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Authors: Shrabani Basu
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from the Household in attendance in the Royal Stand. The walls of the Ball Room were decorated with the heads of stags that had fallen to Royal bullets over theyears. Karim learned that the prized catch was The Imperial or 14-pointer. Most Highland stags were 12-pointers. The Ball was patronised by the Queen, who was a surprisingly good dancer. She had enjoyed reels with John Brown, her Scottish gillie and close friend, when he was alive. Wearing a tartan shawl over her widow’s black, the Queen would give in to the gaiety and dance with the frequently inebriated John Brown, forgetting her grief in the spirit of the evening.
Sketch of the Queen with an Indian attendant taken from a magazine. The caption says: ‘watching the bonfires around the hills at Balmoral’.
To Karim it was all a new world. He had enjoyed hunting in the jungles around Agra and Rajasthan, but stepping out early morning on a Highland hunt, with the mist still curling round the hills, was a different experience. He saw his first stag– a 12-pointer – framed against the purple hills and it filled him with awe.
‘It is great joy,’ 5 he wrote about the hunt. ‘I like this much more than dance or other games.’ Karim specially enjoyed the hunt for stag, or barasingha , as he called it in his native tongue, though he found it rather difficult in the winter. Trout fishing in the streams was also another of his favourite activities, as was hunting for birds, particularly in the months of November and December. Karim was specially attracted to the waterfalls of Garrawalt which produced a sound like ‘thunder’ as they cascaded over a giant rock. The Queen enjoyed having tea at several scenic spots around the castle. One of these was the banks of the Gelder, the waters of which entered the River Dee not far from the castle. Karim found the Highlanders a ‘particularly friendly race of people’.
The climate in Scotland, often damp and windy, was a contrast to the splendid summer they had enjoyed in London, and unlike anything Karim had ever seen in Agra. Dressed in his Indian-style tweeds he enjoyed walking in the grounds, attending on the Queen and the gamut of lessons he had to go through. While waiting at table, he would always wear his elaborate tunic embossed with the letters VRI ( Victoria Regina et Imperatrix ). Every evening the Hindustani lessons were held without fail, the Queen beginning to fill the first of the thirteen closely packed Journals that she would eventually complete. As Karim’s English improved, he started having lengthier conversations with his Queen about India and she listened, rapt with attention, marvelling at being Empress of such a land. He told her more about himself and managed to convey to her that he came from a good family, that his father was a doctor in Agra Jail andthat he himself had been a clerk in the jail and had never done menial work before. The Queen was impressed and began to rely increasingly on the polite young Indian who was taking his job of man-servant so seriously.
On 11 September she wrote in a letter:
My dear Indians are going on admirably. General Dennehy was invaluable and settled everything and found out all they wished and wanted and now everything goes on as smoothly as possible.
The youngest [Karim] is evidently almost a gentleman who could not be treated like a common servant and is extremely well educated and the other stout one is quite excellent. He was seventeen years with General Dennehy whose whole house he managed. 6
Karim was a fast learner. He was quickly improving his English so as to communicate with the Queen and was soon helping her with her papers. Victoria was delighted with him. While the smiling and portly Buksh remained waiting at tables, Karim now started doing secretarial jobs. On 12 September she wrote to Sir Henry Ponsonby from Balmoral:
Sir Henry will see what he [Lord Dufferin] says about the Indian servants. It is just what the Queen feels and she
Sketch of the Queen with an Indian attendant taken from a magazine. The caption says: ‘watching the bonfires around the hills at Balmoral’.
To Karim it was all a new world. He had enjoyed hunting in the jungles around Agra and Rajasthan, but stepping out early morning on a Highland hunt, with the mist still curling round the hills, was a different experience. He saw his first stag– a 12-pointer – framed against the purple hills and it filled him with awe.
‘It is great joy,’ 5 he wrote about the hunt. ‘I like this much more than dance or other games.’ Karim specially enjoyed the hunt for stag, or barasingha , as he called it in his native tongue, though he found it rather difficult in the winter. Trout fishing in the streams was also another of his favourite activities, as was hunting for birds, particularly in the months of November and December. Karim was specially attracted to the waterfalls of Garrawalt which produced a sound like ‘thunder’ as they cascaded over a giant rock. The Queen enjoyed having tea at several scenic spots around the castle. One of these was the banks of the Gelder, the waters of which entered the River Dee not far from the castle. Karim found the Highlanders a ‘particularly friendly race of people’.
The climate in Scotland, often damp and windy, was a contrast to the splendid summer they had enjoyed in London, and unlike anything Karim had ever seen in Agra. Dressed in his Indian-style tweeds he enjoyed walking in the grounds, attending on the Queen and the gamut of lessons he had to go through. While waiting at table, he would always wear his elaborate tunic embossed with the letters VRI ( Victoria Regina et Imperatrix ). Every evening the Hindustani lessons were held without fail, the Queen beginning to fill the first of the thirteen closely packed Journals that she would eventually complete. As Karim’s English improved, he started having lengthier conversations with his Queen about India and she listened, rapt with attention, marvelling at being Empress of such a land. He told her more about himself and managed to convey to her that he came from a good family, that his father was a doctor in Agra Jail andthat he himself had been a clerk in the jail and had never done menial work before. The Queen was impressed and began to rely increasingly on the polite young Indian who was taking his job of man-servant so seriously.
On 11 September she wrote in a letter:
My dear Indians are going on admirably. General Dennehy was invaluable and settled everything and found out all they wished and wanted and now everything goes on as smoothly as possible.
The youngest [Karim] is evidently almost a gentleman who could not be treated like a common servant and is extremely well educated and the other stout one is quite excellent. He was seventeen years with General Dennehy whose whole house he managed. 6
Karim was a fast learner. He was quickly improving his English so as to communicate with the Queen and was soon helping her with her papers. Victoria was delighted with him. While the smiling and portly Buksh remained waiting at tables, Karim now started doing secretarial jobs. On 12 September she wrote to Sir Henry Ponsonby from Balmoral:
Sir Henry will see what he [Lord Dufferin] says about the Indian servants. It is just what the Queen feels and she
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