The well-known novelist Kushwant Singh writes the text in 1950. The action of the text is set mainly on the train station and in the train’s first-class compartment, in India. The main Character is Sir Mohan Lal, an Indian man, who looks and thinks of himself as an Englishman – he is one of the higher-class Indians and rarely speaks Hindustani, which is the common language in India.
The text is about the class division, in India and as well as in England, seen from the eyes of an Indian man who desperately attempts to escape his roots in India and two Soldiers who are able to see through his disguise.
The main character, Sir Mohan Lal, is a very complacent man; he is more than satisfied with his education, English skills and dazzling good looks. In the text he looks in the mirror and thinks to himself: “Distinguished, efficient – even handsome. That neatly trimmed moustache, the suit from Savile Row, the carnation in the buttonhole – the aroma of eau de cologne, talcum powder, and scented soap all about you! Yes, old fellow, you are a bit of all right.”1 It all indicates how fond of himself he really is, but what it also indicates is how aware he is of his own appearance towards the public and he certainly is aware of which image he want to send to other people and who he want to attract. In his job as a vizier and a barrister he meets many Englishmen in the trains and that requires certain manners, which he has from studying at the oxford university. Nonetheless his wife does not manage those manners because she is a native Indian woman - the only reason he is married to her is to have children – and that is the reason he does not want her to travel first-class with him, but make her travel in the zenana (a section in the train only for women).
Sir Mohan Lal is almost obsessed with how other people think of him. And will do anything to get in touch with English