The initial British interest in the Indian subcontinent revolved around trade.4 The moneymaking opportunities that India provided attracted the attention of British businessmen looking to make their fortune and motivated by a desire for adventure. They would decide to leave England to live out their lives in untamed and barbaric India. Not only were they motivated by the prospect of creating a fortune, but also by the responsibility that they believed they had as Christians and members of the “British race”. Rudyard Kipling wrote his essay The White Man’s Burden; in which he outlinedthe British mentality regarding their racial superiority. “The responsibility for governing India” Kipling claimed, “has been placed by the inscrutable decree of providence upon the shoulders of the British race.”2 This statement represents the general understanding of the British people regarding their right to rule. It was this mentality that allowed the colonial governments to treat the indigenous people like savages that had to be controlled. The response to the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, during which Hindu and Muslim soldiers rose up against their British commanding officers, consisted of strapping the imprisoned mutineers to the muzzles of loaded cannons and touching the guns off, a particularly barbaric method of execution by British standards. These killings illustrate the disdain with which the colonial rulers dealt with the ruled.5 As a result of what are now considered by many to be British atrocities, the academic analysis of this period is often focused on British wrongdoing as well as the oppressed colonized without taking a close look at the Britons who were living out their lives and doing business in the colonies. For them, especially in the period from 1850 to 1914, India was not a place to make a fortune, but instead to escape the safe and somewhat dull lives in England in favor of a hazardous and alien playground where a well-to-do Englishman and his family could live a life of indulgence and danger all for the glory of Great Britain.

To the young Britons who lived in India, the colony was more than just a source of money. India represented all that was great and good about British colonial rule. Their interest was not only monetary, but nationalistic; they wanted to be a part of the history of England in all of its greatness. The young European men who elected to spend their lives in India were not driven by money, but by glory and adventure.

The India of the Victorian Era was what Disraeli called the “brightest jewel of the British Crown”.3 The Crown Jewel India was highly romanticized in the minds of the English and this image appealed especially to England’s young men. These men were usually well-bred and well educated and their decision to move to India was informed by an education dedicated to “manly pursuits” and, perhaps foremost, by the influence of their fathers and grandfathers who had spent their youthful years serving the Crown in the Subcontinent who encouraged them to join the military and serve as officers commanding sepoys. The romantic India of these young men, write Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre,

was the India of gentleman officers in plumed shakos riding and the head of their turbaned sepoys; of district magistrates lost in the torrid wastes of the Deccan; of sumptuous imperial balls in the Himalayan summer capital of Simla; cricket matches on the manicured lawns of Calcutta’s Bengal Club; polo games on the sunburnt plains of Rajasthan; tiger hunts in Assam; young men sitting down to dinner in black ties in a tent in the middle of the jungle, solemnly proposing their toast in port to the King Emperor while jackals howled in the wild around them; officers in scarlet tunics pursuing rebellious Pathan tribesman in the sleet or unbearable heat of the Frontier; the India of a caste unassailably certain of its superiority, sipping whiskies and soda on the veranda of its Europeans Only Clubs.2

This India was the India that drove men to give up prosperous lives in England for adventure and danger.

After bidding goodbye to home and family the young soldier would embark on a months-long voyage to the other side of the world. The first taste of the place these men would spend the next thirty-five to forty years was in their arrival at India’s primary port city of Mumbai (Bombay). Here they were greeted by a bustling crowd of travelers in Bombay’s Victoria Station where they would make their way to trains to send them throughout the country. In the first-class cabins of the Indian railroads they received their first taste of the organization of European and Indian relations. The cars were luxurious and clean, and the only Indians to be seen were servants who poured champagne and changed linens, which they never had to interact with. This pseudo-segregation characterized the colonial experience in India.2

