NEHRU AND LADY MOUNTBATTEN : A GREAT LOVE (Part Four)
But Edwina Mounbatten persuaded Nehru to take a short break at Mashobra, a few miles from Simla where he could unwind and think and get past his wish to resign. "Getting you to Mashobra has become my obsession," she wrote to him.
And so Lord and Lady Mountbatten set off in a convertible Buick from Delhi for Mashobra. As the car climbed climbed higher into the Himalayan foothills, Nehru's mood improved in direct proportion to the altitude. They were accompanied by the Mountbatten's younger daughter Pamela. There is a photograph of them in the car, Lord Mountbatten at the wheel, with Pamela beside him, and Nehru and Lady Mountbatten in the back seat, all four looking relaxed and happy.
Nehru and lady Mounbatten walked and ralked unde the pines and Lord Mountbatten wrote to his older daughter, Patricia, "They really dote on each other in the nicest way, each listening intently to the other ."
Years later, as prime Minister of India, Nehru would quote his favourite lines from Robert Frost,
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
Was he, perhaps, thinking of those halcyon days in Mashobra with the Mountbattens?
But soon it was time for the Mountbattens to leave and Nehru faced the prospect with horror:
" A feeling of acute malaise is creeping over me, and horror seizes me when I look at a picture in my mind of you shaking thousands of hands on the 30th and saying your final good'bye. But Dickie and you can no more bypass your destiny than I can bypass mine."
Photographs of the farewell banquet at Viceregal Lodge show Nehru looking inconsolable and unabashedly depressed as Lady Mounbatten, looking dazzling in a glittering gown, tries to cheer him up.
And so Lord and Lady Mountbatten set off in a convertible Buick from Delhi for Mashobra. As the car climbed climbed higher into the Himalayan foothills, Nehru's mood improved in direct proportion to the altitude. They were accompanied by the Mountbatten's younger daughter Pamela. There is a photograph of them in the car, Lord Mountbatten at the wheel, with Pamela beside him, and Nehru and Lady Mountbatten in the back seat, all four looking relaxed and happy.
Nehru and lady Mounbatten walked and ralked unde the pines and Lord Mountbatten wrote to his older daughter, Patricia, "They really dote on each other in the nicest way, each listening intently to the other ."
Years later, as prime Minister of India, Nehru would quote his favourite lines from Robert Frost,
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
Was he, perhaps, thinking of those halcyon days in Mashobra with the Mountbattens?
But soon it was time for the Mountbattens to leave and Nehru faced the prospect with horror:
" A feeling of acute malaise is creeping over me, and horror seizes me when I look at a picture in my mind of you shaking thousands of hands on the 30th and saying your final good'bye. But Dickie and you can no more bypass your destiny than I can bypass mine."
Photographs of the farewell banquet at Viceregal Lodge show Nehru looking inconsolable and unabashedly depressed as Lady Mounbatten, looking dazzling in a glittering gown, tries to cheer him up.
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