Musings from Antique Origins

Flag of Bhor Yesterday , I had a telephonic talk with HH Raja Shrimant Yogeshrao Chimnajirao Pandit Pant Sachiv, Raja of Bhor, the erstwhile princely state near Pune. We got introduced and I spoke to him in Pune while travelling in a car in Dubai. He is the maternal uncle of Amita, the wife of my colleague and friend, Dilip Gejji, stationed in Auckland. Dilip is a Maharashtra Brahmin by birth and very well informed on various matters. While we were driving out for lunch, I told him that the then Raja of Bhor, Shankar Rav Chimanji Pant Sachiv was honoured by the King Emperor George V, during the Delhi Durbar of 1911 by giving him the honour of 11 personal guns salutes. Very amused, Dilip told me that he shall contact Mama which paved way for our talk. The Raja was extremely polite and kind while talking. When I mentioned that I have read about the honours conferred upon his great grandfather by the King Emperor in 1911, he was very happy. He told of his visit to London along with his f...

Of late, the coconuts and its oil have been in the news for all wrong reasons. The talks of cholesterol enhancing edible oils put the coconuts and the coconut oil in to a shady background. Oils which were unheard of in our childhood took the roost and filled our kitchen cabinets. In our primary classes, we learned that our state is known as Kerala because it is the land of Kera, the coconut. We also believed that the coconut palm is a Kalpa vrikhsha ; the celestial tree giving all the wishes. It was true. The palm leaves were used for thatching roofs of cottages. The life inside was cool and pleasant. These leaves were also the favourite food for our domesticated elephants which were always seen around for village and temple festivals. These were also used for making fences in our villages. Tender coconuts were exotic drinks which were medicinal too unlike the fizzling colas of the present. Some of our senior politicians claim that regular use of tender coconut water is like Methuse...

Federico García Lorca Lorca was the foremost poet and dramatist of Spain of the 20th century. He lived only for 36 years and was shot by a firing squad in 1936, the year when the Spanish civil war started. He had no political affiliations but was known to be a friend of the leftist intellectuals and was an advocate of liberty. This was reason enough for the Nationalists of Franco’s government to do away with him. It banned his books and the intention was to obliterate his name from history of the period. Lorca’s writings have the elements of Spanish folklore, the gypsy way of life and the surrealistic techniques of poetry. His personal life is rather controversial because of his unbecoming closeness to friends of the same gender. Lorca had his education in Madrid when the famous painter Salvador Dali was his friend. Later, Lorca spent about 2 years in New York at the Columbia University and his inability to speak English had implanted in him a cultural shock. His book, “Poet in New Yor...

Juan Del Amo In the summer of 2006, I had been to Spain and visited Madrid. While at the Holiday Inn Hotel, I asked the front office manager if he could let me know of any programme for a bull fight which I could watch. Also, I asked him about some good book shops from where I could pick up an anthology of the renowned Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca. After an hour when we met again Juan was very curious. He asked me as to why I wanted to watch the macabre act of a bull fight, I being a “Hindoo”. He was also amused to know of my interest about Lorca. Thereupon, he mentioned about his visit to India for the Pushkar Mela, about his reading “Manimekhalay”, about Hariprasad Chaurasia and about the Indian classical music. It was my turn to be surprised because I never thought that a Spaniard could tell me about a second century Tamil classic which our own intelligentsia may not have given much attention to. Juan and I were to become good friends and our correspondence has been going o...

For our youngsters, terms like, candlelight dinner will be very familiar. But how many of them know of the words like “Theevetti Kolla” (Torchlight Robbery)? I heard the Malayalam word “Theevetti Kolla” (Torchlight Robbery) for the first time as a little boy from my Cheriya Muthassi (Younger sister of my maternal grandma who was also another grandma). We used to call her Chitta, taking after our mother. Chitta was a scholarly lady who was born in AD 1912 on the same day as the last Maharaja of Travancore, Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. She was adept in Sanskrit and was exceptionally intelligent and well exposed in matters of general knowledge. "Theevetti Kolla" is a macabre incident in which some prosperous households were looted and burgled by robbers. The intruders came at night with torches and plundered the assets, often taking an escape route through the waterways. Threats to life and honour to womenfolk were not unusual, though not common. In the 19t...

Dubai, UAE: Winter 2008 The other day in Dubai, I had been invited to the marriage of the son of a rich client. The celebrations spread over three days were in different big hotels in the city. The boy was a Sindhi and the girl was a Jain. Obviously it was a love marriage and the couple had started a web site too which I found very amusing. Therein the groom expresses his wishes for fulfilling the career aspirations of the girl and the bride wants to be part of the empire building of the boy. This reminded me of a friend in Africa who despite being rich enough might be struggling hard to tread on the difficult road of matrimony. Malawi, Southern Africa: Summer 2003 I and my colleague Mark were at ‘Greens’, an exclusive dining place in the evening. There was a crowd of Europeans, Asians and some natives in the Restaurant.We settled for some South African beer waiting for the guest. We had invited a client for dinner by name Douglas (His surname, I am afraid, I cannot recollect. How wil...

