A MAJOR ATTRACTION in Udaipur (Rajasthan,  India) is its Lake Pichola. There are plenty of hotels and eateries close to the water. One of these is Jheels Ginger café.  This small establishment is next to the waterside and has great views of the lake. Also it has a small bookshelf. On it, my wife found a book that aroused my interest.

The book, which was falling to pieces, was “Compact Dictionary of Canadian English” edited by Thomas Paikeday, and published 1976 in Toronto. It was the first Dictionary of English as used and spoken in Canada.

Thomas Paikeday was born in Thiruvananthapuram, India in 1926. He completed his studies at Madras Christian College (1958) and the University of Madras (1960). Then, he became a lecturer of English at the University of Delhi. In 1964, after studying in the USA at Boston College and the University of Michigan, he became a lexicographer.

Paikeday was a pioneer in the use of computers for collecting and analysing data for compiling dictionaries. He  became highly respected amongst lexicographers, linguists, and other scholars. He died in 2019 at Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

It was strange discovering a dictionary of Canadian English lying discarded in a café in Udaipur. But given that it was in India that its editor was born, it seemed quite both appropriate and really amazing.