The romanticized India did not come to life in the form of the poverty and squalor of local, and wherever the colonizers went, they did their best to separate themselves from the local populace. The Europeans Only Clubs were a phenomenon that appeared wherever more than two Englishmen gathered. At the clubs they were waited on by Indian servants and passed the time drinking, eating, and playing games of cricket, polo, tennis, squash, and hockey. In these clubs they were able to live out the Jewel of the Crown India which had inspired them to make the trip. Not only were these clubs luxurious, they also served an important social capacity. They were the center of the European-Indian disconnect and the most visible symbol of English superiority. By always asserting the might of the Crown and the superiority of the British race the colonists were able to easily control and govern the indigenous population, which hugely outnumbered them.2

The ratio of rulers to locals is an important one. For his first assignment, these men usually found themselves in “…remote posts…inhabited…by only a few Europeans. By the time they were twenty-four or twenty-five, they often found themselves with the sole responsibility for handing down justice to and administering the lives of a million or more human beings, in an area sometimes larger than Scotland.”2 In a situation such as this, the motivation for colonial rule cannot be attributed to monetary gain. The honor and glory of serving the Empire proved to be a far more enticing motivator.

So too was the case among women. In fact, the social separation in Victorian India could be attributed to the wives of British officers. Collins and Lapierre in Freedom at Midnight suggest that this can be attributed to a desire to keep their husbands away from Indian women, though this was not always effective and the first few generations in India fathered an Anglo-Indian society that fit into neither world. There may also have been, however a glorified image of India in the minds of the British wives, known by the locals as memsahibs. Their hand in the segregation may have been due to a sense that they were there to help the local savages, not to become one of them. These women, unlike the missionary women in the region, were not interested in interaction with Indians.2

Women played an important and somewhat unseen role in the lives of their husbands. Though in the first volume of his memoir Forty-One Years in India published in 1897 Field Marshal Lord Roberts does not mention his wife, he dedicates the book as follows:

TO THE COUNTRY TO WHICH I AM SO PROUD OF BELONGING,

TO THE ARMY TO WHICH I AM SO DEEPLY INDEBTED,

AND TO MY WIFE,

WITHOUT WHOSE LOVING HELP

MY ‘FORTY-ONE YEARS IN INDIA’

COULD NO BE THE HAPPY RETROSPECT IT IS,

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK.1

Though she was never at the forefront of his Indian experience, Roberts’ wife played an important role in his coming to terms with his experiences and organizing them to produce his memoir.

Roberts’ memoir allows for a unique look into the mind of a colonizer with a very typical Indian experience. He treats his experience as execution of duty, but relays his story to the reader with relish, as though his time in India was the great adventure of his lifetime. Roberts’ India was the British India which characterized the romantic Victorian vision. Not only that, but he describes a certain respect of the natives and a need to respect their traditions and customs. He writes about British governance and understanding of the native populace, saying

It is difficult for people who know nothing of Natives to understand and appreciate the value the set on cherished customs, peculiar idiosyncrasies, and fixed prejudices, all of which must be carefully studied by those who are placed in a position of their Rulers, if the suzerain Power is to keep their respect and gain their gratitude and affection.1

In this passage Roberts shows his passion for his Indian experience. Not only does he tell his story, but he also communicates that cleverness and courage are needed to fully serve the Empire. He treats the natives as one might treat children. He seems to find them somewhat humorous and immature. Roberts clearly communicates his understanding of how they need to be governed and controlled. To Roberts, the indigenous people are not human, instead he sees them as a pleasant attraction, something to be viewed and wondered at.

The India of the Victorian age was a cash cow for the British Empire, but it was not money that motivated ordinary Britons to leave home and risk life and limb. Rather it was the adventure and danger that India presented. To them it was a place of glory and beauty and adventure. It was a playground, and provided an escape from normal lives in England to lives of combat, adventure, and Europeans Only Clubs. The danger was very real, and the death toll among the English was astronomical. But even in death the country retained its exciting mystique. English headstones list causes of death such as “…gored by a bison”, “…died of wounds received from a panther”, “…eaten by a tiger.”2 These causes of death are characteristic of India’s legends, but one cannot help but think that these lives were lost in the pursuit of adventure and that, even though the English subdued and mistreated the people they colonized, they gave many lives in pursuit of what they believed to be the right thing to do. It is important to remember that these people were not evil, but a product of their times, and when looked at this way one comes to appreciate the bravery and dedication required to carry out what the British did for 300 years, however twisted their reasoning.

