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AN INDIAN AT HEART Nigel Hankin (1920-2007)

Nigel Bathurst Hankin, MBE, joined the British Army and had been posted to Burma in 1945, but by the time he reached Mumbai, the war ended and he was kept on there. Two years later the sun had set on the British Raj and India became an independent democracy. Meanwhile, Nigel had fallen in love with our country. He decided to stay on and did so until he breathed his last on November 30. He never married, died a solitary but peaceful death — just as he had lived.

But why did he choose to make India his home? His answer was, “Because of the morning cup of tea that Usman (his servant) brings for me in the bed and also for the lovely sunlight.” Typically, he mixed the mundane with the more sublime reason. But he loved India in all its complex totality. He last visited the country of his birth some time in the early 1980s and never wanted to go back. “I was bored stiff with the life there, and the grey sky,” said Nigel.

In order to stay on, he joined the New Indian Army as a Captain and was posted to South Block, New Delhi, for some time. He subsequently had an eclectic career ranging from a “film-screening” business in Durga Puja pandals for Bengalis to being an “intellectual” tourist guide. In between, he worked for the British High Commission where, apart from the usual assignments, he was entrusted with the special job, which he liked immensely, of taking diplomats and their wives around Delhi. Later, when he retired from the High Commission, he became a professional tourist guide. But he was a different kind of a guide. He did not have any telephone or Internet access. At the beginning of the tour he would warn visitors not to mention how to get in touch with him. Nigel’s tour was designed to show working Delhi, not tourists’ Delhi. It was fascinating to walk with him through the bazaars of Old Delhi and the remains of the Mughals and the British. The most interesting part of the tour, for many, was the wholesale market of Khari Baoli and the surrounding area. Walking through dingy alleys — so narrow that only one person can make his way at a time — he took visitors through the chaotic crowd. He showed many things not common in Western stores and malls and quirky, off beat items. For example, beeswax to polish furniture, or tassles on curtains in the window. “Americans use this, difficult to find in British houses,” said he pointing at the tassles. Visitors, usually bewildered by Indian customs and culture, had many questions – Nigel had answers to all these in his book, “Hanklyn-Janklin, a strangers rumble tumble guide to some words, customs and quiddities Indian and Indo-British”.

He would unzip his battered bag and take out a copy of the 594-page book that he had written on his old Remington typewriter for decades. To the casual observer, the book may appear to be an idiosyncratic list of commonly seen items, words and phrases of Indian-English, but it is a work of research carried out over more than half a century.

There are more than 2000 entries. “Prepone” is the antonym of “postpone” in Indian-English. “Goolies”, an English and Australian slang word meaning “testicles” was derived from the Hindi word “Goli”, meaning medicine pill, which had a similar shape. Nigel said it entered into English from the British travelling by rail who would hear the station hawkers selling, “Beecham Sahib’s goolies”! Nigel pointed out that many words are declared to originate from Latin or Greek whereas, in fact, they come from Sanskrit. The 5th edition of the book is expected soon but Nigel will not be there at the launch of the new edition for which he was so busy up to his death, adding new words and insights.

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