Sea of poppies- Amitav Gosh Flashcards
Dhoti
Thedhoti, also known asveshti,[1]mardani,chaadra,dhontar,jaiñboh&panchey, is a type ofsarong, fastened in between the legs in a manner that it outwardly resemblestrousers, sometimes loose but othertighter fittingsare worn as well.
Puja
Puja (Sanskrit: पूजा, romanized: pūjā) is a worship ritual performed by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains to offer devotional homage and prayer to one or more deities, to host and honor a guest, or to spiritually celebrate an event.[1][2] It may honor or celebrate the presence of special guests, or their memories after they die. The word pūjā is Sanskrit, and means reverence, honor, homage, adoration, and worship.[3] Puja, the loving offering of light, flowers, and water or food to the divine, is the essential ritual of Hinduism. For the worshipper, the divine is visible in the image, and the divinity sees the worshipper. The interaction between human and deity, between human and guru, is called darshan, seeing.[4]
Slack-jawed
” A slack-jawed youth with a brood of five children of his own, he never missed an opportunity to remind Deeti of her paucity of offspring”
If you say that someone is slack-jawed, you mean that their mouth is hanging open, often because they are surprised.
To flounce
” A week or two before, she would have taken care to creep sideways, so as not to disturb the flowers, but today she all but flounced as she went and was none too sorry when her swishing sari swept clusters of petals off the ripening pods”
If you flounce somewhere, you walk there quickly with exaggerated movements, in a way that shows you are annoyed or upset.
Iron tawa
” Deeti gave her daughter the job of sweeping the poppy seeds into a heap while she busied herself in stoking the fire and heating a heavy iron tawa”
A tava(h) / tawa(h) (mainly on the Indian subcontinent), saj (in Arabic), sac (in Turkish), and other variations and combinations thereof,[clarification needed] is a metal-made cooking utensil.[1] The tawa is round and can be flat, but more commonly has a curved profile, and while the concave side can be used as a wok or frying pan, the convex side is used for cooking flatbreads and pancakes.[1][2]
Ghat
” Along with the offering, a leaf flowed out of the child’s cupped palms. They turned to watch as the river carried it downriver towards the ghats of Ghazipur”
Ghat, a term used in the Indian subcontinent, depending on the context could refer either to a range of stepped hills with valleys (ghati in Hindi), such as the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats; or the series of steps leading down to a body of water or wharf, such as a bathing or cremation place along the banks of a river or pond, the Ghats in Varanasi, Dhobi Ghat or the Aapravasi Ghat.[1][2] Roads passing through mountain ghats are called Ghat Roads.
Rudraksha beads
Rudraksha (IAST: rudrākṣa) refers to the dried stones or seeds of the genus Elaeocarpus specifically, Elaeocarpus ganitrus.[1] These stones serve as prayer beads for Hindus (especially Shaivas), Buddhists and Sikhs.[2] When they are ripe, rudraksha stones are covered by an inedible blue outer fruit so they are sometimes called “blueberry beads”.[3]
The stones are associated with the Hindu deity Shiva and are commonly worn for protection and for chanting mantras such as Om Namah Shivaya (Sanskrit: ॐ नमः शिवाय; Om Namaḥ Śivāya). They are primarily sourced from India, Indonesia, and Nepal for jewellery and malas (garlands) and valued similarly to semi-precious stones.[1] Rudraksha can have up to fourteen “faces” (Sanskrit: मुख, romanized: mukha, lit. ’face’) or locules - naturally ingrained longitudinal lines which divide the stone into segments. Each face represents a particular deity.[4]
Sindoor
Sindoor is a traditional vermilion red or orange-red coloured cosmetic powder from the Indian subcontinent, usually worn by married women along the part of their hairline.[1] In Hindu communities the sindoor is a visual marker of marital status of a woman and ceasing to wear it usually implies widowhood.[2]
Traditional sindoor was made with turmeric and alum or lime, or from other herbal ingredients.[3] Unlike red lead and vermilion, these are not poisonous.[3][4] Some commercial sindoor products contain synthetic ingredients, some of which are not manufactured to proper standards and may contain lead.[5][6]
Bumboat
” What he saw was a dense thicket of mangroves, and a mudbank that appeared to be uninhabitated until it disgorged its bumboats- a small flotilla of dinghies and canoes, all intent on peddling fruit, fish and vegetables to the newly arrived sailors”
A bumboat is a small boat used to ferry supplies to ships moored away from the shore.[1] The name comes from the combination of the Dutch word for a canoe—”boomschuit” (“boom” meaning “tree”), and “boat”.
Rakish; flush-decked
” Since his departure from America it was the Ibis herself that had figured most often in Zachary’s daily tally of praiseworthy things. It was not that she was especially sleek or rakish in appearance: on the contrary, the Ibis was a schooner of old-fashioned appearance, neither lean, nor flush-decked like the clippers for which Baltimore was famous”
A rakish person or appearance is stylish in a confident, bold way.
having a weather deck flush with the hull
1) Fo’c’sle ( Forecastle)
2) Deckhouse
3)galley
4) bo’sun ( boatswain)
1) The forecastle is the part at the front of a ship where the sailors live.
2)a houselike cabin on the deck of a ship
3)On a ship or aircraft, the galley is the kitchen.
4)a petty officer on a merchant ship or a warrant officer on a warship who is responsible for the maintenance of the ship and its equipment
Blackbirder
A person or vessel involved in the capture and transportation of slaves
Blackbirding is the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The practice took place on a large scale with the taking of people indigenous to the numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean during the 19th and 20th centuries. These blackbirded people were called Kanakas or South Sea Islanders. They were taken from places such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Niue, Easter Island, the Gilbert Islands, Tuvalu, Fiji, and the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago amongst others.
The owners, captains, and crews of the ships involved in the acquisition of these labourers were termed blackbirders. The demand for this kind of cheap labour principally came from European colonists in New South Wales, Queensland, Samoa, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tahiti, and Hawaii, as well as plantations in Peru, Mexico, and Guatemala. Labouring on sugar cane, cotton, and coffee plantations in these lands was the main usage of blackbirded labour, but they were also exploited in other industries.
Ditty-bag
“ But Zachary had signed on with a mind to learning the sailor’s trade, and he stepped on board with great eagerness, carrying a canvas ditty-bag that held little more than a change of clothes and a penny-whistle his father had given him as a boy”
a sailor’s cloth bag for personal belongings or tools. A box used for these purposes is termed a ditty box
Ratline
” With hands running short, Zachary had put aside his carpenter’s tools and become a fully fledged foretopman, running up the ratlines to bend the topsail”
any of a series of light lines tied across the shrouds of a sailing vessel for climbing aloft
Drawstringed
“ Some paraded around in drawstringed knickers, while others wore sarongs that flapped around in their scrawny legs liké petticoats, so that at times the deck looked like the parlour of a honeyhouse
A drawstring is a cord that goes through an opening, for example at the top of a bag or a pair of trousers. When the cord is pulled tighter, the opening gets smaller.
Cuddy
Adrawstringis a cord thatgoesthrough an opening, forexampleat thetopof a bag or apairoftrousers. When the cord is pulled tighter, the openinggetssmaller.
Zemindar, zamindar
Landowner
Tumasher ( Tamasha); burra-khana ( bāra khana)
fuss, used here to mean a large celebration)
From Hindi बड़ा खाना (baṛā khānā, “big dinner”), from बड़ा (baṛā, “big”) + खाना (khānā, “food, dinner”).
