Dramatis Personae:
In the beginning there were three brothers: Hormasji, Pestonji and Dinshawji. Their great-great-grandfather Ashaji had come to Zab village from Surat and made a living selling alcohol. He was the first Zabvala. He was poor, but by the time of the brothers they had become wealthy landowners and farmers. They were granted 11 villages tax free by the British. When the brothers were in school they were sick of having waiting till last to be called, so they changed their name (and the village’s) from Zab to Jhab:
Pestonji moved to Surat and was Principal of the I.P. Mission School there. His children settled in Bombay. Dinshawji stayed in Jhab and had six children. One of them, Nariman, had a grandson named Hoshang. I met him and his family in Bombay earlier.
Another of Dinshawji’s sons, Darabshah, had the sons Erachshah and Dinshawji. They still live in the family house at Jhab:
Dinshawji’s daughter Diana married Pervez Cooper and they live in Surat with their two children, Pouroush and Tinaz:
And with their cousin, Erachshah’s daughter Kashmira:
The oldest of the brothers, Hormasji, went to Bombay and had four children. One of his sons, Shavaksha, was a trade union leader and was imprisoned by the British for four years during the Meerut Conspiracy Case. He was eventually released without being convicted. Here is a photo of him from an orphanage near Jhab where he donated a library:
Shavaksha had eight children, including Cyrus Jhabvala. Cyrus married Ruth Prawer and had three children. He also had me.
No one quite knows what happened to the Hormasji line of the family. They are all, as Erakshaw says, half-cracked. Until one day I turned up on the train...
