A Princess leaves her land

Her Highness Karthika Thrirunal Lakshmi Bhai, sister of Sri Chithira Thirunal, the former Maharaja of Travancore passed away at Trivandrum yesterday. (‘Karthika Thirunal’ indicates the star under which she was born, a customary usage.) She was 92. In an era where royals are ordinary citizens, her last rites were conducted with State honors.

What was special about Karthika Thirunal? She was a blend of tradition and modernity, sports and music, sternness and compassion. The horse riding, racquet wielding Princess who was an expert of classical music and dancing, and could handle Malayalam, Sanskrit, English and French with equal ease, was the pride of her people.

When Karthika Thirunal married the the handsome, dashing sportsman Col. Goda Varma Raja of Poonjar Palace, it was a dream wedding. Tragedy struck when their first born, Sri Avittam Thirunal died at a tender age. The famous SAT Hospital at Trivandrum, the State capital, was built in his memory.

In the second half of the 1940s, a new movie house, Sree Kumar, came up in Trivandrum. It had a royal box, and showed mostly English pictures. (Malayalam movie industry was then in its infancy.) The royal couple used to occasionally watch a late show there.

Something here about ‘Thirumeni’ as Col. Goda Varma was affectionately known. He was not just the consort of Karthika Thirunal, but was a man of stature in his own right. No one has contributed more than him to the development of sports and tourism in the State. His achievements in these fields would run into a long list.

The last I met Thirumeni was at the Delhi Airport. Mathew Marattukalam, the promoter of Apollo Tyres and I were waiting for an early morning flight to Madras (now Chennai) when we saw Thirumeni with his inseparable tennis racquet. We talked for a while. He was on his way to Kulu.

At Madras we heard the shocking news that Col. Goda Varma Raja had died in a helicopter crash. I think that was on 30^th April 1971.

Ends.

Also see: The last of the Travancore Maharajas

Nostalgia: The romance of India/Indian Coffee House

What’s the difference between India Coffee House and Indian Coffee House? I shall come to that shortly. What is important is that both together have been serving Indian coffee with the same aroma and taste for seven decades. And three generations have enjoyed it.

In the post Some memories of WW II, Cochin and the 1940s., I mentioned India Coffee House on Broadway, Cochin. My maternal grandfather (KC Abraham, Kallivayalil-Konduparambil) took four of us siblings there when we were children. It was a great experience which we enjoyed thoroughly. We had coffee and glucose biscuits. I don’t think they served stuff like masala dosa those days.

Again I mentioned India Coffee House in the post Bangalore memories. That was a place I loved during college days in the early 1950s. The laid back atmosphere, spending hours over a cup of real coffee, small talk which one forgets even before leaving the place, diverse people – students, journalists, elders. Something that belonged to another era.

Or so I thought, till I came across an article ‘Coffee, tea and memories’ by Priyanka Haldipur in the Deccan Herald. She says: ‘Walk into the place for a feel of what Bangalore would have seemed like almost five decades ago. Nothing has changed in this humble coffee place... not the style, and certainly not the coffee.’

Another Coffee House I remember from my school days is the one at Trivandrum, opposite to the present AG’s Office. They used to serve excellent masala dosa as well. But we mostly patronized Connemara Café, next to Sridharan’s General Store (started by his father Kesavan) and owned by the same people. The favorite there was cutlets with a salad of curry cucumber and a cold, non-aerated orange drink.

These places (other than Connemara) were ‘India Coffee Houses’ to start with. The first was opened in Bombay in 1935 by the Indian Coffee Cess Committee. The objective was to promote the consumption of coffee. Subsequently, Indian Coffee Board took over and built up a chain of 72 coffee houses. But in the 1950s the Board closed down most of these cafes and sacked the workers.

Enter AK Gopalan, the famous Communist leader from Kerala. He organized a worker’s cooperative by the former employees of the Coffee Board and started the first Indian Coffee House at Trichur, Kerala in 1958. It has now grown into a chain of nearly 400 outlets all over India. I believe that Coffee Board still runs about a dozen India Coffee Houses.

This is written over a big cup (a birthday present from my grandson Adithya) of strong black coffee. Good. The coffee, I mean. Whether the article too deserves that comment is for you to judge!

Ends.

Photo credits: Coffee beans - BackgroundBoy, Cup of coffee – PDPhoto.org

Note: The cup shown in the photo is not the one I use