And a favourite of mine. My mother use to make it for our breakfast before packing us off to school. I also learnt to make it from here and now, every once in awhile I make it for myself. Couple of Christmases ago I made a return trip to Pakistan to meet up with my old school chums and was introduced to 'suji halwa'. Never came across it whilst growing up out there. We also had a porridge made of suji, again it was a favourite of ours. Mother always roasted the suji before turning it into porridge or halwa. Now I am drooling. Suji here, in Uk is semolina. Her semolina is made into a pudding, yuck, more like a white sticky gloop used to sticking up large advertising posters, not a patch on the suji halwa. Wilfred in London From: l_ehamilton@iprimus.com.au Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 10:15 PM To: india-british-raj@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Soojee Suji hula is favourite of my husband, Louis who makes a mean sugi hulva so unlike the stuff we got in school which was a regular thing and which put me off it for life. However, for Louis' sugi hulva, I make the exception. Huva puri was a regular with us in Calcutta. It was a form of sugi hulva wrapped in a poori (I hope you guys are drooling). Sugi porridge is very different to 'Creamed rice' in India, the UK and Oz where rice is rice and sugi is semolina. We also include Sugi as an ingredient in our AI Christmas Cake and many other cakes as well. It makes the cake much lighter when added to flour. 'My mother toasted it before cooking and the flavour > was vastly improved. ' This is sugi hulva. Molly Sarstedt-Hamilton, Townsville, Australia Researching - Sarstedt/Hitchcock/Osborne/Cullen/Pringle/Vargas/Hamilton/Slark/Samworth/Fury/Short/Lawcock/Smith Beautiful autumn weather at present ----- Original Message ----- From: "Claire Bradley" <claire.bradley@hotmail.com> To: "Bosham" <bosham@gmail.com> Cc: "Raj List" <india-british-raj@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 11:46 PM Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Soojee > Hi Harshoo! I don't recall soojee in a cake. In the U.S. its called > Cream of Wheat and eaten like oatmeal (as is rice milled to about the same > consistency and labelled Cream of Rice). In Lovedale boarding school > they'd serve soojee as either a lumpy porridge or a half-hearted attempt > at halva, both of which I hated! My mother toasted it before cooking and > the flavour was vastly improved. Incidentally, cream of rice is also used > here as a cereal and touted as cholesterol and fat-free, ideal for > infants. But somewhere I have an Indian recipe for a mere 1/3 cup of > cream of rice to be slow-cooked with a whole quart of enriched milk (half > and half) and loads of sugar till it's of pudding consistency, served with > almonds, sultanas etc. for garnish. Can't recall the Indian name for it. > Loaded with calories, but delicious. > > Hope the monsoons have arrived in Nagpur. New York is in its usual hot, > humid and hazy July weather. > > Cheers, > Claire > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Claire, "But somewhere I have an Indian recipe for a mere 1/3 cup of cream of rice to be slow-cooked with a whole quart of enriched milk (half and half) and loads of sugar till it's of pudding consistency, served with almonds, sultanas etc. for garnish. Can't recall the Indian name for it. Loaded with calories, but delicious." The above item is known as 'kheer', an absolutely delicious dessert. Cheers Elsie

Wilfred, You say <Couple of Christmases ago I made a return trip to Pakistan to meet up with my old school chums and was introduced to 'suji halwa'. Never came across it whilst growing up out there. > I know why. It is cooked on ghee. Halwa is the most popular form in which sooji (aka rawa and semolina) is eaten in the subcontinent. The equally popular South Indian 'upama' is also sooji. I have never understood the reason for it but the Brits never took to using 'ghee' or clarified butter in their cooking. For them, there was nothing beyond butter. On the other hand, Indian cooking hardly ever uses butter as such. For Indians it is always 'ghee'. Probably the Brits equated eating ghee with going native...but let me tell you that fresh ghee has an appetizing flavour and granularness which are totally absent from butter. On the subject of ghee, I had stayed in an army mess in Ladakh a couple of decades ago. I was amazed that ghee was a part of the fare there - by and large the Indian Army messes still follow the pre-1947 practices, but apparently an exception was made for ghee! Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, July 11, 2008.

