My Memory Of The Queen
An era has come to an end.
She is the second longest reigning monarch in the world as tabled in the annals of history. She was queen for 70 years and 214 days. If you are curious to know, Louis XIV is in the top spot and outdid her by almost 2 years.
Depending on which part of the world you live in, the last week of TV and newspaper coverage has been all about HRH Elizabeth II. She died at the ripe old age of 96 and her reign spanned 15 prime ministers of the UK. The first was Winston Churchill and the last one is Liz Truss who she swore in a couple of weeks ago. Wow! That is a record in itself.
My hunch is that Queen Elizabeth will be in many a future trivia question as she met so many people in her lifetime. A vast majority were important heads of state and royalty but she also met regular ordinary folk too.
But going back to my memory of the Queen. The year was 1997. I was home for a study break before my semester exams. And that’s when I heard that the Queen would be visiting our town — Fort Cochin in the southern state of Kerala, India. She wanted to visit the oldest church in the Commonwealth- St Francis Church, which was originally built in 1503. This is where Vasco Da Gama was initially buried in 1524 and later his mortal remains were taken back to Portugal. We used to regularly attend the English service at this church which used to have a lot of tourists as well because of the historical significance.
She attended a special service at this church which comes under the Church of South India( C.S.I). To be on the list you had to submit your documents almost two weeks prior for security clearance etc. As we had not done that, I had to make do by standing at the barricades that were put up on Beach Road en route to the church. Fortunately for us, many of the locals were not really interested so we didn’t have to jostle for space or anything.
In fact, it was quite amusing to hear the conversation between two teenage boys.
One of them said “ Hey! Did you hear? The Queen is coming to visit our town. And his friend responds “ Queen of where ?”. No, I wasn’t aware of this. They then continued to cycle down the road totally oblivious to the important visitor to the town.
And so the three of us, my mum our neighbour, and I stood at the barricade. And there she came in her shiny black Range Rover wearing a printed dress in aquamarine and we waved at her. And she gave us the most charming smile and waved back! That is my memory of her!
Why would I even bother with this story when many have had a one-to-one encounter with her.
Well for one I always remember this occasion with a smile. We were the only ones at the corner, she could have chosen to adjust her hat or look straight ahead. But no, she chose to look us in the eye and wave to us. I thought that spoke volumes about the person she was. Celebrities today don’t make eye contact or put on their “ game face” unless there are thousands waiting to see them. It’s a waste of effort for them.
She also was keen to see the Cochin Jewish Synagogue located in Mattancherry a suburb of Kochi. It was built in 1568. It is the oldest active synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations. The King of Kochi, Raja Ravi Varma gave them the land adjacent to the Mattancherry Palace temple. The early families were exiled from Portugal and Spain and started trading with the merchants in Kerala.
As a child, I visited this synagogue numerous times with visitors who stayed with us. Those blue and white tiles were hand painted and imported from Belgium and no two tiles are similar. And word goes that the Queen was very excited to see these tiles.
She also visited the St John Pattom Mini Colony, a project funded by the British government to build houses for the fishermen who lived along the coast. She freely interacted with the residents and even asked a fisherman about the thread he was using to repair his net.
I know many people have mixed feelings about the reign of the Commonwealth and I’m partially in that camp.
How did she not know the atrocities that were going on in these nations that were under her monarchy?
How could she be the head of the Anglican Church and let so many people suffer under her reign?
Answers to these questions will be known only to her. She swore her allegiance to the throne and the church and did her job diligently. There will always be criticism about heads of state. Leadership is not an easy task and doing it for over 70 years is a feat indeed.
But it has been written many times that she was genuinely interested when she spoke with you. She had a lifelong curiosity about places and events and took time off her busy schedule to incorporate these as well. Whether you were the president of a country or a fisherman she always had something interesting to ask you.
Rest in Peace, HRH Elizabeth Regina! You are definitely one of a kind.
