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. They will say about him that he holds firm to this unexpected right hand offered to him, leaps proudly onto the royal horse, is more of a king than any of his predecessors could ever be.
But for now, there is a young boy of twelve going through a bewildering array of very bright ceremonies to announce his ascension.. The ceremonies will lead him into a palace and over the next few years, through a school within that palace where he is the sole student. Advisers of different hues, trainers in different disciplines will stretch the walls of his mind, transforming it, transforming him, till he feels the walls will not hold.
And then those large stretches of time, when he senses he has been left alone, to be bowed and saluted to, while they do the ruling.
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 look carefully at its many unique objects that have travelled from different corners of the world, to touch its lattices, and play games upon its cool smooth floors,to see how kings can order and make palaces and perhaps to dream of other palaces which he will go on to make.
Tanjore Madhava Rao, mentor to Ravi Varma, moves to Baroda. He has had many differences with the current ruler and is suspected of being friendly with the critics of the ruler. However, he will return to Travancore again, in time to sort of difficulties in Ravi Varma's life.
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. In the quiet, he waits for sounds that he could hear once. Sounds from another world.
He listens for those sounds, his open eyes staring at the sky seem to anticipate them. His eyes still have the presence of that other world in them, they are pieces of night sky that he has carried into this world, a restless moon lurks beneath their stillness.
