Why this blog is called "Gallimaufry".

gal-uh-MAW-free\, noun.

Originally meaning "a hash of various kinds of meats," "gallimaufry" comes from French galimafrée; in Old French, from the word galer, "to rejoice, to make merry"; in old English: gala + mafrer: "to eat much," and from Medieval Dutch maffelen: "to open one's mouth wide."

It's also a dish made by hashing up odds and ends of food; a heterogeneous mixture; a hodge-podge; a ragout; a confused jumble; a ridiculous medley; a promiscuous (!) assemblage of persons.

Those of you who know me, will, I’m sure, understand how well some of these phrases (barring the "promiscuous" bit!) fit me.

More importantly, this blog is an ode to my love for Shimla. I hope to show you this little town through my eyes. If you don't see too many people in it, forgive me, because I'm a little chary of turning this into a human zoo.

Stop by for a spell, look at my pictures, ask me questions about Shimla, if you wish. I shall try and answer them as best as I can. Let's be friends for a while....

2 January 2009

Guide to my town.

The Rotary Club, at some unknown point in Shimla's history, put up this guide map to Shimla outside the Railway Board building. Funny-shaped thing, with a map that's absolutely not to scale, it is nevertheless consulted most avidly by visitors. Stray dogs sleep in its shade and the locals use it as a place to lean against on their trudge up from Cart Road to the Mall.

The quote on the base (painted green) exhorts Shimla's citizeny to keep their town clean.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the book, "The Imperial Way: By Rail from Peshawar to Chittagong", by Paul Theroux, with photos by Steve McCurry, (1985) ?? I think you'd like it.
Stan R.
srrowen@comcast.net

Geetali said...

Thank you for your suggestion, Stan. This seems to be one of the few books by Theroux I've missed. Love travelogues featuring trains or train journeys.
I strongly recommend Bill Aitken's ''Branchlines To Eternity'', if you haven't read it already. This is Aitken's loving eulogy to steam trains.

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