Vikram Seth - some more problems

[Jan.Dvorak at ff.cuni.cz]

Is anyone able to help me with the following words found in Vikram Seth's A
Suitable Boy? (Sorry, I don't have the English text with me today, therefore I
can give neither the full quotations nor the page numbers, but tommorrow I
can add these too, if needed)

Ruksh - this should be a name of some war-horse, the sentence sound like
        'he is not a war-horse like Ruksh or Bucephalus' (this is not 
        a citation), where Bucephalus is the name of the horse of Alexander
        the Great.

kamini - this should be some bush or tree, probably sort of Jasmine

chŸautha- in the context like: I will die two days after you, therefore I
          will not attend your chautha - apparently some ritual performed on
          the fourth day after a death - is this correct?

Maloos - quoted in my last mail, got no answer 

         (p. 431 - one of the last paragraphs of the chapter 7.23):
         Meenakshi answers to her mother-in-law: "Of course I can, 
         Maloos dear, don't be so old-fashioned." 

         I should mention that Meenakshi is Bengali. Any suggestions?


Rat    - In the beginning of a letter to her beloved Kabir, Lata writes:
         'My sweet Rat, my sweetest sweetest Rat' or something like this,
         the capital R is correct. My Indian informant told me: "this must
         be the English 'rat'", but I hesitate.

chanderi - Late wears 'green chanderi sari'. Is it cundri? (I mean the
           method of dying)?

If you have any suggestions regarding the words quoted above, please let me
know.

Thank you, Jan Dvorak