Learning Curve 1958-9

For those first two years we were mostly occupied in learning the Bengali language, which was what everyone in those parts used for everyday communication, and to get familiar with the local culture(s) and the way the mission worked on the ground. 

This was a very steep learning curve. Each weekday morning we had an hour’s study of Bengali with our “pundit”, and elderly schoolteacher who taught us to speak, understand and read and write Bengali. In addition, for the three months from March to May we attended the Bengal Christian Council’s language school in Darjeeling.  

Kanchenjunga from Darjeeling

The Language School used holiday cottages in the grounds of Mt Hermon School, a beautiful site on a ridge leading north downhill from the Darjeeling Bazaar, with a clear view on fine days to the magnificent Kanchenjunga range of the Himalayan mountains.

We studied with missionaries from the UK, USA, Australia, Denmark, and other countries. There was a mid-term break halfway through, when those who wanted to could join a trek through the Himalayan foothills. I did this the second year, although Audrey decided to stay in Darjeeling, because by then she was expecting Judy. 

Bengali is an indo-European language similar to other North Indian tongues (eg Hindi, Gujerati), descended from Sanskrit, and has lots of grammar and meanings similarities with Romance (Latin) and Germanic languages like French and English. The first ten numbers are almost the same; the Latin and Bengali for “I will go” are the same. 

As we became more familiar with Bengali words, we discovered with surprise that several words we had thought were standard English had actually come from India, probably with the veterans of the Indian Army returning to Blighty (itself an Indian term) or taking up offers from the New Zealand Government to settle on land grants here. As well as the obvious “curry”, “bazaar” and “bungalow’, “tick” (correct), “dekko” (look), “dekchi” (large cooking pot), “cushy” (happy, comfortable), “cot” (simple bed), and “pajama” (literally leg-clothing) were straight from Bengali and/or other North Indian languages.

We also learned about culture and customs. We learned never to accept anything with our left hand, or to eat with it.  Left hands are kept strictly for washing the backside. Using the left hand to give or receive is insulting. People who do not shower before every meal, but sit in their bathwater like Europeans, are regarded as dirty and unhygienic. 

Mathematics historians tell us the zero was invented in India and the decimal system came from there, but the ordinary Indian uses a 2+2=4 and 4x4=16 system. For this purpose the hand is a useful abacus. They calculate on the left hand, using the thumb as a pointer, and the joints of the other fingers, starting with the little one, as the abacus. Rupees were traditionally divided into four “shika”, shika into four “anna” and anna into four “pice”. Weights and measures also followed this binary system, so calculating prices in this way was dead easy. 

Most people ate two main meals a day, normally mid-morning and late evening. Two other snacks, early morning and late afternoon, called “tiffin” were common among middle-class people.

We watched gangs of workers pulling heavily laden carts, and singing work songs, like sea-shanties, while they hauled, the foreman singing each line, followed by his crew repeating it. Other crews were loading boats, singing together in the same way, or towing them up rivers like the Volga Boatmen. 

We saw men and women breaking bricks to make road surfaces, because there are no rocks or quarries on the flat Bengal plain, but lots of brick-kilns. 

We watched the rice-crops grow, from paddy-fields flooded with people planting seedlings, through plants growing fast and changing colour to the deep green of mature rice. Some parts of the district were able to grow three crops a year, and everyone had at least two crops most years. 

We saw villages where the main crops were oranges or pineapples; one year pineapples were so plentiful you could buy 256 of them for a rupee (15 cents). And there were plenty of other fresh fruit readily available: bananas, lemons, lychees in season, pummelos (huge grapefruit), besides more familiar European fruit imported from cooler provinces. 

We learned that foodstuffs we wanted but which were not produced locally could be purchased from a Calcutta merchant in the New Market, who would send it by plane the same day: biscuits, tinned fruit, tinned meat, and so on. Fresh meat available included chickens (purchased live by our cook), goat, and pork, and sometimes beef from Muslim butchers.