Dear Readers,
Some old people talk as if they are thick volumes of books speaking out to you. On my recent visits to Ajmer, that great historical city referred to some as the 'Gibraltar of the East', I met one such aged scholar and what a meeting it was. Thanks to a dear old friend of mine for taking me to his place. This old gentleman happens to be a historian and is a scholar of repute. His erudition was getting reflected in his neatly cropped sentences showering names of famous works and authors.
In a brief spell, he painted such a vivid canvass of memory and temporality that all of us his listeners were lost in wonderland. He told us qissas of upright bureaucrats of the Raj and acquainted us with some really old and rare buildings built by the Turks, the Mughals and the Britishers in that wonderful city which served as the provincial capital of Rajputana for more than a millennium.
He drew a vivid oral sketch of Frazer road, one of the most glamorous streets of Ajmer town during the times of the Raj. A street which was ornamented with huge trees giving ample shade and was well frequented by frivolous memsahibs dressed in white linen and hiding from the Sun under white umbrellas. He told us about a former principal of Government School, Ajmer ( the building of this school was designed by none other than Edwin Lutyens) who was so principled and bold that when the AGG of Rajputana started frequently using a road passing through the school premises, he wrote him a letter informing that this road is not a thorough fare!
Dear Sir! Cheers to your health and this city of mountain gale.....May the two of you live till eternity and until we meet next...Khamma!....
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