well, we won't see Rick Salutin as a hewer or carrier. Megan S. Mills PHD198 St Helen'sToronto CDA M6H 4A1 > From: akolhatkar@rogers.com> To: india-british-raj@rootsweb.com> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:17:43 -0400> Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Is Canada more imperial than the Empire - Harper Sahib at the G8> > Dear Listers,> > On the above subject, you may like to read 'Harper Sahib at G8' in today's Globe and Mail by Rick Salutin: > > http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080710.wcosalutin11/BNStory/specialComment/> Snip <The over-obvious irony is that China and India are developed. They've built postmodern, industrial, innovative economies. Their big flaws are social and moral, not economic. Canada, meanwhile, is deindustrializing, with full acquiescence by the Harper government, and declining into reliance on raw materials. We're back to hewers and carriers. It's rapid underdevelopment. Those nations must snicker faster than they can bristle as they watch our PM strut among the G8 as he condescends to them. He's George Bush's poodle now that Tony Blair's moved on, and there's nothing to be gained by it.> > Maybe it's Canada's role, or that of today's white dominions, to be more imperial than the Empire long after the Empire has relinquished its crasser forms and learned a few lessons. I mean, who still celebrates Victoria's birthday? Trust me, it's not the Brits.> > > Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, July 11, 2008.> > -------------------------------> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message> >

Dear Listers, On the above subject, you may like to read 'Harper Sahib at G8' in today's Globe and Mail by Rick Salutin: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080710.wcosalutin11/BNStory/specialComment/ Snip <The over-obvious irony is that China and India are developed. They've built postmodern, industrial, innovative economies. Their big flaws are social and moral, not economic. Canada, meanwhile, is deindustrializing, with full acquiescence by the Harper government, and declining into reliance on raw materials. We're back to hewers and carriers. It's rapid underdevelopment. Those nations must snicker faster than they can bristle as they watch our PM strut among the G8 as he condescends to them. He's George Bush's poodle now that Tony Blair's moved on, and there's nothing to be gained by it. Maybe it's Canada's role, or that of today's white dominions, to be more imperial than the Empire long after the Empire has relinquished its crasser forms and learned a few lessons. I mean, who still celebrates Victoria's birthday? Trust me, it's not the Brits.> Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, July 11, 2008.

Suji hula is favourite of my husband, Louis who makes a mean sugi hulva so unlike the stuff we got in school which was a regular thing and which put me off it for life. However, for Louis' sugi hulva, I make the exception. Huva puri was a regular with us in Calcutta. It was a form of sugi hulva wrapped in a poori (I hope you guys are drooling). Sugi porridge is very different to 'Creamed rice' in India, the UK and Oz where rice is rice and sugi is semolina. We also include Sugi as an ingredient in our AI Christmas Cake and many other cakes as well. It makes the cake much lighter when added to flour. 'My mother toasted it before cooking and the flavour > was vastly improved. ' This is sugi hulva. Molly Sarstedt-Hamilton, Townsville, Australia Researching - Sarstedt/Hitchcock/Osborne/Cullen/Pringle/Vargas/Hamilton/Slark/Samworth/Fury/Short/Lawcock/Smith Beautiful autumn weather at present ----- Original Message ----- From: "Claire Bradley" <claire.bradley@hotmail.com> To: "Bosham" <bosham@gmail.com> Cc: "Raj List" <india-british-raj@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 11:46 PM Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Soojee > Hi Harshoo! I don't recall soojee in a cake. In the U.S. its called > Cream of Wheat and eaten like oatmeal (as is rice milled to about the same > consistency and labelled Cream of Rice). In Lovedale boarding school > they'd serve soojee as either a lumpy porridge or a half-hearted attempt > at halva, both of which I hated! My mother toasted it before cooking and > the flavour was vastly improved. Incidentally, cream of rice is also used > here as a cereal and touted as cholesterol and fat-free, ideal for > infants. But somewhere I have an Indian recipe for a mere 1/3 cup of > cream of rice to be slow-cooked with a whole quart of enriched milk (half > and half) and loads of sugar till it's of pudding consistency, served with > almonds, sultanas etc. for garnish. Can't recall the Indian name for it. > Loaded with calories, but delicious. > > Hope the monsoons have arrived in Nagpur. New York is in its usual hot, > humid and hazy July weather. > > Cheers, > Claire > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Dear Listers, http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm A tribute from Cowasjee in the newspaper Dawn of Karachi. Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, July 10, 2008.

