Remembering lilibet

BENGALURU:  The internet and social media are flooded with condolence messages after the demise of Queen Elizabeth II. But one thing is for sure, you might hate her for India’s colonial past, love her for her grit, but you simply can’t ignore her. After the news of her passing away on Sept. 8 was announced, the video footage from the newsreel archive British Pathe was circulated widely.

This shows the governor of Mysore, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, receiving the Queen and Prince Philip, the then Duke of Edinburgh, at the airport on their 1961 visit. The itinerary also followed the Queen planting a sapling at Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. It has been 61 years since and the tree still stands tall. Many did all that it takes to get a glimpse of the Queen of England, and some have precious stories to share. For instance, Wendy Dickson (62) was just a year-old when the Queen visited Bengaluru.

While she hardly remembers anything, what still fascinates her was that her father Herbert Clifford Dickson, who was a commercial staff at Indian Airlines, was present when she landed in Bengaluru. “What I do remember is a picture of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) aircraft. She flew BOAC because it was a national carrier.

We had a picture of the same aircraft in the house,” says Dickson, who is the director of Kiara Academy of Performing Arts. Though the incident wasn’t discussed much when she was growing up, she now looks back and realises how big an opportunity it was for her father to be present when the Queen landed in the city. “For my father, it would have been a lifetime of an opportunity.

Being an officer in Indian Airlines, he was there when she got off the aircraft and was received by Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar,” she recalls. On the itinerary was a visit to Cauvery Emporium on MG Road. Pavithra Muddaya, founder, Vimor, a handloom heritage brand, recalls her mother Chimy Nanjappa and the chairman of Arts and Craft Emporium (the old name of Cauvery Emporium) being present to receive the dignitaries.

“My mother was the manager and it was her job to take the dignitaries along with the chairman around. In those days, any dignitary who visited Bengaluru made a stopover at the Cauvery Emporium,” says Muddaya. While these were some of the past accounts, the situation currently in London is quite sombre. Jyotsna Srikanth, a citybased violinist, who is currently in London for a recording, says London feels different with the passing of the Queen.

Srikanth had an opportunity not just to perform in front of the Queen twice, but also meet her twice. “She had a charismatic persona and had a huge interest in art and music. I remember her wearing a purple dress with her signature pearls and gloves to shake hands with us,” recalls Srikanth.