Forgot: Punkah-wallahs have fallen on hard times since the availability of the electric fan; Punkah was the old-fashioned mannually operated "fan." Like a giant flap of cloth or woven reeds, pivoted from the ceiling, with the help of ropes or rods. course nowadays it can be used for the guy who runs a fan shop..

While I'm thinking of indian words.. consider "jungle," a near pure North Indian word, brought into English, derived from the Sanscrit Jangala. I wonder if it didn't first come into British English as slang perculiar to those who'd lived in India? Seems like some of the Cockney is doing that now in other parts of England. Slang becomes accepted, then standard... Linguistic drift.. American Black terms, like 24-7 (I work in a prison; "12-12" - done ALL my time - is popular there) are coming into the mainstresam.. Like being back in Anthropology classes.

Cheers, BK