Subrahmanyam Ganesh

MP: I...am I right in understanding that in...that you helped in the Aberfan disaster in 1966?

SG: Yes. I was working in the hospital then. Actually, I was on holidays, but I was home, and I had a call that morning from the hospital saying, you know, that an incident had occurred...this is what they put, an incident had occurred down the valley, they were expecting lots of casualties, could I come and help? So I said okay. So I went down to the hospital, to St Tydfil's Hospital. It's a local hospital. And they said, 'Look, we've got plenty of doctors there, but we could do with doctors down in Aberfan itself. So would you like to go down?' So I drove down there. And of course, the police were controlling the traffic, but I told them I was a doctor, and I was going, so they let me through. I went and I parked somewhere. And they were...and led to this place. Of course, it was all a great pandemonium, really, because the whole school was buried up to the roof in slurry. And people were there digging with bare hands, whatever they had, trying to move the slurry and the sludge away to get at the children who were all there still. But unfortunately, by the time I got there, anyone who was alive had been brought up, had already been brought up, brought out, and all the ones that were bringing up were bodies. So I went there, so it led to a room where I just had to wait, waiting for children to be brought out. I could do nothing. All that happened was from time to time when somebody felt they could see or feel a body, a whistle would blow, and everything would stop, and they would try and get that body out. And they would bring it, and all I had to say, you know, there's no way of bringing them back to life, they were dead. I had to certify the children were dead. So, I stayed there for all that day, and all I did was to examine them, say this child is dead, sort of thing. So, it was one of the worst days in my life.

MP: It must have been...

SG: Yeah.

MP: extremely difficult turning up, and not knowing...

SG: Yeah.

MP: ...what you were going to see.

SG: Yeah, it was...you know? And the poor parents of the children who passed away, I mean, it was a dreadful period. I still can't think or talk about it without...yeah.

MP: How many children did you see that day, do you know?

SG: About 120 people died, some teachers, and most of them children. 128, I think, was the total number of deaths. Because the whole school was buried in slurry.

MP: And what was it like in the days after?

SG: Oh, for quite a few days after, you know, the whole place was...well, the whole community was depressed, you know? The one thing I noticed were people who had children were taking them out and treating them as sort of, you know, thank you, my children are safe, sort of thing, celebrating, you know, or thanking God. So they're taking children out for picnics and taking them to meals and things like that. And then, of course, some of the children who had been brought out alive were brought into a hospital in Merthyr, and the parents would come to visit them. And of course, I was...you know, I was doing paediatrics and I would be there on the ward most of the time. And those...while the parents were happy that their child was safe, they...as part of the community, they felt the loss the community, and they were still very sad and depressed. And it was a period that was...I remember, I was in the ward, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh came to see the survivors. But while most of the survivors were brought to Merthyr, to the St Tydfil’s Hospital, a few were taken to [Churchill Hospital]. And whoever arranged it took the Queen and Prince Philip to Churchill Hospital, they never came to Merthyr where most of the surviving children were. But George Thomas was then the Speaker of the House of Commons. He came. He came to Merthyr. And I can remember I was on the children's ward at the time when he came, and he came. And of course he was quite upset. Tears were running down his face as he saw the children and talked to the parents and went. Yeah, yeah. For a while, the whole community was depressed.

MP: Okay, and so earlier in the interview I think you said that Wales is now home.

SG: Yeah.

MP: Do you think of yourself as Welsh at all?

SG: Oh yeah, no, I think of myself completely as Welsh now, yes.

MP: And so, how would you describe your identity? Is it completely Welsh?

SG: It's completely Welsh now. You know, you...if people ask me where are you from? I...you know, I say I'm from Wales. And then they, are you from Wales? Yes, I said. I was born in India, but I'm Welsh. You know, I don't consider myself Indian any longer. I'm Welsh.

MP: And English?

SG: No, not English, no. I think the Welsh is a different identity. Yeah.

MP: And so, you wouldn't consider yourself to be Indian in any way?

