Mr Fielding's House
Mr Fielding is the schoolmaster at Government College, Chandrapore. He is the only European in the film/book who has any empathy with Indians, so when Adela Quested expresses a desire to meet some, he invites Miss Quested and Mrs Moore to his house to meet Professor Godbole, an Indian mystic who also works at the College. Miss Quested mentions that Mrs Moore has talked about the 'charming Dr Aziz'. Fielding has heard of him, and promises to invite him along as well.
Dr Aziz enters Mr Fielding's house
Mr Fielding's house, with its covered terrace and pool is a wonderful setting, and it seems amazing that a school teacher could live in such surroundings, even in India. David Lean found this perfect location at the West End Hotel, now part of the Taj group, on Race Course Road in Bangalore, near the railway. Kevin Brownlow, in his wonderful book 'David Lean - a Biography', quotes Lean in a letter to producers Brabourne and Goodwin, 6th Feb 1983: 'The main feature is a lovely group of ten very old trees with wonderfully shaped trunks and branches reaching up to a leafy covering some forty feet above. It would require only a few clever touches to give the place the air of an ancient Moghul garden - and very beautiful too. And in the hotel grounds if you please!' The production crew would take residence in the 1905 heritage block.
Dr Aziz waits for Mr Fielding to finish his shower.
Dr Aziz arrives for Mr Fielding's 'At Home' a little early, and waits whilst Fielding finishes his shower and gets dressed. Dr Aziz looks at some of the interesting knick-knacks that Fielding has around the room, and chats with Fielding through the shower door.
Professor Godbole, in the pool
In the meantime, Professor Godbole arrives un-announced, and whilst waiting, dangles his feet in the pool. Sadly, this pool is no longer there at the West End Hotel - it has been filled in.
Mrs Moore and Dr Aziz at the Pool
Tiffin is served by the pool
Mrs Moore prefers to eat outside, so the food is served in a shady location next to the pool. Professor Godbole, a high-caste Hindu, and vegetarian, sits to one side. His caste-rules would forbid him to eat at the same table as Europeans or a Muslim.
Professor Godbole tries an Indian sweet
Aziz, Godbole, and Adela at the pool
Mrs Moore gets Mr Fielding to show her around Government College, and leaves Adela to chat with Dr Aziz and Professor Godbole. They share a basket of water-chestnuts.
An Indian friend of mine, Mohan Bhuyan, has picked up on an anomaly that might not be spotted by the casual western observer. He writes: 'One thing that struck me as odd about Lean's characterisation of Godbole is that he has an orthodox Brahmin who is forbidden from eating food not prepared in his own home merrily dipping his feet in an Englishman's pool, that too in company with a Mem-sahib! I am not well versed in Hindu rituals and taboos (though I am one) but I do know that even today there are pockets in India where the Harijans still can't drink out of the village well. I think that for an obsessive Brahmin like Godbole to dip even a single toe into a pool patronised by casteless Englishmen or worse (when Dr Aziz enters Fielding's house there is a servant wading in the pool, obviously cleaning it)....it just couldn't have happened!'
Aziz, Godbole, and Adela at the pool
Ronny Heaslop arrives, and is horrified to see Adela mixing with Indians.
Professor Godbole leaves Mr Fielding's house
Our last view of Mr Fielding's house on this page comes later in the film, when Fielding and Godbole miss the departure of the expedition to the Marabar Caves, and return to Fielding's house to telephone for a lift - no cellphones in those days, and very few public telephones either! Professor Godbole feels that the expedition is most inauspicious, and whilst Fielding is on the telephone, takes the opportunity to slip away, un-noticed.
Trees in the Gardens of the Taj West End Hotel
In January 2017 I paid a visit to the Taj West End Hotel on Race Course Road in Bangalore, set in its leafy 20 acre site, to try and see what remained of the locations used in the film for Mr. Fielding's house. I had a contact in the Learning and Development Department, but found that I had left my visit too late, as he had since moved to Mumbai. I chatted to the Concierge about this website, and he kindly assigned a member of staff to show me around. This gentleman had worked at the hotel for the last 25 years. All the staff who had worked there when the film was being made had long retired.
Trees in the Gardens of the Taj West End Hotel
Unfortunately, little remains now apart from the magnificent trees.
Trees in the Gardens of the Taj West End Hotel
The large pool, which Professor Godbole and Adela dangled their feet in, was filled in some time ago, and the courtyard re-modelled with new buildings and gardens.
Trees in the Gardens of the Taj West End Hotel
The trees are now surrounded with attractive lawns and pathways for the guests. Sadly, no other memories remain of the time when this great hotel was briefly used as a film set for 'A Passage To India'.
Guest accomodation at the Taj West End Hotel
Taj West End Hotel - Heritage Block
