Why this blog is called "Gallimaufry".

gal-uh-MAW-free\, noun.

Originally meaning "a hash of various kinds of meats," "gallimaufry" comes from French galimafrée; in Old French, from the word galer, "to rejoice, to make merry"; in old English: gala + mafrer: "to eat much," and from Medieval Dutch maffelen: "to open one's mouth wide."

It's also a dish made by hashing up odds and ends of food; a heterogeneous mixture; a hodge-podge; a ragout; a confused jumble; a ridiculous medley; a promiscuous (!) assemblage of persons.

Those of you who know me, will, I’m sure, understand how well some of these phrases (barring the "promiscuous" bit!) fit me.

More importantly, this blog is an ode to my love for Shimla. I hope to show you this little town through my eyes. If you don't see too many people in it, forgive me, because I'm a little chary of turning this into a human zoo.

Stop by for a spell, look at my pictures, ask me questions about Shimla, if you wish. I shall try and answer them as best as I can. Let's be friends for a while....

25 February 2008

Edgar Lee Masters


I saw this machine lying abandoned (in fact, it's been lying on the same spot for at least a year now...) and was reminded of Masters' poem "Abel Melveny" from the Spoon River anthology:

I bought every kind of machine that’s known—
Grinders, shellers, planters, mowers,
Mills and rakes and ploughs and threshers—
And all of them stood in the rain and sun,
Getting rusted, warped and battered,
For I had no sheds to store them in,
And no use for most of them.
And toward the last, when I thought it over,
There by my window, growing clearer
About myself, as my pulse slowed down,
And looked at one of the mills I bought—
Which I didn’t have the slightest need of,
As things turned out, and I never ran—
A fine machine, once brightly varnished,
And eager to do its work,
Now with its paint washed off—
I saw myself as a good machine
That Life had never used.

A special prize for anyone who guesses what this forlorn little machine is(was) meant to do?

4 comments:

gypsy said...

i guess it's the machine to sharpen knives...just a guess...

nyways blogrollin ya...

Geetali said...

Bwa-ha-ha! No.

But thanks, sinner, for blogrolling me.

Anonymous said...

Looking closely at the machine, I can see it is petroleum (or derivative thereof) driven and, the the base seems to be a catcher /holder of the waste product.

Further examination indicates that there are 2 chutes - one for the waste and one for the product (which is aimed towards the far left ie. closest to the operator).

As it's on wheels, it's meant to be taken from location to location (farm to farm ?).

The wheels at the top (left) to me, indicate that the product going into the machine can be varying sizes, so it's not likely to be a liquid product that is being fed into or out of the machine. But, as it's in Shimla, it could be to do with apple cider production.

In saying all of the above, I'm guessing it's something to do with food production - wheat or grain or crushing of apples for the making of apple wine (cider).

Am I even close ???

Cheers
Zoltan

Geetali said...

Good heavens! You're so close, you almost nailed it, Zoltan.
Thoroughly impressed with your analytical skills: this machine is used for making sugar-cane juice.
As for your prize... I need to think of something appropriate!

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