India, May 1 -- Last month, I received an email from a college student in Bhubaneshwar who was working on a project that involved theorising food slang. She had compiled quite an impressive list and wanted me to add to it.

"Ginger" was the first on her list, and I was correct in assuming that she was a fan of "Modern Family", a chart-topping sitcom. Mitchell Pritchett, one of the lead characters in the sitcom, was ginger. This association reminded me of how the word "queer" was replaced by "Brighton Pier", and afterwards by "ginger beer", then being shortened to "ginger", an expression for a homosexual man.

This, of course, then reminded me of Charles Cooper, probably the first manufacturer of ginger beer in Poona. He was mentioned in t...