Christmas In India- in 1881

Christmas in India"; chromoxylograph from a drawing by E.K. Johnson; 1881. An idealized picture of British home life: attentive servants and happy children (who would be packed off to England for schooling before long).

You can see the ayah - children 's nurse, a man operating an overhead cloth fan or punkha . My parents had these in their bungalows before electricity came to their area.My mom recalls that during the hot long afternoons when my grandparents who were both doctors were away at the hospital the children would force the punkha man to let them operate the fan against the orders of the sahibs. But it was fun for them.

In the painting you can also see a bearer or butler serving cool drinks.Do you think that 's a tiger skin under the lady 's chair?

Hundreds of the big cats were hunted.My grandfather shot one, but it was a maneater and he was asked to do it by the authorities.My Dad was a hunter too. He brought us game when it was permitted, but never broke the law.I must tell tell you how he shot a rabid wolf in our front yard, right in the middle of the city.He used to shoot snakes, which is quite difficult to do as they move so fast.