John Lang : Wanderer of Hindoostan, Slanderer in Hindoostanee, Lawyer for the Ranee

This book is in pursuit of Alice, whose name rhymes with gallus. That, however, is another memory, another book waiting to germinate. John Lang (1816-1864), inebriated on John Exshaw, ''a ruling spirit of those days'', most of his adult life, was a dogged underdog from Sydney, who spared no effort to hurt the John Company (East India Company). He settled in India at the age of 26, and was a prolific writer, journalist and lawyer.

His novels were too feminist for Victorian comfort, while his white male protagonists were often described with the phrase-''India he loved, England he despised.'' As a journalist he was irreverent towards the army and legal systems; modern journalists could take a lesson or two from Mr Lang. As a lawyer, John Lang learnt Persian and Urdu fast so that he could argue cases in the lower courts. He fought a number of important cases for Indians against the John Company, and won some-the establishment found a way to send him to jail. The Rani of Jhansi was so impressed, she invited him to be her lawyer. There was a party going on at Lang''s house when he died. He said that a party should not be stopped just on account of his ill health.