The Queen and My Hometown

As I watched the flurry of excitement in the media on the 90th birthday celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II, my mind went back in time, some 30 years.

On her Birthday, at Windsor. 21 April 2016
Photo Credits: BBC News

To a time in 1983 when the media frenzy, during her visit to India, and particularly to my city Hyderabad, was so high that it is not easy to forget.

The local newspapers, magazines, and radio had had her visit covered for days on end.

Royalty was missed for so long,  in India’s erstwhile princely state, that she was welcomed with the pomp and pageantry that is fit for a...  well, who else but a....  queen.

Actually, the queen had visited India earlier. In 1961. But I was not born then.

She also visited India later. In 1997. But I did not care then.

I only remember her 1983 India visit. For obvious reasons.  She was in my city then.

In fact, Her Majesty the Queen should also remember Hyderabad. For some other special reasons.

Years ago, in 1947, it was the last Nizam of Hyderabad, the world’s richest man at that time, who had given her a very special wedding gift.

He asked her to choose any jewellery she liked from Cartier. And the bride, Princess Elizabeth herself, had selected two pieces - a matching diamond necklace and a tiara.

It was the same necklace, with which, recently in February 2014, Prince William's wife Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, dazzled onlookers at a dinner for London's National Portrait Gallery.

The necklace of the duchess was, evidently, borrowed from the queen. But, let us not forget that it was originally a gift, from the former ruler of Hyderabad.

Here’s another Hyderabad connection.  The Holy Trinity Church of Bolarum in the city was constructed with the personal funds of her great great grandmother Queen Victoria who, in 1847, had had it built for the then British soldiers stationed in Hyderabad.

Which is why, Queen Elizabeth II visited the church in 1983. And I still remember the excitement with which many people wanted to be at this renovated and repainted church (now a part of the CSI (Church of South India) denomination, but earlier Anglican) just to catch a glimpse of the queen.

Queen Elizabeth II visits
Holy Trinity Church in Hyderabad
on November 20, 1983.
Photo: The Hindu Archives

Interestingly, the queen not only visited the church, but also celebrated her 36th wedding anniversary here, on 20 November, in a service led by the then Bishop Victor Premasagar, and his ministerial colleagues Rev. B.P. Sugandhar and Rev. G.J. Hamilton.

Just out of high school then, I had become a member of the city’s British Library, run by the British Council. And I remember how we were told, that our library was also on her itinerary, and that it would be locked-up for a couple of days, in preparation for the royal visit.

Well, it is 33 years since. But I still vividly remember how our city was completely enamoured by her visit.

It is 64 years since she began to reign, and it is 90 years since her birth, and the world is still enamoured by her.  Her spirit and Her determination.

Her reign, so far, saw 12 US Presidents and 12 UK Prime Ministers.

She saw the rise of communism, start of the second world war, end of Hitler's Third Reich, independence of India, space race of USA and USSR, Falklands War, collapse of communism, end of apartheid, fall of the Berlin wall, Independence of Hong Kong and the decline of the British empire. Not to mention, the upheavals in my historic city.