Days of the Raj

Books, it has been said, enlighten lives like no other. They often conjure up a differnt world of vivid color & images that not even movies can surpass. A world where one can see through the eyes of the protogonist and live through a thousand situations which one would not even have dreamed of. Atleast books have this magical effect on me.

The last book I read was Wicked Women of the Raj by Coralie Younger. Here is an apt summary from Indiaclub: An unputdownable factual account of the zenana world of the rajas and sultans of India, concentrating on the firangi bahus and begums of this veiled world of myths and folklores. This book gives us the stories of twenty different European women who broke society’s rules to marry the heathen Indian princes.

Who were these women? Were they gold-diggers, or hopeless romantics hoping to enact their own Cinderella fairy-tale? Did they live happily ever after? Set against the backdrop of India’s independence struggle, the book has a delicious and potent mix of flavours – the end of the British Raj and the downfall of the pompous and extravagant Indian aristocracy.

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While the entire book is really fascinating what left an undelible imprint on my mind was a passage from this book. Am reproducing the same here with the hope it recreates the same effect for you that it had on me. :)

The raja's and maharaja's lifestyles were the stuff of make-believe: Aladdin's Cave & King Solomin's MInes rolled into one. Peter Pan's magic could never have conjured up such a world; a world that today even the princes look back upon in wonder. The maharajah of Indore could sink his arms up to the elbows in his treasure chest of diamonds; he was the possessor of peerless diamond earrings of 46 and 44 carats each. The maharajah of Baroda owned a seven-string pearl necklace estimated in 1903 to be worth seven million dollors. the nizam of Hyderbad own the 227-carat Nizam diamond and the Jacob diamond of 174 carats, plus a gold coin called the Jahangir Nazarana that weighed even kilograms. The legendary Baroda Royal Pearl carpet offered for sale in Geneva in 1989 was conservatively valued at thirty one million dollars.
The princes kept Rolls Royce in business. It custom-designed the car in every conceivable shape, material and colour. There were gold-and silver-plated models upholstered in the finest silk brocades and woven with pure gold and silver zari.
When the Maharaja Jagatjit Singh invited his French girlfriend Germain Pelligreno out to India for the cold season, he chartered an entire P&O liner for her comfort. On her arrival in Bombay she found an entire train fitted out with luxurious interiors to take her, its sole passenger, up to the maharajah's wedding-cake like palace in Kapurthala that was fashioned after the palace at Versailles.
Princely India was the vision splendid. From the prince's royal ateliers came the finest flowering of indian paintings, sculpture, textile, dance, architecture and music. Without royal patrons, he artistic heritage of India would never had flourished so extensively.

Wow.

Here's my New Year prayer that India regain its lost glory (atleast some of it)and get back to being this prosperous once again.

Best of 2008

Its the year end once again and time for a roundup of all the major events. While the TV channels and newspapers will jog your memories with the launch of Nano & Bindra winning India its gold at the Olympics or the Mumbai terror, I will here post a personal update of this year as it was for me.

# To start with, this was the year of the birth of my son. Wow! Nothing can beat that.

# We came close to clinching a deal with a US company & getting to be their Indian arm of their operations but lost it at the nick of the moment. But looking back now it may have been for the good since it might have taken from me my precious time which otherwise goes for my little one.

# Hubby dearest gifted me with a laptop - a HP Pavilion DV6500. Yet to actually put it to use though.

# One of the hardest moments was when I had to come away from my mother's after delivery. Hmm one can never do without one's mom.

# So many many occasions..right from my Seemantham (baby shower) and then the birth party we threw for all my relatives, my baby's first temple visit, his naming ceremony, the cradle ceremony, the ceremony that celebrates first time he crawled & crossed the doorstep and so on and so forth. Each one as memorable as it can come by.

# No salary month-on-month in the bank so no unwarranted spendings. And for the first time, since a very long time had to depend on someone (despite he being very generous, I must say) :)

# And again, without any doubt the birth of my son made 2008 the most memorable year of my life.

Happy New Year to One & All...:)

Phataack! Thappad Ki Goonj

Aren't we quite a slap happy nation with almost everyone ready to slap each other at the drop of a hat? I was watching one of the inane Roadies 6.0 audition episode where one girl proudly states that she is capable of slapping anyone. Hahah right!