Endnotes

1. Field Marshal Lord Roberts, Forty-One Years in India (London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1897), vii-10.

2. Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1975), 12-17.

3. Michael Edwardes, The Last Years of British India (New York: The World Publishing Company, 1963), 1-5.

4. R. J. Minney, India Marches Past (New York: D Appleton and Company, 1933), 65.

Bibliography

1. Field Marshal Lord Roberts, Forty-One Years in India (London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1897), vii-10.

2. Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1975), 12-17.

3. Michael Edwardes, The Last Years of British India (New York: The World Publishing Company, 1963), 1-5.

4. R. J. Minney, India Marches Past (New York: D Appleton and Company, 1933), 65.

5. R. P. Masani, Britain in India (Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1960), 1-6.

6. P. E. Roberts, History of British India (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 643-650.

Jeff is a typical melancholic; there is no doubt about that. If you really know about the four temperaments and you do not see melancholy upon a few glances at this faithful friend then I have to rush for my first aid box to see if I can get anything to soothe your vision. The first impression one can possibly have upon seeing this friend is someone who might not have spoken for some years, or someone who hates everything around him, or one who may have known no joy at all. This appearance is surely a ‘robot’ in which this friend hides all his friendliness, all his cares, all his genuine smiles and ‘good-naturedness’. Smile to him and he would respond with a laugh, laugh to him and you would enjoy more laughs. He appears to be a haven of all good jokes. What situation can he not unveil the light side? He is potentially a good counsellor and a friend. The following is a story Jeff tells about himself, of which I have even heard his mother utter some aspects. I thought, upon his permission, that this story would be good for everyone to read and to take some cues out of it. Enjoy Jeff the Melancholic’s story.         

I grew up as a quiet little child; quietest amongst the four siblings. I enjoyed the company of other people, but I had always preferred solitary life. I would not talk but speak; I learnt to observe than mere looking. My joy had always been to watch contemporary prefects in school speak eloquently and make nice speeches; my spirit soars high to see adolescents as they flaunt passionately skills and talents publicly, and to see the youth play a role perfectly. The thoughts of these went through my sober mind daily. My spirit grew greatly and I always thought I could do better. Nothing seemed to be impossible.

On the contrary was the nervous me who seemed to be indifferent to whatever went on. My teen world had seen much worry and stress: common disease with the youth. I always found it difficult to approach people to share and discuss with them my mind. I was above average in the academic sphere. But, I think, my dull countenances kept teachers away from me. This also made it difficult for me to approach them. Similar situation existed between me and friends, and other neighbors. I had always craved for their encroachment in my seemingly closed world.

I thought of becoming a medical doctor, mainly because that was one of the few professions society seemed to cherish most. I could not achieve that dream because I could not make the required grade to read medicine. A little interaction with my elder brother, who might have sensed my anxiety, turned my drives on pursuing education as a program in the tertiary school. That has always being a good turn for me, and now apart from many suitable career opportunities in the education sector I have a high desire of pursuing any psychology related program at the masters level because of the excellent grades I made in psychology courses.

So I asked myself many questions; if I could be a little bit friendly? If my old folks could have taken my repulsive facial cue as a mere temperament, and approached me? If I had been well informed, and if I have to end the queries here before I create a distorted version of Rudyard Kipling’s “if” poem; I believe I would not have wasted a lot of time. I would have known better, been more informed and more developed.   The world owes its youth a lot; a lot of experience, a lot of direction, a lot of guidance and a lot of counseling in many ways.

