Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Never Let A Pal Down

...that is the Code of the Woosters.

For the uninformed, the Code of the Woosters is the title of a novel by P.G. Wodehouse.

And the personal code of the chief character in the novel, Bertie Wooster.

Bertie's belief in the code gets him into all sorts of situations - because his friends are forever making inconvenient or preposterous requests of him, knowing Bertie won't let them down.

Luckily for Bertie, he has a valet called Jeeves, who always manages to save the day.

Don't know who P.G. Wodehouse is? You soon will.

I have made what appears to be an "inconvenient" request of a living Bertie Wooster - my friend Ajay.

On Saturday, I will be guest posting an original piece on P.G. Wodehouse by Ajay.

I asked Ajay to do this because frankly he is the only one I know who speaks authentic Wodehouse.

And as anyone who knows knows, authentic Wodehouse is a sophisticated acquired art.

Ajay has perfected this art.

Bertie comes alive in his every conversation, every e-mail.  I even suggested to Ajay that maybe he is "Bertie" come out of the pages of Wodehouse, rather than himself.

Sorry, Ajay, I couldn't resist that.

Anyhoo, we have here a teaser from Ajay as to what we might expect on Saturday:

"Er...Jeeves... "
"Yes, sir."
"Am I raising her expectations too high?"
" I fear so, sir. Not a wholly advisable course of action."
"You mean to say she will look upon me as something the cat dragged in and rejected, after I submit my piece?"
"The possibility did cross my mind, sir"
"You mean to say, I am incapable of delivering the goods?"
"Well, sir........"
"Jeeves !"
"Sir?"
"Have I not told you not to say 'Well, sir' in that soupy tone of voice before?"
"I beg your pardon, sir"
"Fetch me reams of paper, a dozen sharpened pencils and an eraser of the highest quality. I shall roll up my sleeves and get to work. My eager public awaits."
"Very good, sir"  
 
Of course in keeping with the lackadaisical character of Bertie, Ajay has been dragging his feet on the real thing, in spite of the reams of paper and the dozen sharpened pencils.

He has been making all sort of excuses about the flu and what not.

But of course, I don't have a shred of doubt that the goods will be delivered for the guest post this Saturday as planned.

After all, it's the Code of the Woosters, isn't it...

Never Let A Pal Down!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreee with you Minoo,when you say

'After all, it's the Code of the Woosters, isn't it...
Never Let A Pal Down!'


Aarathi.

Minoo Jha said...

Thanks, Aarathi. This post was aimed at teasing Ajay, who was delaying in getting out his post on P.G. Wodehouse to me, the first post he ever contributed.