My heartfelt condolences on the demise of Claire Amy Bradley, a senior and loyal member of this List. She began her life in Poona, a place to which I am much attached. I feel that yet one more old Poonaite has gone... Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, September 06, 2012. -----Original Message----- From: Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 10:09 AM To: india-british-raj@rootsweb.com Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Claire Amy Bradley - my friend Dear Friends : It is my sad and painful duty to inform you that one of our senior and esteemed members Claire Bradley passed away in New York on Sunday evening, 26th August 2012, at the age of 70. She was ailing for about two weeks prior to her to death and her condition worsened day by day. Finally the inevitable happened - in spite of the prayers and best wishes of all her relatives and friends. Claire and I became friends through India List. Later she joined our India British Raj List and became one of its frequent correspondents and loyal supporters. It's difficult to express in words your feeling for someone you have never met in person: yet for whom you feel a strong affection and affinity. We used to exchange all types of news and gossip and opinions on all sorts of subjects almost every day. Through her words and ideas I could visualise her as a jolly, fun loving person, very open-minded and liberal and yet quite determined on certain issues. She never minced her words and was not averse to saying them aloud. But she was gentle; she never hurt anybody deliberately. Her sense of humour was exceptionally strong and she saw and fully enjoyed the funny side of life. When she got tired of the pigeons dirtying the windowsills and glass panes of her apartment every day, she photographed them and dashed off several letters to her local councillor. Her description of that scene was very graphic and droll. Over the years, I increasingly came to look upon her as a very close family friend - a favourite aunt, may be! Claire left India in late1950s for good - but India could never leave her. She remembered forever the sights and sounds and smells and smiles and silliness of India and was highly nostalgic about the fun-filled, ecstatic days she had spent in Poona (now Pune) and Bombay (now Mumbai). The taste of some of her favourite Indian dishes - such as ''gulab jamun'' (sweet) and ''Pani-Puri'' (spicy, hot) lingered on her lips till the end. Just a few days before her last hospitalisation, she wrote to me on the fifth of August 2012 << This is a good comprehensive list (of 40 popular Bombay) food dishes but sticking out like a sore thumb by its absence: PANI PURI! How could they forget that? The most exquisite explosion of flavours in the mouth, and I could easily make myself sick eating too many of them -- mmm-hmmm! How I'd love to walk over to Chowpatty and scoff some of these goodies. >> And then came the thunderbolt - email from Claire's sister Rosemary Taylor (who is also our List member), informing me of Claire's illness - and then came the dreaded news three days ago - Claire was no more. I know she was reconciled to the inevitable but had never sounded bitter about her debilitating illness. So as a matter of fact, death has come as a blessed release to her from her pain and suffering. How does one weep for someone whom one has never met, yet who is almost a part of one's family? I am not ashamed to admit that when I read about Claire's passing, my eyes became moist and I was haunted by her thoughts for a long, long time. She was a superb human being. We all will miss her. We'll miss her smile, her energy, her ebullience, her cheerful spirit, her love for life, her humour. Rest in Peace, Claire - my old friend, my fellow P G Wodehouse- fan, and my British India History comrade. -- Harshawardhan (Harshoo) [Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar] I am grateful to Claire's sister Rosemary Taylor for this input on her life: << Claire Amy Bradley b. 16 September 1938, d. 26 August 2012. Claire was born in Quetta, Baluchistan, then part of British India, on 16 Sept 1938. Her parents were Aubrey Richard Bradley, known to his friends as Dick, and Heather Agnes Lillian nee Hibbert, known to her friends as Dolly. Her father, who was born in Springfield, Idle, Bradford, served in the Army Ordnance Corps, and in 1941 was posted to Maymyo, Burma. With the fall of Rangoon to the Japanese, the family were evacuated to India, where her mother received the news of the death of her husband in May 1942. Dick Bradley is interred at Gauhati War Graves Cemetery. Claire and her siblings grew up in Poona. They originally attended the Lawrence Memorial Royal Military School, Lovedale, Nilgiris, then the Convent of Jesus and Mary Poona, from where she passed her senior Cambridge exams in 1954. She then went on to secretarial school, and started working, first in Poona and then in Bombay. The firm sent her to Karachi to work for their branch there, and from then on she had an eventful life, working in Teheran, Rome, Greece, and Nigeria. Claire came to the USA in the early 60's; first to Washington DC and then to San Francisco. In 1966 she applied for US Citizenship, and made her home in New York. She worked for Arthur Andersen, Arthur Young, and Weil, Gotshal and Manges, where she excelled as a legal secretary. Her increasing deafness forced her to retire, and her subsequent emphysema made life increasingly difficult. But she retained an active and lively correspondence with her family, many friends and acquaintances, via her computer, which became her main form of communication. Her little dog, Nellie was her constant and faithful companion, whose piercing bark alerted Claire to any activity outside her front door! Claire will be sadly missed by all those who came to know and love her for her wit, humour and sheer tenacity. Rest In Peace, my dearest sister, you were one in a million. >> Claire's friend (and our member) Sandra Carney has this to add: << I remember her as an Anglo-Indian woman who loved her adopted country America and was a true Patriot. She loved her little Nellie and told me that she did not know what she would do without her beloved pet. I know she would not have wanted to leave this world without making proper preparations for dear Nellie. She wanted to attend Anglo-Indian functions around the world, but her illness limited her and she regretted this greatly. >> ============================ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I was very sad to hear the news about our Claire. From the many tributes paid to her I add my heartfelt condolences to her family and many friends. She was witty, full of energy and courageous, always ready to support the underdog and righteous. Her posts to the list were straight from the heart and entertaining reading. I recall her post soon after the terrorist attack on Bombay, her nostalgic time at the YWCA, the famous Irani restaurant on Colaba Road that had the world famous biryani and of course the Pani Puri - the heavenly snack she will now have plenty of. I was in Bombay about the same time Claire was and travelled the same path. My preference at that restaurant was the paratta and masala chops. RIP Pat