Author: Pran Nevile
Publisher: Indialog Publications
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 186
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187981644
Description
There was a time when India was proclaimed to be the land of enchantments - the golden Orient, glittering in the best brilliance of sun and song - land of promise, and hope! Devoted to the life and times of common people, both Sahibs and natives, this book seeeks to amuse the readers with some tales of wine, women and song. This narrative covers some of the untold aspects of the Raj which are not usually dealt with in history books.
This book takes one into the lives of Sahibs and Memsahibs, and offers an array of entertaining tales about their interests and lifestyles - from the Sahibs' enthusiasm for nautch parties and pig-sticking, to the First Imperial Durbar in Deli, to intriguing stories about Brahmin astrologers, and fascinating accounts of jugglers adept at the great Indian rope trick.
Nevile's prose has the relaxed, easy familiarity of a veteran dinner-table raconteur, and the narrative, interspersed with period paintings and photographs, transports the reader to another era - the Raj, its set of cultural idiosyncrasies, and a colorful casts of mavericks and their eccentricities.
Contents
SECTION I
Sahibs and Bibis
The Oldest Professkion
Memsahibs and the Indian Marriage Bazar
Mautch Nostalgia
Banning of an Indian Erotic Epic
SECTION II
India Through the Lens
Early Pictures of Indian Life
Portrayal of Indian Women by British Artuists
Indian Paintings for the Sahibs
SECTION III
Fanny Parks - First Indophile Memsahib Traveller, Writer and Artist
Lola Montez - From Memsahib to Royal Mistress
From Farzana to Begum Joanna Sumroo
SECTION IV
Holi and Diwali - Two Queens of Festivals
Imperial Lahore - The Paris of the East
Pageantry of Princely India - A French View
First Imperial Durbar in Delhi - 1877
SECTION V
When Predictions Came True: The Brahmin Who Saw Tomorrow
Sahib's Fancy for the Hookah
The Great Rope and Other Tricks
Shikar and Animal Fights
From Arrack to Whisky