hoodavishal
June 29th, 2006, 10:29 AM
His story
Narindar Saroop, the first Asian to be adopted as a Tory parliamentary candidate in the 20th century — his great uncle was Sir Chottu Ram, the great Punjab aristocrat — has written an amusing autobiographical tale, The Last Indian: The Destruction of Two Cultures.
He could just as easily have described himself as “the last Englishman”, for Narindar has always believed in the good manners and breeding associated with a now apparently vanished England.
He once described himself to me as “an Englishman of Punjabi extraction who sits on a tiger skin rug, wearing a monocle, eating chicken tandoori and humming God Save the Queen — gentlemen always hum, they never whistle.”
Possibly, he was a little ahead of his time. Narindar founded the Anglo-Asian Conservative Society and the Durbar Club for Indian and Pakistani millionaires in Britain, before the Tories fully understood the power of the Asian bloc vote.
His is a very readable account of the complicated India-England relationship, viewed through his own life (in Calcutta, he was recruited by Andrew Yule & Co).
Over the years, Narindar has inhabited the world of English gentlemen’s clubs where he heard this typical exchange between upper class chaps:
“Hello Robert, I hear you’ve been to New York?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see my ex-wife there?”
“Yes.”
“Did you take her out to dinner?”
“Yes.”
“Did you take her to bed?”
“Yes.”
“My dear chap, come and have a drink.”.
Tittle tattle
Narindar Saroop, the first Asian to be adopted as a Tory parliamentary candidate in the 20th century — his great uncle was Sir Chottu Ram, the great Punjab aristocrat — has written an amusing autobiographical tale, The Last Indian: The Destruction of Two Cultures.
He could just as easily have described himself as “the last Englishman”, for Narindar has always believed in the good manners and breeding associated with a now apparently vanished England.
He once described himself to me as “an Englishman of Punjabi extraction who sits on a tiger skin rug, wearing a monocle, eating chicken tandoori and humming God Save the Queen — gentlemen always hum, they never whistle.”
Possibly, he was a little ahead of his time. Narindar founded the Anglo-Asian Conservative Society and the Durbar Club for Indian and Pakistani millionaires in Britain, before the Tories fully understood the power of the Asian bloc vote.
His is a very readable account of the complicated India-England relationship, viewed through his own life (in Calcutta, he was recruited by Andrew Yule & Co).
Over the years, Narindar has inhabited the world of English gentlemen’s clubs where he heard this typical exchange between upper class chaps:
“Hello Robert, I hear you’ve been to New York?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see my ex-wife there?”
“Yes.”
“Did you take her out to dinner?”
“Yes.”
“Did you take her to bed?”
“Yes.”
“My dear chap, come and have a drink.”.
Tittle tattle