"أيام ثيم ولَّت" [و‎‎٤‎٥] (٢٤٨/٨٩)

46
difficulty in persuading him that it wasn't like that at all -
far from it!
I rememberno occasion in my year and a half under training as a
junior Civil Servant in India when I had any social contacts with
Indians. For one thing there was the feeling that they might
lead to friendships and involvement and hence to the loss of
one s impartiality, and for another most Indians were unversed in
Western manners and customs. I never even had a drink or a meal
under my Deputy Commissioner's roof although, as a graduate of an
English university he was cultured and sophisticated, his wife
would never have appeared before a stranger. Indeed many years
later, when my wife used to call on the wife of a senior
Pakistani official, the latter's response to the rhetorical
guestion "How do you do?" was to launch into a description - with
no detail spared - of the struggles she was having with her
t ape-worm!
After securing a bungalow and hiring furniture for it, one's next
problem was to employ a Khansama or cook. For some reason, while
one's bearer and driver travelled with one from place to’place,
this class of employee was non-1ransferab1e. One took on a fresh
one at each new station to which one was posted. There were
plenty of candidates with sheaves of references (of which most
were forged) and it was quite a problem to sort them out.
Having been selected and employed, the Khansama would set himself
out to show the excellence and variety of his repertoire. As one
discovered only too late, the secret was then never to praise him
or congratulate him on any particular dish. If you did so he
would say to himself "Thank heaven I have found what the
so-and-so likes", and would bring in a youth - described as an
assistant-cook - and teach him how to prepare it. From that time
on one was offered nothing else, while the Khansama found himself
additional employment with another household and repeated the
process, thus drawing two or more salaries at the same time.
These problems, however, I was able to hand over to my sister,
Biddy, who came out for the winter to keep house for me, and very
well she did it.
★★★★ ★★★★
There were two cavalry regiments stationed at Sialkot - the 3rd
Carabiniers of the British army and the 2nd Lancers of the
Indian, so we had two days of very enjoyable polo a week.
Apart from this the D.C. assigned to me the task of investigating
and reporting on the economic circumstances of the village of
Kotli Loharan, interesting because the inhabitants were lohars or
blacksmiths and had a tradition of migrating to East A'f r i c a or
elsewhere to earn a better living than the village could
provide. I don't suppose anybody ever read my report - I am sure