Spit and Polish
Page 42
Item. Wriggling out of the Navy. Another operation that was done wih some regret, naturally.
One wonders what one could make of all this. Oh yes, there’s Mauritius and the Maldives, too, and as these chapters have seen, Carloboy breezed through, taking the lumps and bumps, the pleasures and pressures as they came. Perhaps some day, the writer will try to put the rest together. But for now, begging your pardon, the best is left unsaid. Perhaps it’s the worst, That too, is a matter of interpretation.
Sonnaboy poured himself a drink. ‘So what did you do in Rangoon?’
Carloboy smiled. Sandalwood paste and soft lips around his cock and small hands pushing, pushing, pushing at his bum. He smiled.
‘Nothing much,’ he said.
Footnotes
1
(1) A ratsnake
2
(1) Leader
(2) Ref: Brothers Against the Raj, Penguin India, 1989
(3) The Free India Movement
(4) Ref: Personal Diary of Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten, London, 1988.
(5) Ref: Thy Hand, Great Anarch: India 1921-1952, London, 1987
(6) Ref: The INA Heroes: Autobiographies of Maj Gen Shah Nawaz Khan, Col Prem K. Sahgal, Col Gurbax Singh Shillon, Lahore, 1946
(7) Ref: Selected Speeches of Subhas Chandra Bose, New Delhi, 1983
(8) Ref: Subhas Chandra Bose: The Springing Tiger, London, 1959
4
(1) Ref: The Diary of a Rebel Daughter of India with the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, Bombay, 1945
5
(1) Sinhalese for vile, wild, vulgar.
(2) This was the Royal Navy shore establishment at Colombo.
(3) Sinhala: Bungalow.
(4) Sinhala colloquialism—Hollander (from Holanda, Landesi, etc.)
(5) Sinhala: Get the hell out.
(6) Sinhala: Avocado pears. Literally guavas with seeds like elephant’s testicles.
(7) Sinhala: O mother!
(8) Veeringde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company)
(9) Sinhala: Commotion
(10) Vallam—a fishing craft; Dhony—a stouter, more stable craft for passenger crossing.
(11) Tamil: Troublemaker
(12) Big and little masters—the Superintendents and Assistant Superintendents of the estates.
6
(1) Ref: The War of the Springing Tigers, London, 1975
(2) Ref: The Indian National Army—Secret Service, New Delhi, 1988
7
(1) Literally ‘arse-boys’ or boys who were unmindful of any indignity perpetrated on their backsides, actually welcoming such attentions.
(2) Literally devils. Used here in the loose sense of meaning ‘all the useless clodhoppers the Army has the doubtful honour to train’
(3) Fox Hill was a Diyatalawa landmark. Long ago, the British sailors of HMS Fox had decided to perpetuate their ship. They chose a hill and, with white granite and shiny quartz and chalk boulders, made a representation of a large fox, embedded into the slope.
8
(1) Ref: Subhas Chandra Bose and Indian Freedom Struggle, New Delhi, 1985.
13
(1) A delicious bit of localese to describe a low-key discussion.
22
(1) C-in-C India, Field Marshall Sir A.P. (Earl) Wavell had a long and distinguished career. From C-in-C Middle East to Supreme Commander in South-east Asia, he was recalled to India and became Viceroy. He was also proposed as Governor-General, Australia.
24
(1) Ref. United States Army in World War II: Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, US War Department Official History, 1953.
29
(1) The Allied Naval Signals Book
(2) Radio Telephony
(3) Wireless Telegraphy and Visual Signals
31
(1) J.R. Jayewardene, a young politician in the Ceylon State Council of the time. He eventually became the first Executive President of Sri Lanka.
(2) Today’s Lankan population is 18.3 million which makes the number of Sinhalese language speakers (including those who are not Sinhalese) about 16.4 million.
33
(1) Sinhalese—son
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