Of Fanás and Forecastles: The Indian Ocean and Some Lost Languages of the Age of Sail – 4 of 11
ChrestomatherThe lives of lascars are of more interest today than ever before - "A crew of bemused Lascar sailors in London" (http://www.bookdrum.com) for the…
Of Fanás and Forecastles: The Indian Ocean and Some Lost Languages of the Age of Sail – 3 of 11
Liverpool Harbour (Peabody Essex Museum) In Redburn, his autobiographical novel about his first voyage, Herman Melville tells the story of how he met the lascars of…
Of Fanás and Forecastles: The Indian Ocean and Some Lost Languages of the Age of Sail – 2 of 11
So what then did the word ‘lascar’ mean in 19th century English? When placed beside a crew list like that of the William Stewart, the Oxford English Dictionary’s…
Of Fanás and Forecastles: The Indian Ocean and Some Lost Languages of the Age of Sail – 1 of 11
'Dutch Galleon showing both a forecastle (left) and aftcastle (right) off Mauritius', 1600-1630, Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom (Wikimedia Commons) Bangladeshis, like Armenians and Gujaratis,…
Another Country: Writers and Censors in Burma, 15 years later – part 2 of 2
On Nov 17 this year, the Burmese writer Ma Thida and I went to visit the offices of the Press Scrutiny Board in Yangon, the seat of the…
Another Country: Writers and Censors in Burma, 15 years later – 1 of 2
On November 14 this year, I returned to Burma/Myanmar after 15 years. During my time there I thought often of the opening sentence of L.P.Hartley’s novel The…
The Well-Traveled Banyan: 2 of 2
Banyan, 18th century, Victoria and Albert Museum The robes known as 'banyans' were not the only garments of that name in the 18th and 19th…
The Well Traveled Banyan: 1 of 2
No garment lies closer to the heart of the Indian male than the banyan.¶ Yet, despite its hundreds of millions of adherents, the ubiquitous undervestment of the…
Letters from Venice
Dear Mr Ghosh, I honestly "discovered your name" only few weeks ago, just by and for a lucky casuality. While walking in front of bookshop window, a…
Armenian retreats
In 301 C.E. Armenia became the first kingdom to adopt Christianity as the religion of the realm. This history has endowed the country…