Now that's some talent huh? But then maybe it is, for as I said we as a nation love slapping I suppose. Looking back Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth and then there was this Tamil Director who slapped the heroine of his film, actor-turned-Member of Parliament Govinda slapped an onlooker and then a TV host of a reality show was slapped by a contestant! Hahahahah

Its really a weird, weird world that we live in where smoking on screen is banned but violence, especially domestic violence is quite permissible. Take any of the daily soaps on Indian television, be it in any language and we can see domestic violence being glorified in various forms. Erring mothers, daring-to-dream daughters, unfaithful wifes are shown to be kicked & slapped left & right by their husbands, fathers, mother-in-laws and boyfriends. Every TV serial worth their TRP have atleast one slap-scene which is shown from every possible angle. uhh!

Nowadays there is a statutory warning message flashed when onscreen drinking is shown however there is no message shown when a guy roughs up a lady onscreen.

Media and especially television has a far-reaching impact on its audience and hence it is time they get a little more responsible in airing content which alters behaviour and help gain acceptance to new worldviews.

Hope you are listening, health minister dear Mr Anbumani Ramadoss.

Season's Wishes

No preachy stuff here but this quote seemed very profound. Good tidings to one and all. :)

Nothing is ever lost.
Not time; for what seems to have passed, lives on in the wisdom of future decisions. Not money; for what seems to have been spent, was only invested.
And not love; for what seems to have vanished, has only moved so close you must look within your heart to see it.

- from "The Universe"

Google Indic Translations

Have always admired Google as a company and for the innovative solutions they come out with. More proof here - the Google Indic Transliteration tool from Google Labs. Type in Tamil (or other regional languages they have provided) and it gets automatically translated into English. One can also do vice versa!

Excellent and very handy for people like my mom.

Try it - Google Indic Translations

Tap a Tap a Tap

f njk ec v vctZv xxx fbv fg affffbhuj n
s



hhsdg



[Dat was my baby expressing his views.]

Am not the philosophical kind but today I had a kind of revealation.

My little baby has grown to be adept at crawling and is now exploring his world around. I had put him in his cot with his teethers & couple of his favourite toys. Had also placed huge pillows as walls so he wouldn't come out. But the bright screen and the tapping sound coming from the keyboard was a little too enticing for the little fellow. He lost all interest in his toys and started to jump out of the cot towards the PC. Whew! All my trials to appease him with alternate toys, his stuffed animals..his pet giraffe all proved to be a waste. So about after half an hour I lost the battle out to him, pulled him onto my lap and let him loose on the keyboard. Needless to say he went crazy tapping the keyboard.

It struck me that his repeated trials and his singleminded effort to reach the computer was so intense that end of the day I had to relent. So probably if we want something as badly as this and put in the same focussed effortt, there should be someone up there who will relent and help us get our way.

Time to Put A Full Stop.

All it took was 10-15 fanatics to shatter the peace and harmony of this nation. Not a task any soul should ever be proud of. And now the blame game and finger-pointing has begun. Its utterly frustrating & depressing to even switch on the television. The havoc wreaked by despicable religious patriotism that make people act like insensible idiots (to put it mildly) is unspeakable. I want to but will not fall into the trap of spewing a lot of vitriol out here.

Just have a few points to make -

1. Why were'nt there any heed paid to the warnings?
Every answerable official needs to be hauled and made to pay for their lack of performing their duties. And made to pay through their nose.

2. PM condemns the terror attack, issues statement, addresses the nation from a paper, conducts all party meet. So did the Pakistan government. Heck! Mr. Prime Minister you don't seem to be a real person anymore.

3. Declare Pakistan a terrorist nation.
How much more proof does one require? Anyone who does not see Pakistan's involvement in supporting, abetting and aiding terrorism are, ironically only the Pakistanis.

4. Strong new leaders are the need of the hour.
Be it Milind Deora, or Lead India winner RK Mishra. We need new faces who are ready to take the battle head on.

5. There was reports in newspaper reporting dismay over the return of the Engalnd cricket team due to the terror attacks.
Its not about buckling to terrorism, but pray tell me who is in a mood to watch entertaining sports at this crisis hour??? And why this insistence of continuing the series at a time when the nation's mourning? Isn't there anything at which the sponsors will ever stop at?