The British army officers who were at Malabar 1921 The only British campaign medal given for a military campaign in the territory of present day Kerala was with a clasp “Malabar 1921-22”. It was given by Army order 50 of 1924 and sanctioned the award of this bar to all who took part in the suppression of the Moplah rebellion in Malabar within the area bounded as follows:“On the west by the sea, on the south by the Ponnani river, on the east by the north and south line form Gudalur to the Ponnani river, on the north by an east and west line from Gudalur to the sea” This medal is categorized under the name India General Service 1908 Medal (IGS 1908 Medal) with a clasp MALABAR 1921-22. The educationally and economically backward Moplahs of Malabar initially organized the Khilafat Conference in 1920 against the British Government and this had the tacit support of the Indian National Congress too. Later it took criminal overtones with the rebels committing atrocities with mass conversions, ...

Frank Grimwood ICS, Resident. During the British rule of India, there have been many occasions of dissensions among the family members of the princely states. In the army too there have been many mutinies too due to various reasons. What the British used to call as “mutiny”, our historians have chosen to call as “the war of independence”. Let the wise decide the truth. During the reign of Queen Victoria, in AD1891, the following interesting and bloody incidents happened in Manipur. The Manipur state was a comparatively un-known member of the family of Indian sovereignties, when the tragic events of the murder of Mr. James Quinton, the Chief Commissioner of Assam, and of others of his party, brought it into an evil notoriety, and made it the platform for the public declaration of important principles on the subject of political relations. In AD 1886, Maharaja Surchandra Singh succeeded his father Chandra Kirti Singh, to the throne in Manipur. Though Surchandra Singh was the eldest son,...

I am not competent to tell anything on meditation despite my substantial wanderings both physical and metaphorical. Today, I read on the passing away of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi the founding Guru of Transcendental Meditation. He was at the Hague and was 91 when dead. Right from the fifties, he had great following from the east and the west and his celebrity disciples included the Beatles. “Being happy is of the utmost importance. Success in anything is through happiness. Under all circumstances be happy. Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the ocean of your bliss," he wrote in 1967. These words are inspiring indeed! In 1978, as a young man of 23, after my post graduation, far away in Delhi, I had just joined as a PO with a Bank. I was into bit of serious reading and the thoughts of existentialism and spirituality had taken roots in the mind. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a favourite, though I was rather a novice. During a break in 1978, I we...

The excellent blog of Mr. Abraham Tharakan, which I regularly read with almost a Mallu obsession (akin to reading the newspaper in the morning) has the latest one on an interesting hunting safari he partook in the 60s. http://parayilat.blogspot.com/ The interesting article was revealing too. In those days, though the wild-life laws were put in place, people could take shelters under many a pretext. In the present era, we are aware about the ordeals some thespians and royals are undergoing to come out of the legal issues for having hunted down protected wildlife. But, in the dark continent of Africa, the madness of destroying wildlife goes on. Those of my readers who have read the author Wilbur Smith will be aware of the hunting concessions in the African countries and about the indiscriminate destruction of the wildlife there. In Dar Es Salam, Tanzania, my friend M (original name concealed) who is a Tanzanian of Indian origin, is into big time hunting. His company offers hunting exped...

Today , my parents celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary, most simply in the serene surroundings of our ancestral Tharavadu, called Parimanathu Kovilakom, in Cherthala, the erstwhile Karappuram of the princely state of Travancore. Though old, both my father and mother, by the grace of Almighty are healthy and look after their daily chores with peace and fulfillment. It is extremely rare to be blessed with longevity, health, simplicity in needs, self refinement, devotion to God, hard work, contentment and Thithiksha (This word in Sanskrit means endurance and patience untouched by happiness and sorrow). Without doubt, one could say that all these are true for my beloved father, Rama Varma. Such people are extremely few in any period and in any part of the world. It is due to the blessings of Goddess Mahamaya , his beloved deity; he continues to shed an ethereal element of simplicity possessed only by the Rishis of yore and intensely felt by all who come into contac...

Old letters are very interesting to read. Those were often very warm, personal and written with much integrity. In the present era of emails, personal letters are becoming rarer and in the emails you miss the personal warmth and sometimes the sincerity of purpose. Letters from Royalty and men of authority are a class by themselves. It also rewinds history. It can be very amusing, informative and thrilling to go through such letters. I have with me this original handwritten and signed letter of Maharaja Moolam Thirunaal Ramavarma of Travancore (who reigned between 1885 and 1924) dated 4th January 1893 and addressed to one John Rhode of the erstwhile Travancore Civil Service. The Maharaja’s handwriting is very clear and the language is beautiful, to say the least. It is reproduced below: Trivandrum, 4th January 1893 My dear Sir, Your kind letter of the 5th December reached me duly and I was very pleased to hear that Mrs. Rhode and yourself have been in the continued enjoyment of good h...

It was my usual surfing for news from Malayalam newspapers, and I was quite amused to see the attached photograph as it appeared in the Kerala Kaumudi daily of 1st February 2008 The photograph shows the patriarch of the Travancore Royal family HH Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma and his niece HH Aswathy Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bai calling on the venerable saint, Matha Amritanandamayi at Her Trivandrum Ashram. There is nothing unusual in the Royal family members calling on a saint. History is replete with many such instances from our recent past. Tippu Sultan giving special reverence to Sringeri Mutt also could be seen in this context. What is more revealing is the extremely pious and simple ways of the Travancore Royal family. In the photo, HH Aswathy Thirunal is seen squatting on the floor before the mother. In caste ridden societies in India where the rich and the powerful often wielded much attention and stuck on to the supremacy of their caste, such approach from a senior member of...