long time now I’ve been meaning to write a piece about Nora; so much a part of our family. I’ve put it off for many years; and today hearing the news of her passing I can’t put it off any longer.
As Nani’s best friend Nora was much in my life throughout my childhood and teen years, and I always saw her as being glamorous and above all independent. With her hair salon and later her private clients, she was financially secure and dependant on no one. To the contrary; I always somehow knew that her beloved sister Christine and two nieces, Julia and Christine were supported by her. In an absolute reversal of any known trend, she sent them funds from India to help them in England. From things that Mum or Nani said over the years I had the impression that she was very wealthy but I always also had the impression that she had built that wealth herself; through her business and her canny investing. This had an enormous impact on me in my young years; as a role model of a truly independent woman who lived life on her terms.
I didn’t know that much about Nora really; she was also my first and best example of that phenomenon; the Anglo-Indian – brown as a berry she had almost an exaggerated English accent; spoke Hindi utterly fluently but with that amazing accent – I can hear it now! I believe her father worked for the railways? Born in 1920 (?) I recall her stories of going to balls and dances; all her dresses were made by themselves; she was an excellent seamstress. When I was around 18 and 19 and back in Bombay regularly for holidays we would shop together for fabrics and design clothes and she would talk about those dances and dresses. I am certain she was quite the belle of those balls but somehow she never fell for any of her many beaus. She always said to me that she would never SETTLE; and Mr Really Right never came along. Also I always got the impression that for her it was more important to see Christine looked after; especially after the girls came along. In the late 60s and early 70s she did however have that mysterious thing, a ‘paying guest’, Mr Meek “His Meekness” – a very tall, very sweet English gentleman who became very much a part of the family as well, coming to all our family events; dinners, Christmases. To me he was already terribly old; but I think he retired to his family in the UK and passed away many years ago now. Of course at that stage she was only in her 50s so young; really … there was never any discussion of the state of their relationship but I am sure that at the very least they were very good friends.
Though she was always a part of our lives it was in those years of the mid-eighties; before Nani and Grandpa came to Australia, that I got to see more of her and understand the depth of her friendship with Nani. At that stage Grandpa had already begun to retreat into himself and Nora would come over to spend every weekend with Nani. She’d arrive on Friday afternoon and stay till Monday morning and they would sit and talk and knit every evening. She would cook for them all and package food for them for the entire week – Nani had no cook or housemaid by that stage, just the cleaning lady, and Nora really looked after them from that standpoint. Once a week ‘Daddy’ (Grandpa) would be dispatched down the road to Breach Candy to Sizzler for lunch; but the rest of the time they ate Nora’s cooking.
More about her cooking in a moment .. I’m really resting with a memory of the two of them sitting in the warm air of the verandah; each of them with their knitting talking and talking about friends; the old days and of course all the latest gossip – she knew it ALL. High or low, she knew everyone and she knew everything about them too. She absolutely wasn’t an indiscriminate gossip but she told Nani pretty much everything she knew and you could tell how they loved these nights and these chats. My friends and I would go out down the lane to Kwality and buy them ice cream – how they loved that! Rum and Raisin for both of them .. how we loved doing it for them too. And then sitting and chatting to both of them; stories of their youth. Trips to Khandala and Matheran; picnics; parties – how I wish I had written down those stories then; sadly I don’t remember any of them today; just the warm memory of their telling. How I cherished those evenings.
She was so interested and ‘into’ us and our doings. She loved hearing about the various relationships and ups and downs; as I’ve said she was intensely interested in fashion and how we dressed; the shoes we shopped for so voraciously; everything in our lives. She was never judgemental; always supportive; always interested and so involved! She took such delight in being involved. As Maya Angelou said; it’s how you make a person feel that is remembered. She always made me feel worth while; special. She called me skinamalinks malanky; big banana feet, I loved that. She was so special. Of course at that time she was ‘only’ the same age as I am now; her early 60s; much younger than Nani but absolutely in tune. She was thrifty. She loved a bargain; she could organise a bargain – she knew and loved the expensive stuff but she knew how to stretch everything; make the most of everything; cut the cloth to maximise the return. She taught me a lot in terms of thinking that way; too. I’ve heard it said about her that she was so wealthy because she never spent on herself, but in a sense she never needed to. She had her ‘look’ – an A-line cotton dress (usually made by
Nani or her); bold silver necklaces, rings and earrings; Dr Scholls clogs (which Nani used to bring her from Switzerland, it was absolutely something they shared in common). That silver hair, often with a light mauve wash, curled and pulled up into her signature bun. Her ramrod straight back … her head held absolutely proud on her neck. She held herself like a queen.
