1875

Prince of Wales visits India. Telephone.

12 year old Sayajirao Gaekwad, nee Gopalrao Gaekwad, ascended the throne of Baroda, following the deposal by the British, of Malharrao, debauched and excessive brother of Khanderao Gaekwad, who had been a popular king.

Sayaji was a successor of the first Gaekwad of Baroda, but from a left handed marriage.. where the bridegroom, agreeing or choosing to marry a woman of lower social status, catches her right hand with his left one in the marriage ceremony, to keep a certain class difference alive. She and her children will not have any succession rights.

The young boy's mind is bewildered into a silence by his grand coronation, but later, in private moments, he will wonder at the odd legacy he was born to. He will hold firm to this unexpected right hand offered to him and leap proudly onto the royal horse, more of a king than any of his predecessors could ever be.

Sayaji would have to wait till 1881 when he is given full ruling powers, till then he is under a Council or Regency. Till then he has time, to feel the walls of his new home, to see how kings can order and make palaces and dream of other palaces which he will go on to make.

After a rowdy day of battling his friends in the mud, Dhundi lies on the cot in the verandah at night and stares at a sky that is larger than anything else he can see. On his own, in the quiet, he is reminded of sounds that he could hear once, when on his own. He listens for those sounds, his open eyes staring at the sky seem to anticipate them. His eyes still have the presence of that otherr world in them, they are pieces of night sky that he has carried into the world, a restless moon lurks beneath their stillness.