COMPLETE RENDEZVOUS with RAJMATA GAYATRI DEVI

she was my mother's friend add my childhood Heike in 1998 I invited her for a rendezvous there was so much to ask to know about her she graciously let me enter her world and her heart we talked for an hour but I could telecast only 23 minutes in my time slot it didn't do justice to her life story I have long carried a feeling of guilt now here is the full rendezvous with a truly inspiring woman sadly she's not here to see this [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] ROG mathesar your prisons here is such an honor for me thank you for being my guest well thank you for inviting me you have been a witness and a participant of an historic era of their bars ceremony locations gun salutes you know when Maharaj has actually ruled to now an independent India 51 years old did you have expect it to be like this no I didn't think it would be like this I knew that changes would come but I didn't think it would become like this how do you see the India around here today I don't like India around me today because if there's not what it used to be India's culture seems to have gone and all the beautiful traditional things in the way of life and India's not there anymore and well as you know there's corruption and everything nobody knows who to elect because the kind of people who are chosen as candidates and not the people who want to serve the country or serve their constituency they all want to serve themselves so this is a tremendous change in the olden days in the States well at least I only know about three states one was Baroda which was my grandfather the guy part which was an ideal state and everything he did was for the people then the one where I was brought up which poha there again the relationship between the people and the ruler was one of one family then I came to Jaipur again an ideal ruler so I'm used to people doing everything for others not doing everything for themselves which is happening today do you see a change in the value system tremendous change there seems to be no values left anymore in public life or even sometimes in private life everything's what can I get for myself what can I do for myself nothing is about other people why do you think this has happened I don't know it's a way that the country has evolved I suppose values have changed today money is power and everybody is after money no after any of the other aesthetic things of life or nobody's thinking about morale or a high way of living and there are a lot of poor people and they suffer such a lot and nobody seems really to care for them and I know that it can't all be wiped out that would be absolutely impossible but something ought to be done for the poor section of society it doesn't seem to exist but for those of us who have no means of comparison to the earlier days can you tell me give me a little picture of what it was like well as you know born in the cooch behar family that was in rural Bengal at there was ruler that was my brother and if the people had any problems they could come straight to him and talk to him straight then I remember one year there was a famine in Bengal and the whole of Bengal was affected except for the tiniest age of cooch behar because before actual famine came my brother's ministers told him that no export of any kind of food game should be allowed otherwise the state would starve from all sides of the big compound with a policy person to come in to talk to my father then they called him baba baba meaning father ba Baba not allowed to export her grain were not allowed to sell it and all that sort of thing so he said no be calm there's a reason and explain the reason and sure enough the whole of Bengal was in family except which power say 1200 square miles which didn't suffer at all so there is there is nobody to go to now if you have a problem and there's nobody who listen it is no one to listen [Applause] you you've been on the list of the world's most beautiful women for decades the great painters like Anna Gonia have painted you you can admired by men idolized by women I know that whatever you used to wear how you spoke how you carried yourself was copied by women you've created a template for what is the elegant Indian woman are you aware of the impact you had on people no not at all thank you very much for telling me that I was totally unconscious of anything like that and I suppose being brought up with a lot of brothers and I was just the fourth in the family it's naturally bullied and all that sort of thing I never thought so much about myself but perhaps it was a natural way of being brought up but you must have seen so many guide through David clones would wear your chiffon saris your pearls would try and and just copy you look Noah I've never noticed anything like that I never was aware of anything it never was a very bitter you have been my only role model and inspiration all my life thank you very much see me that's a great compliment and really appreciate you telling me that plant I to know who's been yours it's awful that I hadn't can't think of anyone I admired my mother but I've never wanted to be like her or copy her I just like some of the things she did and haven't really had fun to tell you the truth your mother was very beautiful she was very beautiful but she told you that she had no idea that she was even possibly good-looking that's true how come because again she was brought up with her brothers they were