And so to her cooking. She was a superlative cook. She could cook anything; Indian; ‘Continental’; desserts; cakes. If we had not bonded over clothes, shoes and jewellery we would have bonded over food. I have (and am attaching) her original recipe for biriani; which I have no idea how many times I’ve cooked – it was the show stopping staple for my earliest dinner parties. But her desserts (which I mostly remember from my childhood) will also always stick in my mind – her refrigerator cake; her coffee ice cream (which I remember her making in the old aluminium freezer trays!) her chocolate mousse …
Her friendship with Nani crossed time and space. Once Nani left India they wrote to eachother incessantly; Nora’s letters still full of information and gossip; keeping Nani in closetouch with the world she had left behind. And Nora came to visit; at least once in the early 90s when they both came up to visit us in Queensland; and of course the occasion she couldnot miss; Nani’s grand 100 th . Some of my favourite memories of those days are of Nora,champagne glass in hand, so happy to be with her friend.
I often went to Bombay in the 2000s; especially in the years I was living in Muscat; and I always made it a point to see Nora. Sadly in the latter years (from probably 2010 onwards) she had great problems with her teeth that (I think?) her thrift prevented her from taking care of and would only eat soup when she was out. So we would meet for lunch at one of the cafes in Colaba and she would eat soup while we ate whatever; in the earlier years of course we often had a date at Samraat for thali! All throughout the time I knew her however our favourite hangout was the Sea Lounge, that magnificent part of the Taj Hotel and a place that I think of as her spiritual home. How she loved it there and how many times have I been there with her! Cappuccino was her drink of choice. I think the last time I was in the Sea Lounge was with my best girlfriends, mum and of course Nora. Here is that recipe for Biriani; copied out fair. I’ve also found a recipe for that refrigerator cake that is probably pretty close to the one she used to make; sadly I don’t have the original recipe. Make them and send her some love; she surely gave us all a great deal. Vale Nora; inspiration, guide … goddess.
Nora’s Biriani
Mix Together :
600g – 1kg chicken pieces. If plump, slice into ½
2 rounded tspns each ginger and garlic
1 chopped large tomato
Juice of ½ limbu (1 teaspoon lemon juice)
5 dried apricots or plums
12 cashew nuts or almonds
2 stalks tender curry patha
½ handful mint leaves
3 cloves
18 peppercorns
½ inch cinnamon
6 elichis (cardamom pods)
1 ½ tsp coriander powder (ground coriander)
1 tsp cummin powder
1 ½ tsp salt
1 cup yoghurt
1 ½ onions sliced finely and fried amber, cooled and crushed.
Do the above several hours in advance OR even the day before & cook till tender.
Garnish : 4 potatoes; quartered and fried golden brown; 2 onions, thinly sliced and fried in the same oil as the potatoes. Reserve to top the biriani when it comes out of the oven. Pour the remaining oil from the pan into the curry mixture.
Par boil 3 cups long grain rice with 1 stick cinnamon, 3 cloves, 8 peppercorns. Drain.
Put cooked curry mixture in dish. Fill with rice. Over rice, sprinkle kayser (saffron soaked in 3 tablespoons milk) OR Haldi pani (tumeric dissolved in water). Cover and bake 30 minutes at 150F.
Top with the garnish and serve.
She also used to add some whole almonds and sultana raisins fried in the garnish oil; I’ve also always done this but it isn’t actually in the original recipe.
Refrigerator Cake :
250g digestive biscuits
300g dark chocolate
100g unsalted butter
150g golden syrup
200g raisins or sultanas; soaked in rum
60g walnuts; chopped
Use parchment paper to line a 20cm square cake tin (cut the edges so that it fits securely into the corners, back in the day we used cling film). Leave extra over the sides so that you can lift the cake out easily when it’s set.
Put the biscuits into a plastic bag and crush them to pieces with a rolling pin.
Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup together; either in a microwave or over simmering water.
Stir in the biscuits; sultanas and walnuts. Pour the mixture into the tin; smoothing the top with the back of a spoon.
When it’s cool enough; place it in the fridge for 2 hours to set.
To serve; turn out the cake and peel of the parchment paper. Cut into squares or slices and enjoy!
This is wonderful with ice cream – go vanilla or for a true Nani / Nora experience, rum and raisin!!!