Lyr Req: Queen Victoria's Goolies

Subject: Lyr Req: Queen Victoria's Goolies
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Feb 10 - 10:37 AM

My Uncle Harry used to sing a song that came from his army days in the Long Range Desert Group
Does anybody know any more?

Fifteen years you loved my daughter
Now to the Blighty you must go.
May the ship that carries you over
Sink to the bottom of the Pani sahib.
Oh doo-lalli sahib, oh doo-lalli sahib.
Queen Victoria very fine man
Find her goolies if you can.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Queen Victoria's Goolies
From: GUEST,Mary.
Date: 24 Feb 14 - 04:02 PM

Sixteen annas one ruppee came into this song. My dad sang it, 14th Army, Burma Campaign.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Queen Victoria's Goolies
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Feb 14 - 05:17 PM

From a memoir by Harold Lander:

There was a song the best-known verse of which began:

"Queen Victoria very good man
Plenty pani in the can
Plenty pani plenty rooti
….."

(pahnee-water; roottee-bread).

But there was a verse that I preferred. It may have been written by some more than usually perceptive white but more probably by a downtrodden Indian.

"Seven long years you fucked my daughter
Now you go to the Blighty Sahib
May the boat that carries you over
Sink to the bottom of the pani Sahib."

(Blighty was a colloquial word that was a corruption of an Indian word. It became very popular with the troops during World War I, 1914-1918.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Queen Victoria's Goolies
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Feb 14 - 05:29 PM

From an article in the Times of India dated Jun 4, 2008:

Despite the tight-corseted primness and prudery associated with the age named after her, Queen Victoria elicited good cheer in her far-flung colonies as evidenced by the nursery rhyme that Indian ayahs would croon to their young charges many years after independence:

"Thora roti, thora cha
Queen Victoria bahut achha
Thora roti, thora jam
Queen Victoria very fine man!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Queen Victoria's Goolies
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Feb 14 - 07:49 PM

Good lord, that is one pissed-off Indian.