all boys they sweetie certain things and that in one day one of them said you're not bad-looking then she looked at yourselves in the mirror and she realized that she wasn't then of course afterward she was acknowledged as a great beauty but her error was different from mine hers was the twenties in the things I didn't she was the first amongst the first of the Indian women who came out in society so she was far more sophisticated others never sophisticated really I think that's very interesting that you should say that your friends call you I shall yes how did this name come about for a Hindu princess because my mind real name is Gayatri but my mother was reading right ahead this book she she and she said if I have a girl then I will call her I sure and so she did and then go swim friends came to call on her and said oh you've given her a Muslim name oh she said yes I'd never thought about that then of course my Jeremiah three was with God and the name was Gayatri in 1931 when you were 12 you met with glamorous Maharaja Sawai Man Singh of Jaipur tell me about him well he came he saw me play polo in Calcutta and then this year he came to stay with us and we were all absolutely riveted by him and he arrived very good-looking in a beautiful car and his polo ponies came one more beautiful than the other we also have here worship did my brother's here worshipped him and so did I he was the Mirage of Japan he was staying with us all our friends envied us then he played tennis in other games listen he just everybody loves if he was very easy natural person he was 21 then you were 12 yes I think I was a bit older than that 40 naughty but Raj Mathur Saab you were in all of him weren't you in the beginning yes the barrage of Jaipur's come in to stay yes your highness no your hands to step the other and when we went to the polo match everybody back Jaipur and he won every single tournament and in the evening they had a celebration party in purpose in Calcutta big news to BD place in those days and so my mother said what would you like to do Jai so he said well I'll have a party here and can the girls game the girls for myself is about 14 in my sister 813 so we were with him and he offered us a glass of champagne he offered me from his and he said no I I said no I don't drink anybody Sutra so I had a glass to myself my sister has a sip out of this and then much to our knowns governess came to fetch us at about half past nine but you used to fantasize about if I wanted to be his size his size yes and then then maybe by accident when he was getting on the horse he might touch my hand so that was a big thing that was the dream levels of dream he had abandoned it used to play with when he played Poland used to take it off and I kept the bandage I took the string of it and I had a little locket in that string was in the rocket for a long long time you were in love with him I must have been I thought it was here to worship then it must have been but your dreams came true I mean you had no hopes that they would but they came true I never even thought about it I mean he was in a plane fara high above me but he he'd told your mother when you were about 14 or 15 that when you grew up he would like to marry me and she said What nonsense she didn't think much about it because the minute I was 14 and he was already married was he was going to get married for the second time so she didn't take it seriously but then when you were 16 he proposed to you then when I was 16 he asked me if I would marry him he said to me said you know at fly at play polo I might have an accident I might be disabled to some things they are not holding you to your promise but I said no no I'd like to marry you but you had nine years of courtship sort of but I mean difficult courtship because not approved by anybody so it was always hush secret kind of how did you because you led a very sheltered life in that sense how could you meet him know what I did to say I was going to the cinema with my friends and meet him and then my sister said to me my younger sisters at wake when of your friends had Bros Bentleys then we had to park around the other said this was all in London luckily it wasn't in English would have been impossible but they must have been wonderful yes they were beautiful years when you think back on them but in those days it was full of frustration you never knew but but I said thought whatever didn't mind if I didn't marry him that was all right but at least he would always be my hero and I wish that he wasn't the marriage in Jaipur was just an army officer or somebody like that but anyhow [Music] but tell me about your husband his highness was he good at what he could at verbalizing his love yes of course I knew that he loved me he'd been married before and I mean he was very good with his wives and it became the second one became a great friend of mine but he yes he was and I knew that he trusted me and he relied on me you were not concerned about the fact that he had two wives earlier of course I was a bit because I the thing is in those days in India had it was customary it was customers going out but it did happen because there was no divorces and anyhow he didn't want to divorce them he was very fond of her I like the second irony a lot she was like a friend you had had a very westernized upbringing Swiss schools and you spent some time abroad when you got married it was still the part of culture in Jaipur yes but you see the