SG: In some ways, because, you know, some of the...you know, you never lose your heritage, your culture in some ways. You know, some of the festivals and feasts, some of the religious observances, still make me feel Indian, but otherwise it's...you know, yeah. It's only when I speak to somebody in India that I feel anything Indian at all. Otherwise, it's...yeah. I said I used to go to...you know, we used to have Indian community getting together once a year to have a little weekend together. And that has stopped now. Or at least I don't go now, because I don't know lots of the recent immigrants. So I don’t go to their meetings or anything like that. I'm a life member of one or two. There's one called Kannada Balaga, which means that Kannada-speaking family, sort of thing, which is a UK-based thing, I'm a life member of that. But I hardly go to any of their events now, because, you know, the younger people I don't know, I can't identify with them. I used to go regularly in the old days, you see. So it's becoming less and less of India, more and more of...

MP: And do you...when you used to go back to India, how did it feel there? You said that when you speak to someone back home, it felt...it reminded you of your Indianness.

SG: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I...we...when I went home, I would feel Indian, but the others didn't. They say, you are different, you are not like us anymore. They...then they...somehow or other, they knew I...you know, I suppose I was thinking in a different way or behaving in a different way. They say you're no longer one of us, sort of thing. You know, they know I was different. So, no, I didn't feel it when I went...go back to India. I felt quite Indian like it was before. But yeah, the others would notice a difference in me.

MP: When did you meet Myra?

SG: I met Myra in Port Talbot Hospital when I started working there in 19...that would be 1957. Yeah. Because I came in 1956. My first job was in Llanelli and then Newport for a short while. And then in 1957 I started working in Port Talbot, and that's where I met her.

MP: So you met her quite soon?

SG: Yes, yes, quite soon. And I said it was, you know...when I had time off and nothing else to do and we had to find...you know, how to...so Myra would say, 'Come on, come and meet my parents' and...you know, she's one of the, what shall I say, people who sort of took me in hand seeing that I was lonely and had nothing to do, sort of thing. So that's how it started, yes. And Myra's elder sister, who was also a nurse, had married another Indian doctor. He was from South Africa, South African Indian. He had come to this country. And in fact, he worked as a general practitioner in Swansea for quite a long time. And Myra's elder sister was married to him. Yeah.

MP: Do you remember the first time you met Myra?

SG: Yes, actually. She wasn't very happy with me the first time we met, because I think it was Easter Monday or something like that, and of course being a bank holiday, she wanted it quiet, just [inaudible 1:41]. But of course, I had just started work. I wanted to know all about my patients, so I made her take me round the ward, and she wasn't very happy that I wanted to do it that day. But yeah.

MP: How did she show her unhappiness?

SG: Oh well, she said she couldn't do anything about it, but, you know, just I could see that she wasn't...probably she said something to one of the other nurses, something, look at him, sort of thing. Yeah.

MP: And what happened from there then?

SG: Yeah, well, from there, as I said, I met her there, and then I used to go to her house and things like that. So, we got to know each other. And we decided we’d...you know, we'd get married. We got married, of course. I didn't tell my family until I had got married, because obviously they wouldn't have approved if I'd said I'm going to get married to a Christian girl over here, sort of thing. I only let them know after I’d got married. I said they have to accept it. And my grandmother was much more broad-minded than my own parents, and said these things happen, and, yeah, there she is, you know? She must be a good woman if he has chosen her, sort of thing. And so that was it.

MP: So, what year did you marry?

SG: That would be 1958. Yeah.

MP: So, around a year after you met?

SG: Yeah, yeah.

MP: And what about Myra's family, how did they feel about the wedding?

SG: Oh, they were...I said, they were quite [inaudible 3:29]. I said Myra's elder sister had married the other thing as well, so they were quite happy, no problems there at all. Of course, they lived in a joint family as well. Because Myra was the youngest of five. She had one brother who was the eldest, who was a teacher, and then another sister who was a nurse, and then two other sisters who were just housewives. Yeah. They all lived in a small village, they come in a little village called Glyncorrwg near Port Talbot. And the whole family lived there, yeah.

MP: And that's where she was born and brought up?

SG: That’s where she was...yeah.

MP: And tell me about the wedding.

SG: The wedding was a not a very grand affair, it was registry office wedding in Neath. When we decided to get married, of course, I was doing a course in Edinburgh to take my membership examination. When we fixed the date of the wedding, actually, I came back from Edinburgh to Neath the day before we’re going to marry. So, the marriage...the wedding was quite a small affair with just the close family in a registry office in Neath.

Entry credit

Zareena Pundole