To those youth who are already outgoing and expressive, who could flaunt their talents and skills perfectly I say you have it all so go ahead, but in humility. To the other group, that which I belong, the timid, nervous but most often good-natured I say yes we too have it all, let us open up a little and let the world see what great things we hide in us so that together with the other group we change the world and shape the future. It is my utmost hope that the young folk will always be approached; regardless of temperament. If it was true that Einstein once had speech impairment for his schoolmaster to have suggested Einstein should not be enrolled, then that would have been the greatest mistake of the century, a mistake that would have made the world lose one of the greatest discoveries like the relativity theory. The youth have all the dreams; we do have all the big dreams. If in dreams indeed begin responsibilities, as Delmore Schwartz says, it would take the right coaching and opportunities, as in strong youth policies, to harness these dreams so that bearers of these dreams become more responsible. I see much in the youth. The exuberance and the potential human resources in the youth are immeasurable, valuable like coral beads; coral beads from Ceuta, even though the youth are generally vulnerable.

I only needed self integrity, which a good youth policy could provide, and which if not at all could help me face the basic challenges of life, the ugly faces of worry, self-pity and anxiety, common diseases that bordered me. I have therefore embarked on building my self-esteem through attending seminars and other self-development programs, out of which I can now express myself freely. The older melancholic self still over-shadows the new me and it almost always gives me off naturally as first impression. It keeps people away against my consent, but it gives me the opportunity to divide two into equal halves and to treat each of the similar but unequal ‘ones’ as they are; it helps me put myself into other people’s shoes to know what word or phrase or sentence or sentences  they need at a time. So I keep trying till I see that a few glances at me can give hope to a grieved child then I would be certain that the outer self is alright.

I keep to Nathaniel Braden’s self-esteem, which he suggests is the basic human need for self-development and serves as important factor to achieve Maslow’s self-actualization. Tell me if you come across any program which you think would be beneficial to me.

The freedom to show their emotions. I believe this is the source of our strength-if we cannot freely express ourselves, we will be forced to take on a façade that ultimately becomes the source of their weakness.

The challenges of making it in a man’s world. The ability to handle multiple tasks, having less facial hair, and …men, clothes, multiple orgasms stilettos!

That they have PMS to blame for their mood swing an emotional outburst. They love how we have infinitely more fashion options than men and how we have the ability to drive men with just one look.

Having a women’s body-a naked body is a sight to behold, its beautiful! But a man’s body? They’re pretty scary naked!

Having a wider scope of emotions makes them more instinctive. They can do anything I set my mind on yet not be embarrassed or afraid to ask for help if I need it. They love that they can be strong, smart, be playful, have long hair and get away with I. getting away with murder just by smiling.

That they can be one of the boy’s even if they’re completing opposite! They can act like a kid, laugh and cry unabashedly without looking like a fool. And of course, fashion. For being able to use my femininity to get what I want while at the same time being pampered and pursued.

That charm that’s innate in every woman. Its’ like having instant power over men. Beauty and strength bottled into one body-that’s woman. The bond women share-the bond between girlfriends, mothers, and daughters, sister and how men are at our beck and call.

 The innate ability to be anything they want to be. The freedom! They can be strong, vulnerable, stoic or emotional. They can wear many masks and don many hats. It’s all part and parcel of being a woman! They have so much power and if used properly it can enable us to achieve so much!

Rudyard Kipling once said. “The female of the species is more deadly than men…” I agree! 

The Cenotaph was designed by the Arts and Crafts architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and is now protected as a Grade I listed building. It was built between 1919 and 1920 and is an example of the ‘Stripped Classical’ style that was in vogue at the time, a simplified, modernistic version of Neo-Classicism. It is constructed from Portland Stone, the same gleaming white stone used for St Paul’s Cathedral and the governmental buildings of Whitehall. Lutyens’ design may have been inspired by his familiarity with the Cenotaph of Sigismunda, a structure in a garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll, with whom he had collaborated at Lindisfarne Castle.  The austere monument is undecorated except for a carved wreath at either end and the words ‘The Glorious Dead’. These were chosen by the author Rudyard Kipling, whose own son was killed in the First World War.