reason why he told my mother that he wanted to marry me because I need a companion and I need somebody to do things in Jaipur and need somebody to come out and she would be ideal for that and I was not to be in part that and I was not impaired that I entertained for him and all that but I didn't go to any official functions mm-hmm and when we used to go to the city palace it was always in part that then the men and women were separation after he became right from work of Rajasthan then I had to go to official functions but until then I'd till then you didn't know from shy bride terribly in love with her husband and frightened of disapproval you emerged as an active and independent woman you were the first person to found a school for women in Rajasthan yes because you see my husband said to me I must have been about 22 at the time he said I wish we should get rid of the further system so I said you know nobody approves me I mean they used to talk about my going riding in the open but obviously I had to and wearing wishes and things like that so I said nobody is going to approve of me but I said if you give me a girl school within ten years have promised to possible break so my city school started and was a great success [Music] dancing think of the campi day [Music] and most of the Rajput girls who came there this one broke parda and have done very well in the world [Music] [Applause] you also became politically conscious in 1960-61 when you joined the Swatantra party it was a time in India when things were changing see when independence came first everybody was very happy and then when my husband was rising from work I remember he wrote a letter to punditji in which he said please be very careful because the elected members of the Legislative Assembly a giving important posts to people who haven't got the experience they haven't got to know her just as a compensation for having helped them in the elections and therefore if the administration is going to deteriorate because these people are not really capable of holding those jobs they're not fit for them I remember that very well and sure enough that it started to happen and all sorts of people were coming into positions with quite a lot of responsibility and not being able to fulfill their requirements so then at that time Raja ji started this wasn't a party and by that time India was making everything state state enterprise state this state that state the other you couldn't do anything and when Raja you started this wasn't a party he said because it would be mean free enterprise free this free then only the government would act in this awful law and foreign affairs and dirty and all this sort of thing so I thought it was very good idea and that maybe if I joined the party I could help get candidates and hang selected I never intended to stand myself for election I asked my husband but it was quite early in the morning he was still quite sleepy and I was going out for the ride in the morning so I said may I joined this fraternity party and he said yes as I went out I told the agency and I said how does one join a political party so he said oh all you have to do is you fill a form and you pay 8 Anna's can you believe it it was 8 Anna's so I said oh that's all so then we sent we only had one rupee Pat was having breakfast too so he joined as well so that one rupee split its who hasn't been he'd join to his ancestors on a train then Raja ji happened to come to Kaipo hmm and I was told that I would have to appear in a public meeting and I would have to speak a few words so even though I wasn't a part of that but no question of the money coming in a public meeting I say I was terrified didn't know what to do or what to say so as we were going to the meeting I had a lady in waiting and her husband in the car so I said I'm a queer guy any so he said 'keep Shepard may have a blue bundle in Ostia sorry dunya anger technically but a comparison or enough the whole thing was folded I had four lines written out for me just a bit was that hear your truth I rather Raji his junk was like in the sky and listen to the birds it got serious all it was terrified and he'll sit at that post and I get a letter to say would I be the candidate for Jaipur for this potential body in the coming Lok Sabha elections I was appalled again I went running to my husband I said now look what's happened he said you bloody fool who else could they have chosen from Jaipur that's why there's so many people don't be stupid of course they had to choose you and now that you joined the party you can't say no they've chosen you as the candidate you'll have to do it this was the first opposition party to the Congress no they were the Hindu Mahasabha which is not the BJP than they were the Communists then the Socialists but this was I would say first kind of genuine party I'd like to call it other people might object to that but it's true in those days it was very difficult to be in the opposition because no big business houses or anything would give money to the opposition everything goes through the Congress you've said that when you went out campaigning you discovered in India which your friends and family were unaware of what did you find out till you see me I can't explain to you but it was like I've never campaigned in my life before I didn't know how big my constituency was where it was or how it was and suddenly I found myself in politics [Music] we went to these meetings and agreed