Shootings and Visas

Well, the atrocities of the other week have not dampened my enthusiasm one little bit, though I will now look on the trip a little differently. The shootings have made this more of an oddesy than just a little adventure. I would be a fool if I wasn't frightened by this, but I'm not going to let it stand in my way - if I did then the terrorists would be gaining a moral victory, and I'm not prepared for that to happen.
This has given me more of a reason to go, and I don't feel threatened by what happened in Mumbai, just more determined. I have now received my visa so the stage is set! All I need to do now is wait for my final pay-off from work so I can fund the trip.

My mother is so looking forward to me going too, she can't wait to see if I find out anything or if I can locate either grave, I would be kidding myself if I thought I would just stumble across something as profound as that, but I have been heartened by a story in our local paper (The Harborough Mail) of a couple who located their grand-fathers grave on a recent trip there. This was dating back to about 1923, and mine were both in 1897 so there is a bit of a difference in time. However, I won't give up hope of at least finding something of interest somewhere along the way.
I have called the National Archives in Kew to see if there was anything they could help me with but they didn't seem at all interested once I divulged that the birth and deaths were all in India.
The only information I managed to gain was that the inquest on Fanny Essex's death would be a local record so, if it still exists, it will be somewhere "over there" rather than in any UK archive. At least that's something!
I have copies of Grand-dad's birth and both death certificates which I will take with me. One thing that has struck me is that Fanny's death was registered in Lucknow, not Colaba where she died. I can only assume that this was because she was still under the jurisdiction of the British army and Lucknow was where the 18th Hussars were still based even though she had been moved to Colaba to await passage back to these shores. I just hope the local records are in Colaba as if the inquest was in Lucknow it would be an army record and I don't think I'd have much chance of locating that.
Mum has loaned me a really old photo of the whole family sitting outside their house which was taken around 1895 judging by the size/age of Grand-dad, my girlfriend, Caroline has offered to copy this for me which should be great judging by the graduation photo she produced for me last week, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished result. If I have time I'll scan it and post it here before I go.