Debate: Indian influence

One of my favourites is 'doolally' or 'tapped' to mean mad or eccentric. The term 'doolally tap' is Army slang dating from British rule in India. 'Doolally' is derived from the Deolali sanatorium, some 100 miles north of Mumbai, where soldiers suffering mental fatigue rested before starting the long journey home; the second word is the Hindi for 'fever'. By the 1940s this had been widely shortened to just "gone doolally" or "doolally".

My family - on both [ie Mum and Dad's] sides - has strong connections with India. A fair bit of my mother's family [including her late mother], in the first quarter of the 20th Century, were born there. One of my 8 Great Aunts had a parrot that could speak Hindi, and swore like a soldier!

Mum's grandmother won a tennis trophy in Kashmir in 1912. And, after she returned to England in 1915, insisted on cooking with only 'authentic' Indian ingredients. My grandmother and mother continued this, and now I do as well. Mum grew up on Indian Food! So, not surprisingly, our Spice Cupboard contains Garam Masala, Tumeric, etc. Cookey nowadays is littered with Indian phrases, eg Balti, Tandoori, etc

Places too have had an influence. For example, Kashmir gives its name to a type of wool. Jodphur to riding trousers. Regarding sports, India gave us Polo, and, I think, Snooker.