Dickie shot My Tiger


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March 6th 2011
Published: March 6th 2011
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Mooched around town yesterday afternoon, visiting the market outside of the twon walls. Lots of brightly coloured turbans, saris, fruit and bowls. Not to mention the plastic tat that seems to characterise markets the world over.

On the way back to the hote, spent some time sat at a rooftop cafe, the Taragarh in front of me, the tangled little pastel and biscuit hued streets below, punctuated every so often with a hanging basket of bright pink flowers. The town was starting to wind down for the day, and it was fab just sitting there, sipping my strawberry milkshake (which, I'm pretty sure, was a nesquik - I haven't had one of those since I was 3, but some things never leave you).

this morning, I went to the Maharao Raja Bahadur Singh Museum, which seemed to exist to the glory of Bundi's taxidermists, and the 'good life' of its royal family. Stuffed tigers, bears and a crocodile crouched in corners, or reared up, glass eyes gleaming, ready to pounce. A huge elephant head loomed from out of one of the walls, like a fairly substantial ghost, and you could almost imagine that the rest of the animal was following behind. Maybe it was a Nesquik hangover from the night before, but I found it all quite eerie. Most interesting of all were the photographs. Mostly from the 1930s and the 1950s, they depicted the anglo- Indian hunting parties of two particular members of the royal family. Dead tigers, stretched across the bottom of the frame, their feet tied together, were surrounded by smiling, posed little groups of Indians and Westerners. In one photo, taken in 48, Dickie Mountbatten smiles into the camera, almost indifferent to the huge dead tiger at his feet. He's signed the photo Dickie, in thick black felt tip. Another photo shows a larger party, including Dickie, his wife, daughter and a few of their friends. Mrs and Miss Dickie look as tho' they're taking things in their stride - "Tiger? What dead tiger? Oh, darling, do look, someone's tied up a dead tiger, and left it at our feet! How sweet!". A couple of the others - women that look the same age as dickie's daughter, so perhaps friends of hers, just along for the ride (could you jump the divide between having to walk and being able to ride so easily back then?) looked a little uncomfortable, but it might, I guess just have been the heat. I was quite shocked by the dead tiger photos, which presumably just goes to show that I'm as much a product of my time as they were of theirs.

There were also the Hollywood photos. I was the only visitor to the museum, and the ticket guy had shut up shop to show me round. His english wasn't brilliant, but the phrase "good life" kept breaking into his chatter, and here it was; the photos with Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner; Greer Garson and Queen Mary. Here's Maharao Raja Bahadur Singh with the inventor of the ballpoint pen, look!

It's interesting how many of the portrait photos of the king in the 1940s lend themselves very much to the Hollywood star head shot genre - the moody lighting, tilting head. He did indeed, appear to lead a very good life.

More when I do it. And please, no more comments about jelly.

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6th March 2011

The British 'royals' got everywhere when India was completely 'pink'. No wonder there are so few tigers left in the world. It took rather a long time to become more 'enlightened'.
27th November 2015

Where is Maharao Raja Bahadur Singh Museum?
I've been to Bundi 7 times but I haven't seen this museum. I wonder...

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