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| Breakfast puri |
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| Mysore Palace |
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| Wall painting, Mysore Palace |
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| Glass dome and pillars from Glasgow, Mysore Palace |
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| Armoury, Mysore Palace |
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| Trophy Room, Mysore Palace |
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| Mysore Palace ceiling |
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| Reception area, Mysore Palace |
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| Mysore schoolboys |
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| Polly put the kettle on! |
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| Policeman at the Karnataka Mounted Police HQ |
The huge amount of
coverage in the Indian Press has meant I have undoubtedly been able to make
rapid progress in my search, so my journalistic colleagues here are owed a huge
debt of gratitude.
But the generosity
from people like Yeshvanth Kumar, Ashok Shetty and Michael Ludgrove, all people
whom I have only just met, has been very humbling and I can never repay them
adequately for the help they have given me.
Others, too many
to mention, have helped me along my way and have contributed towards making
this day, of all days, very special indeed.
After a splendid breakfast,
my working day starts with another pillion ride, this time behind R G Singh,
the owner of an art gallery and the Ramsons handicraft sales emporium (www.ramsosmysore.com) near Mysore Zoo. He
says I am a very tense passenger, which is very true!
RG and his
curator, Raghu, go through the 155 images and cuttings from my grandfather’s
album that my brother Nicky has uploaded. They are to spend more time
identifying and placing much of the imagery. One startling discovery is that my
grandfather was so highly thought of by the Maharaja that, after his 8 years of
toil supervising the interior design of Mysore Palace
RG takes me to the
road where my grandfather lived almost 100 years ago and explains that the
water tanks that feature in some of my grandfather’s photos were removed after
it was found that the water was seeping into the Palace foundations.
I have been given
very special permission to take photographs inside Mysore Palace VIP ’s, who are delighted to hear about my grandfather’s work. The
pictures of the interior of the Palace are very special indeed https://picasaweb.google.com/MDSouter/RoundTheWorldIn60Days#
Just time for a
quick lunch in the much-needed air conditioned saloon at Café Aramane, where a
very filling thali costs just 50 rupees, about 75 pence.
Having now
established without any doubt that M A Azeez, who my family always believed was
a name used by grandfather for his Indian drawings, was in fact not the case, I
venture to Jaganmohan Palace India
From there, my
adopted auto rickshaw driver, Mahadeva, takes me to see the Assistant
Commissioner of the Karnataka Mounted Police.
S G Mariba Shetty
is an accomplished international-standard show jumper and clearly a busy and
important man. As he signs endless papers, he notices that my lips are dry and
a policemen appears with a coconut whose water, says my host, is the freshest
you can drink.
Even with my 38
years Naval service, I have never before seen such saluting and heel clicking
as I do on this occasion. It was much like our military would have been many
years ago.
Assistant Commissioner
Shetty has 105 men, 74 horses and two bands under his command. The bandmaster
is summoned to play the honoured visitor some appropriate tunes which include
Colonel Bogie, Edelweiss and Polly Put the Kettle On!
A very special
treat indeed.
I get outside and
am surprised to discover that Mahadeva, my auto rickshaw driver, is outside
waiting for me.
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