'If there바카라™s one place I can think of as home, it바카라™s Pataudi'
I바카라™ve travelled to every continent, and I바카라™ve spent most of my years in four places바카라”Bhopal, from where my mother hailed; Pataudi, the family seat; the UK, where I studied and Delhi, where I now live. But if there바카라™s one place I can think of as home, it바카라™s Pataudi.
My three sisters and I were taught at home, in the palace, for the first few years. After Independence, my father got a job in the External Affairs Ministry, and we moved to Delhi. I was sent to Welham, in Dehradun, where I spent three years. On January 5, 1952, my eleventh birthday, my father died of a heart attack while playing polo in Delhi; he was forty-two.
That same year, I sailed to the UK. At prep school and, later, at Winchester, I acquired some distinction as a sportsman. I played my first first-class match for Sussex in 1957, as a sixteen-year-old. In 1959, I enrolled at Oxford, and continued to play county cricket바카라”with rather more distinction than I brought to bear with my academic pursuits. By 1961, I was heading the batting averages in England. But the motorcar accident in 1961, in which I lost my right eye, changed all that바카라¦
Towards the end of 1968, after what I consider my best cricketing year, Sharmila [Tagore] and I were married. My family바카라™s cultural and literary background isn바카라™t, of course, quite as awesome as the Tagores바카라™바카라”we don바카라™t, for instance, have a Nobel Prize winner in our family.
We are basically Afghans with a bit of Turkish blood who came down a few hundred years or so ago as glorified mercenaries, rushed around on our horses and occupied space for ourselves. Over the years, we바카라™ve become a little more sophisticated.
바카라¦I don바카라™t quite fancy travelling extensively any more. I do go to Europe on occasion바카라”and whenever I바카라™m in England I drop by at Lord바카라™s to meet old friends and catch up on바카라¦no, not cricket, but our personal lives. But wherever one may go, Pataudi, the state that바카라™s no longer ours, draws me repeatedly. I바카라™m here fairly regularly: you can find me here wandering around with a book. It isn바카라™t just the place, it바카라™s also the relationships that it has nourished for generations now. I guess that바카라™s why it바카라™s 바카라˜home바카라™, and will always be.
(As told to V. Venkatesan. This was first published in Outlook Traveller and then in its 10th anniversary issue)