The chai-wallah on the train back from Goa came through selling his wares (in Hindi), and i just cracked up. The seven other people preparing to bed down in our cramped little compartment thought i was mad, but his accent sounded like broad old-fashioned Brummie. Not Black Country, more the east side of the city.
How did this come about? Has the Stechford dole office been sending people off to work on the Indian trains? Is there an old community of Alum Rockers that's been here for decades? Maybe Ward End is twinned with Mangalore? I think we should be told.
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3 comments:
Not being from Birmingham and all I had to look up "bostin". So Adam, hope you don't mind if I add this handy link to Virtual Brum.
Incidentally, how come you chose to call it Bombay? I thought it was called Mumbai these days. Please advise. If it's purely for the alliterative appeal, I understand.
Keep on writing and we'll keep on reading. That is, at least Christopher and I will!
Bon voyage
-- DW
Just to say I'm a regular reader too - this blog's barrie! (scots dictionary), and I haven't yet sub-let your room, so if you survive the snakes and can tear yourself away from the curries then you can still come home.
Blimey, readers! (Or, to continue in the vernacular, "ow do babs?")
In answer to David's question, i called it Bombay mostly because it alliterates and I'm cheap like that. But also my friend Siddharth calls it Bombay, and a lot of local people still do.
The name change was a local government decision taken ten years ago, when a rather nasty Hindu hardcore party called Shiv Sena were in power, I believe. But it's here to stay now, I suppose.
Incidentally, you might worry that calling it Bombay is dangerously British and colonialist (particularly given my family's Raj history!), but the name actually derives from that given to the port by the Portuguese. So i think I'm on (slightly) safer ground!
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