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The Late Gayatri Devi

 The Late Gayatri Devi

By DKK
I first saw Gayatri Devi at an Army Cantonment and then later at the IMA (Indian Military Academy) (Dad was the Commandant) at Dehradun as a youngster way back in the 1970s and was in awe of her sheer elegance, sophistication and grace. It was refinement ingrained. Then I got to know more about her. Today in the age of Internet and WhatsApp we know icons for a short while but that sense of infinite charm and grace is often missing. Sometimes such figures just stay somewhere in your mind.
As was said in that era, Indian women came to know of Chiffon sarees only after Maharani Gayatri Devi wore them. This really beautiful lady of her time was an icon of style. As stories go, once when Gayatri Devi entered an official meeting in New Delhi, her expensive french perfume was said to have made the babus heady. Every whiff was royalty. Wife of the Maharaja of Jaipur, Princess daughter of the Raja of Cooch Bihar, grand daughter of the Gaekwad of Baroda, it was blue blood all the way. "Her face was like a king's command, with the swords drawn". Few in history could equal the aura of Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur. They used to say it was jealousy more than political rivalry that made Indira Gandhi jail her during the Emergency
As Maharani the regal glamour of Gayatri Devi conquered all. As Rajmata she projected the kind benevolence of a graceful aristocrat. People jostled to touch her feet in reverence. And when she was a young Princess, her gutsy abandon charmed every heart. The snap here is indicative of her aura and self assurance. She said she was guided to conduct herself like a Maharani after marrying the Maharaja.
Gayatri Devi became the third Maharani of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh Bahadur II. It was a secret love affair. He proposed to her in the back seat of a Bentley car as it circled the Hyde park of London.
Anecdotes go around that the Maharaja's brother told her before marriage,."The maharaja can be a flirt just because he is marrying you, one must not expect him to give up such habits. Gayatri Devi replied that since he was marrying her, "There would be no need for him to flirt !
The queen of wealth had tastes no less royal. She imported fancy cars including Rolls Royces as well as an aircraft. Her clothes were shopped from expensive stores abroad. As were her footwear.
A plodding dull India in economic terms as were at that time was just bowled over. The jewels and jewellery of a Maharani of Jaipur could be well speculated. Vogue magazine called her "a dream in jewels and saree".
She rode horses smartly and played fine polo. Also hunted well and a good shot who got her first panther before she turned 1thirteen years. When she fought the general elections, Maharani Gayatri Devi swept into Parliament with a landslide victory that entered the Guiness book of records. I did get to know from my parents a whiff of her ability to be harsh in private about some prominent figures of that age in rather colourful terms but that aspect was not really known.
She said in an interview; "I have had a very happy life. I have no regrets. I'm not a nostalgic person. I live in the present. I just try to do what I can, when I see unhappiness around me. Why grumble about things that don't go your way. Make the most of life. Don't make me sound arrogant or extraordinary"
Her husband the Maharaja died when she was only fifty one. Her next forty nine years were as a widow. She aged with dignity and retained her sense of style, courtesy, refinement and ingrained grace all the way. During her last illness at ninety in a London hospital, she wished to die in Jaipur. An air ambulance brought her home for the end.
Personnna like Maharani Gayatri Devi do not come every day.
They live on as icons and aspirational figures. Truly a lady of style and elegance and regal demeanour of her time.
(A friend asked why this! I simply said it just was there on my computer and decided to close it! The image is just there!)




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