with such love and I realized of course that it was all due to my husband's love and respects and things like that and we went to these meetings with villagers and really going actually to their houses seeing the way they lived understanding about the panchayat system understanding about the jail operation and all that and then you really got to know how the system worked then you got to know people and never forget a friend of mine she's a jewel a leaky basket of ilanic a basket a you're talking about all these people all the time all the constituents the people had met they became part of my life you got involved in their life I've gotten involved in their lives somebody wanted to school if somebody was having trouble having a baby you got involved the meanest fighting is the cooler than the dis and the dashing had to be careful I mean it was complete education and I'm just glad that I got to know it yeah but you won by the biggest majority of any candidate in history at that time because your name is in the Guinness Book of World Records there's true and that was until you see me I can't explain to you but it was like then the day of the counting my election agent rang up he said you know even if you don't get another vote you can do burden by the biggest majority that's ever been so I said what she said yes did you lose any kinda paragraph I ran to my husband you see you yes why not so then we took out a big truck and you won't believe it because it wasn't announced beforehand but Jaya for everybody came and they were on the rooftops they were everywhere I've never seen such thing we had such a reception here and then when we got near the city palace if there was a sign so on top throwing gold like in the olden days gold coins yes naturally the people went for the gold coins in first world but us but anyhow it was fantastic but your husband encouraged you all the way always and you depended on him for his a lot hadn't been for him half these things wouldn't have happened I mean everything I am today it's because of him I remember my mother telling me that you're extremely lucky because you've got a husband who supports you and who encourages you and you said you won't believe me if I tell you my mother said that but there are many husbands who were jealous of their wives so I said how can that be possible and he said no you're lucky just proud of you helps you you're very very lucky and I suppose I was what made your marriage so good [Music] I think well we loved each other definitely and mutual respect understanding we have a lot of fun to the sense of fun we had a lot in common a lot of companionship a lot of companionship after he died I realized that home is really a person who you go back to it was a complete knowledge Roger she said that you were a very brave woman to enter politics he even compared you to Jhansi Ki Rani I know and minimus Ali was so what's wrong in a democracy going into a opposition but we soon got to know when we got the Revenge of the Congress on us as events proved yes during the emergency you were jailed in Tihar for five and a half months wasn't it it will be really for the whole of the emergency but what happened was when I heard other opposition members were going to jail I wondered whether I'd go to jail or not nice to ask everybody this is probably so I thought to myself is how infra dig if I didn't go that meant I didn't count as a member of the opposition didn't count at all I said then sure enough it came I went back to Delhi because I hadn't been to the Lok Sabha for a long time and I went to the house and the opposition benches were empty and if it really looked at me as though how come you are you doing yes then goon after these my servants came to say some police officers had come so when I came out with said yes we got warrant for your arrest said under what so it was for some foreign exchange violation so I said can I call my lawyers they said no so that's it all right then sir I've bubbles within the house I went into his room I said bubbles can you lend me a suitcase she said you just come where you going now except to jail she said oh don't try to be so funny put on a pair of trousers and rushed into his room they saw him said are you cannot do anything and they had a warrant for his arrest to Maha Vir Chakra everything but still one of the one of the bravest soldiers in the army thank you so it's awful to say but I see really quite happy that bubbles was coming along too I felt very bad for him but I mean at least two of us yes I can imagine but what was it like what were those five and a half months like it would terrible and you see when first went there they tried to be very nice to us first thing was what papers would you want in the morning so I said well then the government guess I might as well have all the papers see if there's a difference you you're on the house and then gates opened up the jail I said oh this is quite nice huge big garden quite nicely heart but you were locked up he heart was not a woman's jealous women only go there when they're under this under trance yeah under trial bubbles had a room to himself in his own bath and all for the men it was him all right I had a companion in that suite like a Swami nothing so at least assembly I could talk to then after about a month or so I got a message Raj mother koalas coming here these are just India so poor lady she had to go in the condemned cell but it was cleaned up and everything