Departmental ditties and Ballads and Barrack-room ballads

A mischievous chorus of verses and prose, this work lampoons the tangled world of colonial administration and military life in British‑India. Through sharply witty ditties the narrator claims shared hardships with soldiers, bureaucrats and locals, turning mundane duties—pay‑rolls, map‑making, and the odd ceremonial salute—into comic commentary on rank, privilege and the absurdities of empire. The opening sketches a lineage from prehistoric hunters to modern officials, hinting that the same petty rivalries and self‑interest have persisted across ages.

The collection introduces a parade of unforgettable characters: the pompously talented yet oddly inept Ahasuerus Jenkins, whose musical ambitions land him a cushy desk; the relentless Potiphar Gubbins, a civil engineer whose bridges collapse as often as his reputation rises; and the erratic Rajah Rustum Beg, whose grand schemes for hospitals and jails wobble under the weight of foreign advisers. Listeners will find a blend of jaunty rhyme, satirical observation, and vivid portraiture that captures the idiosyncrasies of a vanished bureaucracy without ever spilling its final secrets.