Traveling with children
During the British Raj, Indian English developed its own characteristics, which have survived to the present day. It was during this period that many Indian words entered the vocabulary of everyday English, including words like verandah, bungalow, sandal, pyjamas, shampoo, jungle, turban, caste, chariot, chilli, cardamom, pundit and yoga. The traveller to India soon becomes familiar with other terms in common usage that have not spread so widely outside the Subcontinent: dacoit, dhoti, panchayat, lakh and crore are but a – a full list of Anglo-Indianisms can be found in the famous Hobson-Jobson dictionary. Perhaps the most endearing aspect of Indian English is the way it has preserved forms now regarded as highly old-fashioned in Britain. Addresses such as “Good sir” and questions like “May I know your good name?” are commonplace, as are terms like “tiffin” and “cantonment”. This type of usage reaches its apogee in the more flowery expressions of the media, which regularly feature in the vast array of daily newspapers published in English. Thus headlines often appear such as “37 perish in mishap”, referring to a train crash, or passages like this splendid report of a bank robbery: “The miscreants absconded with the loot in great haste. They repaired immediately to their hideaway, whereupon they divided the iniquitous spoils before vanishing into thin air.”
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