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| When Nilla Cram Cook met Maharaja Hari Singh: A Royal Vignette from the Yore | | | S.N. Pandita | 9/7/2015 10:43:22 PM |
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After arriving in Srinagar sometime about in the early summer of 1931, Nilla Cram Cook picked out a dunga for her residence. It anchored on a secluded spot near a ghat below a bridge across the River Jhelum. The accommodation consisted of four rooms, a living room, dining room, two bed rooms and two baths. Behind it trailed the cook boat with the Muslim boatman who acted as butler. A cook and two other servants were part of the entourage. In those days, according to the royal union regulations, it was mandatory that four servants went with every houseboat. This regulation was promulgated as part of the ancient Indian system. The strict sanitary law of the ancient system kept the water of the canals and lakes crystal clean. The sewage off the boats was carried by sweepers and dumped in special pits on dry land.
With the houseboat moored at the ghat, a connection was made with a nearby power line which provided the electricity. Nilla's idea of houseboat life was to move about everyday to a place one desired to and wake up in a different lake or a river every morning. But the population generally anchored permanently for the power connection. However, when Nilla Cook desired her boatman to move the boat to Dal Lake, he expressed his reluctance as that would involve two electric light bills. The official regulations of the time provided that once a boat stopped and connected the lights, it was presumed that one had rented a ghat for a month. Hence, people in general stayed at one ghat all through the summer to avoid double billing. But Nilla Cram Cook was not a person of that sort and asked the boatman to move to the Dal Lake.
The boatman agreed to do so but delayed it by a day or two and then it began to rain. The initially moderate-looking rain turned into an uninterrupted heavy downpour. Two days later Nilla woke up in the morning on the tops of the trees. The water channel between thechunth kul and the Dal Lake had risen to an alarming level almost about to overflow its banks. Accordingly, the Dal Gate was closed by a massive steel gate that had been erected only a year or so earlier to ward off the floods then. With incessant rain, the river rose higher and higher. To monitor the flood situation, the maroon-coloured Rolls Royce of the Maharaja raced back and forth over the bridges. Finally the Maharaja himself came and stood in the mud and slush all through the night to keep a close watch on the worsening situation. This crucial point was just behind the boat occupied by Nilla Cook. Had the river risen by another two inches it would have poured over the gate to flood the city.
And yet there was no panic. The fact that Maharaja himself was standing at a spot where he would have been the first to be washed away kept every one calm and quiet. No one managing the flood crisis failed to acknowledge the Maharaja's great courage and concern he had for the welfare of his people. Giving an eyewitness account of the situation in her travelogue My Road to India writes Nilla Cram Cook: "All I had ever heard, in connection with Maharajas, was about their sins and eccentricities. I had never heard of one standing in the mud all night, but with my own eyes I saw Maharaja Hari Singh do that a few feet from my houseboat. The chances were two to one that he would be washed away by the torrent. The water had risen an inch and half - when it suddenly stopped raining".
Moved by the Maharaja's brave act, Nilla Cook decided to call on his wife Maharani Tara Devi. At the time, the Maharani was living in a mansion on the Dal Lake. The old palace on the Jhelum by the temple of Vishnu was still occupied by the aunts, great aunts and other older members of the Maharaja's family. The new palace by the Dal Lake had been repeatedly altered and remodeled several times during its construction and had been declared unsafe for the occupancy of the royal family. The Maharaja himself lived in a smaller dwelling unit on the slopes of the Zabarvan Range and the Maharani in a nearby establishment of her own. Nilla Cook wrote to the Maharani after making a call.
A few days later Nilla received an elegant letter written by Nawab Khusru Jung, the Minister in Waiting to the Maharaja, inviting her to tea at the Polo Ground retreat of the royal family. Nawab Khusru Jung was a Mohammedan prince and belonged to the realm of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Everyone affectionately called him 'Mehboob', the beloved. He had written the letter on behalf of the Maharani. There was another Muslim officer of the Maharaja. He was an Afghan named Sardar Abdul Rahman Effendi. Affectionately he was addressed 'Bhaijan'.
On the days the Maharaja played polo his guard of honour, playing bagpipes, passed over the bridge near Nilla's boat. Nilla Cook's co-traveler Miss Stuart swore that the tunes played were Scotch and that confirmed that the instruments had been imported from Scotland. But Nilla knew that they were ancient instruments of Kashmir playing ancient tunes of thrilling Himalayan music. And on one particular day when the bagpipes passed over the bridge near Nilla's boat, she set out for Polo Ground to meet the royal couple.
On arriving at Polo Ground, Nilla Cook was introduced to Colonel Balram Singh by Thakur Nachint Chand, the brother of the Maharani. The first thing, the Rajput officer Colonel Balram asked Nilla was if she had ever been in Chicago to which; she said 'yes'. A while later, arrived the Maharaja. He sat down next to Nilla and asked her the reasons that had brought her to Kashmir. Following a short conversation the Maharaja dashed off when his cream and brown horse appeared. Colonel Balaram Singh then took the seat that was previously occupied by the Maharaja. He carried a very impressive reserve about himself that however, was occasionally breached by his loud laughter. He had recently been ordered by the Maharaja to prepare himself to head the law enforcement agencies of the state. During their brief conversation, Colonel Balram admired Nilla's romantic dress and impressed upon her that he would feel honoured to arrange a car or a horse whenever she needed one to go anywhere.
At the party the servants passed the tea. Tables were laid with sandwiches of different varieties and delicious French pastries. The Maharani's brother desired that Nilla Cook taste some Hindu cuisine instead of the European varieties of which he said "you had plenty of that in Europe". He almost persuaded her to try a native variety. Eating it Nilla "choked as her cheeks began to burn". It had plenty of pepper in it. Then the Maharani's brother tasted another item; finding it had no pepper, he said to Nilla : "Try this one; it has been specially prepared for you" . Colonel Balram too had a bite of it and confirmed that it had "very little pepper in it" To make Nilla exactly know how different were the food items prepared for her from the ones prepared for them, Colonel Balram gave her unleavened bread stuffed with spiced vegetables they were eating. Nilla tried a bite of it, but it caused her a nagging bout of cough and sneezing. She stopped eating any further and drank six glasses of water.
Seeing Nilla's predicament, a jovial Englishman from the royal entourage to whom the Maharani had entrusted with a large pitcher of cream to serve on the occasion made a remark that sent everyone present into peals of laughter. "In all matters of the sense, the West had very little pep in it compared with the East". Even as the party was on, what was happening on the field was more a scene from "Rajput history" than a real polo contest. The players galloped back and forth ferociously with the long ends of their turbans dyed in different hues "flying like battle banners".
With the polo game coming to an end, Nilla prepared to leave. The Englishman offered that he would drive her back on the bridge. Nilla agreed to the suggestion. But what Nilla Cook actually desired was to see Colonel Balram again. She never wanted to ask for a car or horse as an excuse to meet him. Instead she thought she could wait to see what he would do in that regard. Yet Nilla knew that custom of the day did not permit any man to call on a "woman alone". She decided to wait for another invitation from the Maharani to hear the chivalrous Rajput's laugh again! |
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