Work and Play in India and Kashmir

· 1893 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1Work and Play in India and Kashmir, i6i

2railway engineers, with many others, who

3mostly have comfortable houses and can

4entertain in bachelor fashion, providing

5boiled mutton without capers, do sometimes

6combine and refuse all invitations from the

7Burra Sahibs, yea, even omit the biennial

8visit ! Pariahs they become, but, strong in

9numbers and virtue, they care not. Imagine

10how perfectly correct and lively the stately

11dinners are after such secession. The finest

12antidote to Burra Sahib snobbery is the

13presence of a really smart cavalry regiment,

14one of the " don*t dance, don't care a cuss

15for anyone " style ; the charming innocence

16of the youngest sub who lights his cigarette

17under the very nose of his stately hostess,

18she who years ago interdicted the fragrant

19weed on her lawns, is only surpassed by the

20genial familiarity of [the senior captain, who

21slaps the collector on the back to the tune of

22" Come and have a peg, old cock I '* Sainted

23mother I " Old cock I "

24There is a good old habit of calling a spade

25M

Work and Play in India and Kashmir, p. 174 · Lahore Durbar Foundation