I found this review quite interesting. As you know, I speak Marathi, [which, by extension, means I too am a Maratha (Mahratta)], and live in Nagpur, which was once the seat of the Bhonsale kingdom, till it was annexed by the British in 1817-8. One branch of the Bhonsales ruled in Poona\Kolhapur and yet another in Tanjore (Thanjawoor) in south India. The author of the book that is reviewed is D. Devika Bai who is a retired school administrator of Malaysian Indian descent. Her short stories and articles have been published in print in Singapore and Malaysia, and online in several North American e-publications. She is the great-granddaughter of one of the earliest Tanjore Maratha immigrants to British Malaya. --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India The Flight of the Swans by D. Devika Bai The Flight of the Swans is a rich and fascinating family saga set in British India and Malaya. Cursed, and with blood on his hands, Captain Ramdas Rao Bhonlse is forced to flee Killa Fort, which has fallen to the British. A strange flight of swans signals his flight from Killa; a flight that will drive Ramdas and his family into further adversity. But great adversity spawns great dreams. Ramdas dreams of ousting the British from his motherland. His sons, the handsome and irascible Nilkanth and the plain and romantic Madhav dream of possessing the same girl, Tara Bai, who is the most beautiful courtesan in the land. And Ramdas' granddaughter, blind Arundhati, dreams only of seeing one day. Woven into this tapestry is a lone white swan inextricably linked to the ebb and flow of the Bhonsles' fortunes as they flee across India to Malaya. At once magical, poignant and exotic, Devika Bai's debut novel mesmerises as it unravels the love, loyalty and courage of the Bhonsles. The saga unfolds against the backdrop of war, famine, family conflict and social injustice, and hurtles towards its inevitable end in a masterful blend of history and fiction. Pub Date: April 2005 | Price: S$23.50 | Paperback (B format) 320pp ISBN: 978-981-05-2367-1 http://www.monsoonbooks.com.sg/bookpage_0523671.html

THE PALACE OF THE NAWAB OF MOORSHEDABAD from THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS (Jan. 2, 1858. Page 3) Reproduced at http://thethingaboutthisis.blogspot.com/2008/07/palace-of-nawab-of-moorshedabad.html on Wednesday, July 09, 2008 --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

Google has an old book online (full view - 14.7 mbs) entitled ''Historical and descriptive account of British India'' by Hugh Murray and others. Published in New York 1832 in three volumes. http://books.google.com/books?id=pdI2AAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=monsoon+british+india&source=gbs_toc_s&cad=1 The third volume has an entire chapter on Col. Lambton's Trignometrical Survey of India. http://books.google.com/books?id=pdI2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA183&lpg=PA183&dq=monsoon+british+india&source=web&ots=Y-Rr4it8Z0&sig=UXAUJ3Rq0MHBIyudDjXxI777PsM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=41&ct=result#PPA316,M1 --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

William Carey's India A short essay written by James Williams, who is a 14-year old homeschooled student from Vancouver, Washington. He recently won the National Geographic Bee. http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/How_To_Homeschool/articles/45.php --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar wrote: > William Carey's India > > A short essay written by James Williams, who is a 14-year old > homeschooled student from Vancouver, Washington. He recently > won the National Geographic Bee. > > http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/How_To_Homeschool/articles/45.php Congratulations to young James Williams. However, Brother Carey and his Methodist Missionaries were not universally popular at the time; my very good friend Rev. Sydney Smith wrote, in The Edinburgh Review, criticising them on a number of occasions over the years. Yous Aye Andrew Sellon Brother Carey, while very sea-sick, and leaning over the ship to relieve his stomach from the very oppressive complaint, said his mind was even then filled with consolation in contemplating the wonderful goodness of God. Rev. Sydney Smith 1771-1854, Canon of St. Paul's.

