On 13 Mar, 21:27, "John Briggs" <john.brig...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Paul wrote:
> >> It's nothing to do with whether the vehicle encloses the occupant, as
> >> you (usually) travel in a car or van but on a bus, boat or train. "Me
> >> and Jane In A Plane" sang Jack Hilton, but today we go by plane (I
> >> expect Jane was in a biplane).
>
> >> JS
>
> > I vaguely remember listening to a song that went something like
> > "I'm leaving on a jet plane
> > Don't know when I'll be back again..."
>
> "Leaving on a Jet Plane" - best known from the version by Peter, Paul
and
> Mary in 1969, but it was actually written by John Denver in 1967.
> --
> John Briggs
Molly Mockford
"I'm very sorry to hear it"
I'm confused. Why should one be sorry to hear that McDonald's and KFC
are fad in India? And why should one look for a counter-balance in the
Baaltis in towns and villages of U.K?
Sprocket
"I understand it means 'bucket' in the original language."
JS
I'm sure you did know "the original language" is Hindi (erstwhile
Hindustani). The word does mean 'bucket'. (I checked an online
dictionary. Hindi is not my mother-tongue. I live in the southernmost
tip of "the subcontinent". ) However like all of you, we in the South
of India too relish 'Northy' delicasies like 'kabaabs', stuff baked in
the 'Tandoori Oven' and of course, Chicken Ticka Masaala'. (Did anyone
watch the teleserial 'Tandoori Nights'? It's about an Indian
restaurateur in London if I remember correctly. And it was hilarious.
And should I address you as Sprocket or JS? How do you expand JS?
John Briggs
"No, it's because Pakistan and Bangladesh object to the descriptive
phrase
"Indian Sub-Continent"."
I never knew there was such a reason behind it. I thought the press
simply liked to shorten a frequently used coinage!
Though, geographically closer to Pakisthan and Bangladesh, this bit of
news was never brought to the attention of the newspaper readers in
India. But then, until I traveled west, (US to be specific) I hadn't
realised (my comp says I should spell it with a 'z' . Should I?) that
there is a version of the political map of India where half of Kashmir
is shown as Pakistani territory. (Needless to say, this edition of
the map is banned in India.)
But then, my knowledge of life and things are limitted. I find solace
in
the Upanishads : '"the sea of knowledge is vast, but the ocean of
ignorance is vaster, still."
We have this reservoir of water called the " Indian Ocean" to the
south of us. I wonder when British press will rename it "The Ocean" in
order not to hurt sentiments in Pakistan and Bangladesh. And we have
this sea called "The Arabian Sea" to the west of us. May be we should
consider renaming it during the next Middle East conflict depending on
whose side we are on. (In India, quite often we are not sure whose
side we are on. During Saddam's occupation of Kuwait, there was one
political observer who wrote "In a war which Saddam called the mother
of all battles, he faced a defeat which was the father of all defeats
and in the process, India committed a diplomatic blunder which was the
grandmother of all diplomatic blunders".
I'm so glad John Briggs is back after what I think was a brief period
of hibernation.
And now that we are on the subject of cuisine, could someone tell me
what it was that Oliver Goldsmith had in mind when in "The School for
Scandal" he described the "Naabob from Calcutta coming home with
"crackers and sweetmeet" from India?
Did he refer to 'Samosas' by the word 'crackers'? The context is such
that I cannot think he took 'fireworks' home.
--
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