Built in the interwar period, the Cenotaph was intended to commemorate the victims of the First World War, but is now used to commemorate all of the dead in all wars in which British servicemen have fought. The dates of the First and Second World Wars are inscribed on it in Roman numerals. The practice of building cenotaphs still continues around the world. Lutyens’ cenotaph influenced the design of many other war memorials in Britain and the British sectors of the Western Front, as well as those in other Commonwealth nations.

No two job applications should be exactly the same.  The reason for this is that every job has its unique requirements.  It follows that every application should be drawn in line with the stated and the apparent needs of the prospective employer. This means that you must refer to the advertisement where available, or do a background research. 

Potential employers are not desperate to employ you; rather the driving motive for the employer is to achieve the organization’s goals.  Seek to align your goals and objectives with those of the organization you hope to work for.  The more these rhyme, the more likely it is that you will be considered at least for an interview. 

Answer the unasked question:  what is in it for me (potential employer)?  In the final analysis, remember that as much as your driving motive is to gain something from the eventual relationship, the employer has a similar aim.  The two of you are playing a checkers game, not on one side but on opposite sides of the board.  Each one of you wants to win.  Find ways to hand your opponent the game by giving exactly what he seeks for and more.  This is the game of wooing.  And whether you are male or female, it is up to you to win the opposite number.  Forget tradition here.  In the job field, male and female is a little issue.  You are marketing yourself as the best of many options.  So, what will make them choose you from everyone else? 

Back to the basics 
Writers are conversant with the so called six wise men or 5W.  This phrase, coined by Rudyard Kipling, talks of the six major questioning criteria when writing a news story.  But when you think of a letter of application, you will realize that you need to have answers to the questions Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?  These questions help you to have a rough understanding of the issues that you need to address in your letter.  They should help you to first, understand yourself, your intentions, what you have to offer and how.  On the other hand, you can define who your prospective employer is, what he does, what he wants from an employee, how he runs the business, what kind of assistance he wants, why he wants the assistance now, what kind of employee he wants, what his terms are likely to be and such similar information.

Most of this information can only come through discrete research.  Look for annual reports, read newspaper and magazine stories about them, call them.  Of course you cannot hope to get much by calling the employer’s offices and asking the questions as they are. If you do decide to call, be ready with questions that are not obvious.  Enquire like say a student planning a research project or a customer.  Find all the information you can get.  Look for an employee of the organization and get some information.  Take them out to lunch.  Visit their premises incognito.  Information is power and the more you have, the better you can prepare for your case.

Writing the letter
When you are ready with the necessary information, put together the letter.  Use a format similar to what the company uses.  Get the name of the person that you should address your application to and use that name, both in the letter and the envelop.  Addressing the person by name is a ploy to get your letter opened by the right person, but l let your content be formal.  Begin the letter with a brief statement concerning the firm or industry that is also relevant to your intention.  This is intended to suggest a point of convergence between you and the future of the organization.

Following are the opening sentences of a letter I wrote for a client recently:
With the dynamics of business communication constantly shifting, what is learnt in college can vary greatly from practical reality.  This makes industry internship as part of a training program invaluable.  Through practical industry exposure in your organization, I feel that I will learn and practice even as I bring in some fresh input.

The writer’s introduction came in the second paragraph.  This approach suggests that the organization is up to date and that the writer is interested in being part of the goings on and also ready to put in the necessary effort to help the organization keep moving forward.  It also recognizes that the writer would be a member of a team to which she will bring some fresh input. 

Once you have completed stating your intention, inform your addressee that you are attaching a copy of your resume or portfolio then sign off with either ‘Thank you,’ or ‘Yours sincerely,’ followed by your signature and name below. 

