(Navigation tip for
recent browsers:
double-click
anywhere on this
page to return
to the top)

The "Pugli Munshi Wallah's" collection

Especially for old BI hands.....

Great delight was taken in BI in translating English nursery rhymes and other light verse into Hinustani, the coastal bat spoken by locally engaged seamen from India. Needless to say, the translations were sometimes pretty loose and were probably looked on by the crew as another example of what the pugli sahibs got up to. Here, we offer some examples and are on the lookout for more. Just mail any contributions to the webeditor@biship.com Anyone needing help with translations is referred to Malim Sahib's Hindustani available from Brown, Son & Ferguson.

"My Name is Jock McGraw" is an old music hall song sung by Harry Lauder. This is the BI translation into Hindustani from an area around Chittagong called Pichalpani. Thanks to George Ball for this contribution.

in Gaelic

My Name is Jock McGraw
I'm fu' the noo
Absolutely fu'
But I adore the country I was born in
My name is Jock McGraw an' I dinna gie a straw
There's a little in the bottle for the morning

in Pichalpani Hindustani

Mera Nam Hai Jock McGraw
Um chikar
Ek dum chikar
Mera muluk ek dum puja ki coasti
Mera nam hai Jock McGraw um cutch pawa nay hai
Thoura bottel men hai kal fajur coasti