Hi Harshoo! I don't recall soojee in a cake. In the U.S. its called Cream of Wheat and eaten like oatmeal (as is rice milled to about the same consistency and labelled Cream of Rice). In Lovedale boarding school they'd serve soojee as either a lumpy porridge or a half-hearted attempt at halva, both of which I hated! My mother toasted it before cooking and the flavour was vastly improved. Incidentally, cream of rice is also used here as a cereal and touted as cholesterol and fat-free, ideal for infants. But somewhere I have an Indian recipe for a mere 1/3 cup of cream of rice to be slow-cooked with a whole quart of enriched milk (half and half) and loads of sugar till it's of pudding consistency, served with almonds, sultanas etc. for garnish. Can't recall the Indian name for it. Loaded with calories, but delicious. Hope the monsoons have arrived in Nagpur. New York is in its usual hot, humid and hazy July weather. Cheers, Claire

This is, perhaps going to be a tall order, but I am hoping that someone might just be able to help from either the India list or the Raj list. I am trying to find drawings or sketches or early WOODEN chapels in India that might have existed from, say 1680's to 1720's. I am actually trying to find an image of the first Armenian church in Calcutta which was a wooden chapel, built between those dates. If there is anyone on the list from the British Library who might be able to help, I would really appreciate some assistance. The early Armenian Churches were built by the East India Company and it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe some book or other document relating to the E.I.R. may just have such a sketch or drawing. I have already checked with the Armenian Church in India, and they do not have anything that might contain this information, so anyone with some pointers would be very welcome in my in box! Many thanks Liz Researching Chater or Armenians in India and Hong Kong in 2008? Please go to <http://www.chater-genealogy.com/> www.chater-genealogy.com.

William Lethorn has just published his book "The Jewel Returned" which includes his train journeys up to Mussoorie to St George's Manor House  where he did his schooling. A good read Noel Lakin ----- Original Message ---- From: "Haztwin@aol.com" <Haztwin@aol.com> To: india-british-raj@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, 8 July, 2008 10:03:19 PM Subject: Re: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] DHR- Gasps of steam Oh boy, do I remember the DHR (Darjeeling Himalayan Railway)and its gasps  of steam!  It took me and my schoolmates up to Darjeeling for 9 months'  incarceration in  boarding school,and then later back down to the  plains for our 3-month holiday with our parents on the plains.    It made such an impression  that I wrote about it in a book about  my own and others'  schooldays in India.  The 'toy train'.  as we called it, was a joyous form of transport coming home, but somewhat  sadder  on our way up at the beginning of the school year!  No doubt  hundreds of  children experienced  similar train journeys as they went  up to the various wonderful  Indian  hill stations for their education  at such schools, many of which still exist in India to-day despite the  departure of the Brits.  So we did leave one or two good legacies,  didn't we? Hazel  Craig              ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message __________________________________________________________ Not happy with your email address?. Get the one you really want - millions of new email addresses available now at Yahoo! http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/ymail/new.html

GLIMPSES OF INDIA (A Grand Photographic History of the Land of Antiquity, the Vast Empire of the East) - With full historical text by a corps of well-known writers: J.H. Furneaux - Editor; English Edition Publishers and Distributors (I) Pvt. Ltd., Main Office, 5/10, 11105, Jogani Industrial Complex, V.N. Purav Marg (near ATI), Chunabatti, Mumbai-400022. Rs. 3,000. THOUGH THIS magnificent volume, illustrated with a large number of rare photographs, was published well over a century ago in 1896, the present re-publication is truly a great service because it returns the reader to the thought fixations of the British rulers of the time. Reviewed at: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/br/2003/08/12/stories/2003081200110300.htm Tuesday, Aug 12, 2003 --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

26/04/2001 Butchers at the Bibigurh In the third of our series on momentous military encounters Patrick Mercer reports on the Indian Mutiny of 1857 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/asia/india/delhi/717472/India-Butchers-at-the-Bibigurh.html#continue --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

March 2, 2008 http://pakistaniat.com/2008/03/02/ava-gardner-in-lahore-for-bhowani-junction/comment-page-3/ --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India

