Out-Of-Door Life

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:00 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

OUT-OF-DOOR-LIFE During the colder months (November-March) many Government officials were required to travel about their districts on inspection tours in the execution of their ordinary responsibilities. In Herbert Compton’s Indian Life In Town And Country, he states: Out-of-door life in India may be divided into three categories. First of all there is the life known as “going into camp,” or “on tour” which many Government officials are obliged to follow during the cold weather in the execution of... Read more

Okhoy Babu

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:01 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

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OKHOY BABU Charles Johnston. Late October 1889. “Your Honor!” Okhoy Babu interrupted, with that oily smile of his, “I request an adjournment of the court, if your Honor pleases! I have just heard of important new evidence in this case!” Indranath Babu, my chief clerk, began to frown and cluck with his tongue. He was long-nosed and very dark, with a face like a wise bird; a fine fellow for all his ugliness, and to be trusted. He had... Read more

London Missionary Society

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:03 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

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LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY Evidence would suggest that “Kali Prasanna Chatterji” was the Theosophist, Kali Prasanna Mukherji (also a Kulin Brahmin.) First, we have a letter which Verochka wrote to her family on September 23, 1889, stating: “Isn’t it funny, mom, that the English missionaries chose me—a Russian, and the niece of the hated H.P. B.—to be a chairwoman at their school celebration?” The letter-head of the note bears the inscription of the London Missionary Society.[1] When considering that Kali... Read more

The Sequel Of Rubbed Mosquito Bites

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:04 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

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THE SEQUEL OF RUBBED MOSQUITO BITES Charles Johnston Late September 1889 The water, soaking through the sandy soil from the high-embanked Bhagirathi, threatened to well up through the floor. We had laid our troubles before Ritchie, and he had arranged for our transfer to the dry upper story of a huge empty barrack at the corner of the square, which once housed a regiment, before Mutiny, and we were waiting for a comparatively dry day to transport our possessions.... Read more

Muharram

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:05 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

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MUHARRAM Charles Johnston September 4, 1889. There was something peculiarly Indian about the circumstances which occasioned the flood. There was a young tiller of the soil of a thoughtful disposition, who owned three acres of land close by the embankment. In his ill-judged enthusiasm, it occurred to him how nice it would be to let a few inches of rich brown Ganges mud in upon his fields, so he cut a track across the embankment to get water for... Read more

When The Levee Breaks

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:07 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

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WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS During the second week of August, Johnston was feeling ill. On August 9, 1889, he wrote a letter to his father admitting the possibility of “a permanent breakdown in health,” and asking him to look out for a post in England or Ireland “during the next year.”[1] August 28, 1889, marked the first day of the Muslim month of Muharram (the first month of the Islamic year. Hijrī calendar: 1 Muharram 1307.) For Shia’s, the... Read more

Eastern Gleanings

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:08 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

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EASTERN GLEANINGS Charles Johnston July 1889. The candle pales before the lightning. So do our valleys fade, and our plains become unbeautiful, when the clouds part, and we behold, once in an age, the light-crowned summits of the everlasting hills. The clouds close; and we find our low, unlovely plains, with their dried and withered life, once more around us. We fall again to our daily drudgery, our useless toil; but some memory of the vision remains for us,... Read more

The Reincarnation Of Ma Sa Nyun

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:10 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

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THE REINCARNATION OF MA SA NYUN Charles Johnston June 1889. Margie and little Theo had been spirited away to Darjeeling to lift up their hearts toward the miraculous snows of Kinchinjunga, to breathe in new life and strength from the vivid mountain air.[1] On the departure of Ritchie, I was left in charge of the District of Murshidabad with its million and a quarter subdued Bengali souls whom I was supposed to govern, and generally keep in the fear... Read more

Punagarami

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:11 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

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PUNAGARAMI. Charles Johnston June 1889. I sat reading in the cool of the gloaming on my veranda, in the fortunate absence of mosquitoes—though big moths insisted on battering themselves like wan ghosts against my lamp. A dark apparition flitted across the grass and—my old friend Maung Hkin stood before me, his hands folded, his eyes fixed on mine. A faint aroma of bazaar tobacco suggested that this was not his ghost. I looked at him in wonder. “Why,... Read more

Memorial Tree

Last updated on: February 17, 2024 at 4:12 pm By Shawn F. Higgins

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MEMORIAL TREE May 31, 1889, marked the end of Ramadan, and the great celebration of Eid al-Fitr. After which the Nawab spent the better part of June at the Dalhousie Institute in Calcutta, in an effort to restore his health.[1] Between “routine work” and studying Hindi, Bengali, and Russian, Johnston’s time was “pretty well filled up.” [2] His aptitude at Russian had advanced enough that he was undertaking a translation Vera Petrovna’s new children’s book, Rosanchik, which was published... Read more