Ramblings

It's weird how long you can know somebody without knowing important things about them... Today my Granddad told us a story. Like all his stories it started as a random disconnect; a red herring that led somewhere totally different. He told us about how a ship exploded in the Bombay docks in 1944. And how his friend, a second officer in the merchant navy took a vessel, with only one other officer on board, out of the docks between the first and the second explosions. He described the destruction and then he delivered the kicker. There were gold bricks on board. And some of them flew a mile or more, driven by the power of the explosions.
Essentially, in April 1944, the ship "Fort Stikine" was unloading a cargo of dried fish and cotton bales (highly inflammable), timber, gun powder, ammunition (yeeesh!), and gold bars from London (gold, to stabilize the Indian Rupee, which was in trouble due to the Second World War and fear of invasion from Japan. This ofcourse took my Granddad a further ten minutes to explain...). The gold bullion was valued at approx. two million Pounds Sterling at that time. Nobody knows how the fire started but the two explosions which followed were so loud that windows shattered 8 miles away in Dadar. The destruction in the docks and surrounding area was immense and several hundred dock workers were killed. Gold bars were found in about a mile radius at sporadic intervals as late as 1976! And I had never ever heard this story before... The basic one, yeah, as history of Bombay. But the friend? Or the flying gold? Never before.
He does this my Granddad. Suddenly tells us something that hasn't occured to him in 23 years.
Like the time he told us why he doesn't eat ice cream...
It was my Mom's birthday. My grandfather has never eaten icecream but we always offer it to him anyway. Just incase. And that day he said yes. And told us the history of his dislike. And then had a second helping.
My grandfather has an engineering degree. After his stint in the army during WW2, he worked for the Scindia Steam Navigation Company. He has been on and set men to repair most of India's early battle ships. And he has had other curious assignments...
One day an oven blew up in the Brittania biscuit factory. It had to be replaced and the problem had to be figured out and fixed. It took my grandfather and his crew nearly a week. 5 days spent during the height of Bombay's summer in a poky room that reeked of vanilla. He never could stand the smell again. It took him nearly 50 years to be able to look at any icecream again becuse to him they all smelled of vanilla!