Stories of our KIngs...

The stories of the riches of India are a part of folklore now. The kings and their palaces, decked in precious stones, gold, silver and the kind of land they owned, their lifestyle; all this has become a part of the legend. When we visit some of the palaces in Udaipur, we get a glimpse, rather a sad shadow of the past and that too leaves us in sheer awe. The stories of these Kings are things which need to be documented as surely, many of them would have simply vanished with time, as the older generation hands over the baton to the new.  

The stories of Maharaja Jaya Singh of Alwar is once again legendary. On a recent visit there, a guide there narrated a very amusing tale. It seems, the Maharaja had gone to England and he went shopping on Bond Street, looking at buying a Rolls Royce. The salesman there did not know who he was and insulted him, driving him out of the shop. The enraged Maharaja, called up the company and placed an order over the phone for six Rolls Royce.  He got them delivered to Alwar and there he started using the cars for collecting garbage and cleaning the city.  Word got around and the Rolls Royce company came to know of this. Following the Maharaja, others too had followed suit and in a mark of protest, all turned their Rolls Royce into garbage vehicles. The company was worried that their cars could indeed become carriers of trash and pleaded and begged, even offering the Maharaja 6 more Rolls Royce as a mark of compensation for his insult. He did not take up the offer but soon stopped the usage as trash cars once he realized that the British had realized their mistake.

Such was the hold of our Kings then. But we look at it the other way now, even today, not just the British but entire world is wooing the Indians. We do not have as many riches but surely a huge population which will make any company rich!