by Carl Muller
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
READ MORE IN PENGUIN
In every corner of the world, on every subject under the sun, Penguin represents quality and variety—the very best in publishing today.
For complete information about books available from Penguin—including Puffins, Penguin Classics and Arkana—and how to order them, write to us at the appropriate address below. Please note that for copyright reasons the selection of books varies from country to country.
In India: Please write to Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd. 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110017
In the United Kingdom: Please write to Dept JC, Penguin Books Ltd. Bath Road, Harmondsworth, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 ODA. UK
In the United States: Please write to Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
In Canada: Please write to Penguin Books Canada Ltd. 10 Alcorn Avenue, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario M4V 3B2
In Australia: Please write to Penguin Books Australia Ltd. 487, Maroondah Highway, Ring Wood, Victoria 3134
In New Zealand: Please write to Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd. Private Bag, Takapuna, Auckland 9
In the Netherlands: Please write to Penguin Books Netherlands B.V., Keizersgracht 231 NL-1016 DV Amsterdom
In Germany: Please write to Penguin Books Deutschland GmbH, Metzlerstrasse 26, 60595 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
In Spain: Please write to Penguin Books S.A., Bravo Murillo, 19-1’B, E-28015 Madrid, Spain
In Italy: Please write to Penguin Italia s.r.l., Via Felice Casati 20, I-20104 Milano In France: Please write to Penguin France S.A., 17 rue Lejeune, F-31000 Toulouse
In Japan: Please write to Penguin Books Japan. Ishikiribashi Building, 2-5-4, Suido, Tokyo 112
In Greece: Please write to Penguin Hellas Ltd, dimocritou 3, GR-106 71 Athens
In South Africa: Please write to longman Penguin Books Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd, Private Bag X08, Bertsham 2013
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Group (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Penguin Books India 1998
www.penguinbooksindia.com
Copyright © Mrs S.O.R. Muller 1998
Cover illustration by Carl Muller
Cover design by Santosh Dutta
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-01-4027-023-5
This digital edition published in 2013.
e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-109-3
This book is sold subject.to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above-mentioned publisher of this book.