Something for the gourmets (and gourmands also): --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India Snipped from http://nicerecipes.wordpress.com/2008/02/06/soogee-cake/ Visit the webpage for full text. Soogee Cake February 6, 2008 It's taken me quite some time to write up this post because of a prolonged foray into the meaning of 'soogee' and the origins of this dish. In Singapore and Malaysia today, it's usually spelt 'sugee' but I quickly discovered that there are alternative spellings - 'sugi', 'suji', 'sooji', 'soojee - which are used in India. However, suji is the Hindi term used in North India, whereas in South India, it goes by the name 'rava', 'ravva', 'rawa' (wonder if someone can help me - is this in Telugu?). You might like to refer to glossaries of Indian cooking here, here, here and here. Now this strong Indian connection intrigued me because Sugee Cake is firmly entrenched in Singapore & Malaysian as a distinctly Eurasian dish, as you can see here and here, while Mary Gomes' Eurasian Cookbook describes it as the 'typical Eurasian wedding cake' and at the restaurant at the Singapore Eurasian Association, Quentin's, 'the sugee cake made by his mother is always a hot favourite'. The status of Sugee Cake as a perennial local favourites is reflected by its inclusion in Singapore secondary school home economics textbooks :)! Although categorised as a single ethnic community, Eurasians in Singapore and Malaysia have a diverse range of origins (Portuguese, Dutch, British - in chronological order of the appearance of colonial powers in Malaya, mixed with different Asian ethnicities, usually Indian or Chinese). However, what is usually presented as Eurasian culture in Singapore is the colourful Portuguese variety, which traces its roots back to the community in Malacca, a town conquered by the Portuguese in 1511. The Portuguese had also landed in Goa, on the west coast of India, in 1510, and established a colony there. Portuguese-Indian Eurasians from Goa soon migrated to Malacca in the following century or so, before the Portuguese lost Malacca to the Dutch in 1641. It therefore seems most likely that Sugee Cake originated on the Indian subcontinent, an offshoot of Indian sweets made with sugee, such as halwa and kesari (this recipe being the version from a Singaporean with roots in Kerala, a state also on the southwest coast of India not far from Goa). Halwa and kesari, like many Asian sweets, are both cooked on the stove top, whereas Sugee Cake is baked in an oven, like a European cake, which represents the Eurasian element in this recipe. But what is sugee/soogee/suji/sooji? It's semolina, which is in fact a product made from durum wheat (what Italian pasta is made from). The Penguin Companion to Food tells us that durum wheat is a very hard variety of wheat and 'when coarsely milled, the brittle grains fracture into sharp chips, and it is these which constitute ordinary semolina'. Semolina is found in cuisines all round the world, from British semolina pudding, to German rote Grütze, to Russian gurieveskaya kasha, to Greek ravaní (related to South Indian rava?), to Middle Eastern halva (clearly connected to Indian halwa). (Recipe omitted.)

Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar wrote: > March 2, 2008 > > http://pakistaniat.com/2008/03/02/ava-gardner-in-lahore-for-bhowani-junction/comment-page-3/ > > Quote from the review "*Stewart Granger* who was the British Colonel [Savage] in charge of the whole mess in Bhowani, said that Bhowani Junction was one of the few films he was really proud to be associated with. He has a struggle to, he really does see the Indians as human beings and not just “wogs.” ". As most will know Bhowni Junction was one of a series of novels by John Masters outlining the association of the Savage family with India from the C17th up to the time of independence and partition. I recall being impressed by them at an early age, believing that they portrayed a sympathetic view of the life of the Indian populace under the British Raj, I wonder if those who have read the books and know more about the subject than I hold a similar or contrary view. As for Ava Gardner - I remember her making a film (The Snows of Kilimanjaro) in Kenya at about that time. A scene was shot on the beach, at Diani I believe, where her co-star, Gregory Peck, had to be stood on a wooden crate beside her to enable him to hold her in an impassioned embrace. Yours Aye Andrew Sellon. If the Mahometan did persecute the Hindoo with impunity, is this any precedent of safety to a government that offends every feeling both of Mahometan and Hindoo at the same time? You have a tiger and a buffalo in the same inclosure; and the tiger drives the buffalo before him; - is it therefore prudent in you to do that which will irritate them both, and bring their united strength upon you? Rev. Sydney Smith 1771-1854, Canon of St. Paul's. .