Post script (PS:)
The post script is placed just below your name at the end.  It serves the purpose of stating any additional information.  State that you will furnish the addressee with any further information or documents when required.

Attach the resume or portfolio, address the envelope by hand and dispatch it.

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Dogs have raised Natasha Mikhailova, since her birth. Now she is five year old and has acquired all the characteristics of dogs too, like walking on two hands and two legs, barking etc.

The child had been living with her grandparents in an apartment and after they died she had never been out of the apartment and raised by dogs and cats. The neighbors had no clue about her existence as Natasha’s grandparents had just come to live in that apartment when they died. It was only when one neighbor spotted her from window with dogs around her and clothes dirty with soil that they discovered her.

Parents of the child are still alive and had no contact with her since 3 years. They have now been arrested in suspicion of neglecting the child.

1. Pope Benedict XV (1854 – 1922)

   

   Born Giacomo della Chiesa, he was elected pope in 1914. He fell sick in early January 1922 with pneumonia. Owing to speculations of his imminent death, a New York newspaper mistakenly ran on its front-page “The Pope is Dead,” followed by an later edition that headlined “Pope has Remarkable Recovery.” He eventually passed away due to the sickness on January 22, 1922.

2. Nikita Khrushchev (1894 – 1971)

   

   Succeeded Stalin as First Secretary leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1953 but was however forced to resign in 1964 for making serious political mistakes such as triggering the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. In 1964, his death was wrongly announced by a Cologne radio station, which had received a hoax telex report.

3. Alice Cooper (1948 – )

   

   Born Vincent Damon Furnier, an American Rock singer who is often called “Father of Metal” and “Founder of Shock Rock.” Many believed that he had died when Melody Maker magazine published a sarcastic review of his concert in obituary form. He later comforted his fans: “I’m alive and drunk as usual.”

4. James Scott Brady (1940 – )

   

   Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary under the Reagan administration. Some media reports announced that he had passed away when he was shot in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. After being permanently disabled by the incident, he became an ardent supporter of gun control.

5. Alfred Nobel (1833 – 1896)

   

   Swedish chemist, engineer, and inventor of the dynamite. In 1888, a French newspaper deliberately published his obituary to condemn his invention. However, this incident prompted him to use his great fortune to establish the Nobel Prize with the intention of improving his posthumous legacy.

6. Paul McCartney (1942 – )

   

   English rock singer-composer-producer, founder of the Beatles and the band Wings. His hits include Beatle’s “Hey Jude” and “Yesterday,” and Wing’s “Live and Let Die” and “Band on the Run.” Though already popular, the Beatles’ popularity intensified in 1966 when an urban legend started to spread through a radio station that one of its member died and was substituted with a look-alike, but the entire thing turned out to be false.

7. Michael Heseltine (1933 – )

   

   British politician and businessman. After suffering a heart attack, news of his death rapidly escalated when then-BBC Radio DJ Chris Morris implied it as a joke, leading to an on-air tribute by fellow MP Jerry Hayes. Morris was subsequently suspended for the prank.

8. James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903)

   

   American-born painter and etcher based in Britain, who is best known for his nearly black and white full-length portrait of his mother entitled “Arrangement in Gray and Black, No. 1,” better known as “Whistler’s mother.” A Dutch newspaper reported that he had died after a heart attack. He subsequently wrote to the paper concerned, saying that reading his own obituary brought about a “tender glow of health.”

9. Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)

   

   1907 Nobel Prize for Literature winning British writer and poet, whose best known work include the novels “The Jungle Book” and “Kim” and the poem “Gunga Din.” His death was published by mistake in a magazine, to which he humorously wrote: “I’ve just read that I am dead. Don’t forget to delete me from your list of subscribers.”

10. Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)

    

    Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, an American humorist, novelist and lecturer, whose best known works include “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Prince and the Pauper.” In 1897, the erroneous publication of his obituary in a New York Journal prompted his famous comment “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

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