Were Brabourne's students aware of the Indian merchant marine interest in Lipstick Building, in Manhattan, New York?
That Lipstick Building was far more interested in the RMS Titanic boat decks (from where the passengers were getting into the lifeboats) than in the occupants of the lifeboats?
It made John Cairncross appear differently. If Americans found out about the last-minute calculations of the tycoons before the Titanic sank, that they were worrying themselves sick that they might not be able to understand the origin and purpose of every American corporation, that Indian politicians might be better placed to analyse them, Americans in 2025 might have no option but to concede their country to the NRIs.
Indian politicians, on their part, would place the responsibility on the colonial police, it was the latter's methodical work and documentation that allowed a detailed understanding of how certain Indians migrated, where they settled, what kind of businesses they might have become a part of or founded.
It made Antara's situation precarious, she was altogether useless, despite excellent training on lease and currency matters. She might be thrown out of employment, isolated at home, altogether forgotten as Wall Street firms and other corporations were forced to negotiate with Indians for intelligence.
The first casualty would be the Jews, whether Hamas agreed or not to the Trump/Mahalanobis ceasefire proposals was what global news reports were heading with, not that it was the perpetrator of a ghastly massacre against Jews exactly two years ago.
The one cause for hope was that westerners were aware that colonial police archives from India would provide no definitive explanation, that the moment one set of facts was offered, some expert or historian was bound to challenge it. Then there were sacred topics like the Mutiny and the lease family's shift to Mykolaiv, Ukraine in the early 1880s, on which the colonial archives would not be forthcoming.
Wall Street firms would also do well to remember that there was a hierarchy, an ascendancy within Indian provinces and if Wall Street felt too harassed by northern India, other parts of India might offer a startlingly different version of the same events.
All of the above had come up because ACJ had suggested the colonial archives for "self-defence", and it was not clear who needed defending, if it was the Trump administration that apparently depended on Vichy France for railroad information.
Yes, finding the arborist/tree manager was the need of the hour. Anjali in her younger days.
October 9, 2025.
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