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• Introduction
• Festival of Holi
• On the Trail of Alexander the Great
• Spotting Brit Asians on Holiday
• Elephants, Bicycles and Rickshaws
• Finding Familiar Business Names
• Crowd Control and Chaperones

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The Grand Trunk Road - Behind the Scenes

Finding Familiar Business Names

I called my shop the 'London Tailors' because so many of our people live there... people see the name of my shop and then they come in. People assume that I’ve been to London and my work will be up to that sort of standard, and that’s what I want people to think. I try not to disappoint my customers. I wouldn’t want them to think I just came up with this name to impress them.

 

We came across many businesses with names that alluded to a link with Britain. There was usually no personal connection to Britain, but the businesses felt it was profitable to use a British sounding name, although often spelt incorrectly which just added to our amusement. We came across such names so routinely that we ended up with quite a collection. It was impossible to include them all in the exhibition. Instead, we created a montage of our favourites.

 

When we spotted the 'Piccadelhi' restaurant in Delhi - where else! (image 1), it looked familiar for all the wrong reasons. There was an Indian man dressed as a Queen's Foot Guard in full uniform including bearskin, standing beside a Royal Mail post box. There were also a couple of traditional red telephone boxes in the restaurant’s entrance. Because we were going out to eat after a very long day, we had left all our recording equipment back at the hotel. But since this was a photo opportunity not to be missed, Tim promptly dashed back for his camera.

 

We also went to the launch of a jewellery shop in Mirpur called 'British Jewellery Shop', where the sign above the shop was written in Urdu with the Union Jack in the background (image 2). Other names that made us smile included 'Vindsor Beauty Parlour' and 'English Shoes', which had a cow wandering past just as Tim was photographing the shop sign (image 3).