Being raised in a Household where English was nearly a first language along with Urdu is why I can shame the gora on his own turf.
Being multilingual was an advantage for Indian Children - it actually helped their natural learning processes.
I used to go to school and sweat through Bengali (and a bit of Sanskrit at the beginning, and then return home, where a relentless Mum would let me have whatever she (=the khansamah) had cooked up, and then it was down to Arthur Mee: Old Tubal Cain was a man of might, and a man of might was he....
That was when I groaned my way through ..."Then out spake brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate...."
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods?
Macaulay, of the Minute on Education fame, thought up the poem in the Nilgiri mountains, at Ooty, close to where my Mum was born, so it all fits in, in some crazy jalebi way. Of course, it had to be Macaulay, as we discuss education and its liberation from his iron and long-dead fist.
Incidentally the only scholastic prize that Churchill (not related to Winston Hannibal in any way) won at school was one for memorising and reciting this poem in its entirety, from "Lars Porsena of Clusium, a mighty oath he swore...." onwards.
I meander a lot these days.