like that and a bathroom was put there which I have to supervise so when Raj Mathur came it was a little bit better somebody to talk to they didn't lock you up we were not locked up but you could roam around locked in we're not locked in and there's quite a big garden I put a badminton net and used to play with the murderers and the prostitutes but you can laugh about it today could you laugh about it at that time sometimes I mean then I mean sometimes I thought it was going to be forever because you never know and sometimes I thought they might even say that we should be exterminated so I told Roger was a volley of one day I said you know they can easily kill us and then say be died of a heart attack anyhow then I had this terrible pains and things I had that Anubis diagnosis gold stones and so I was allowed out on parole to come down to Bombay to have this operation and the day I arrived back home in Delhi my parliamentary house Joey said what would you like to do this evening so I said oh please call pop up at night please call Viner Modi please call up the so-and-so and have it all have a drink so you can't so I said why because they're all the families in orange until then let's get mrs. they dragged me out into the garden too I said why so he said everything's bugged but Raj mother said people say that more than political dissension this was a personal vendetta personal rivalry yes I know I've heard from other people too but I don't know I don't know mrs. Landis also mentioned she was like that then she could you didn't know her at all I knew her in the olden days yes I used to know her what did you put this down to well I never thought about it but I was a bit worried and I just kept thinking this my husband had been that this might not have happened it wouldn't have happened anyhow whatever is fated for you you have to experience I suppose so did you become disillusioned with the political system it was impossible because she came back with the big majority I didn't want to stand for election I'd lost my husband 70 I didn't want to stand for elections but all the opposition had made a pact that they would and they they felt that the only person who would win the jab was he it was myself so would I forget your grief and you do it well so I went to a couple of meetings with then I was wearing a dark blue sari and no jewels nothing like that and minute the women saw me they all began to cry so it was just absolutely impossible and the day of counting in Jaipur people came back and they said we're not allowed to vote not one member of my household was allowed to vote nobody from Romberg was allowed to vote nobody with the name of Singh was allowed to vote come on even in German people kept saying you know yeah i'm cinda mi Nam cancer card Lee had this than the other so they had fixed that election all my workers and things like that this time you are going to bin by even the bigger the majority in there before because of the sympathy vote I only won by 50,000 because people weren't allowed to vote any they weren't allowed to vote but and also well he's not alive anymore but there's a congress member who is I won't mention his name he said be careful don't stand everything's against you they won't get people vote for you but anyhow managed to win and then after that I mean the party broke up Roger she died they joined the junta party but I didn't want to so I said to the independent member they didn't see much point but after having experienced all this it must have been a sense of disillusionment in the political system yes that there was and still exists so I mean can do other things don't have to be in politics to do anything for your country I made the mistake of thinking that by being in politics I could do something for India but it was wrong much better to do it the way I'm doing it through schools and things like that so the younger generation [Music] Raj Mathur Sam you were brought up to rule in those days Maharaja's were like living gods and your state was the size of Switzerland when the states were merged with India how did you feel giving it all up it's like abdicating your own throne our mother used to tell us long ago that this would have to happen one day and I don't know Japanese history but she said it happened in Japan with a lot of different states and in order to be strong they did one so he said you'd have to have to happen in India and it happened when the British gold used to tell us that long before so we kind of knew it in our mind said it will come but one didn't know you see after the merger my husband became raj smoke it went to be rash smoked for life but then when did he stop that and then when I I wrote to him and told him he wrote back and said the Constitution cannot be petrified anyhow you still had a lot of respect you still had a lot of responsibility though you couldn't do anything while my husband was alive he used to intervene on behalf of the people with government officials and things like that then when mrs. Gandhi came abolish the Privy Purse abolish the privileges abolished everything which was I don't know I think she had a personal vendetta because how could that affect India much because the sum of money was faulty compared to what is being penned now I mean what people are making now it must have been hard to adjust that part was bad and then at the same time I lost my husband's his all came at the same time but what was the hardest part to adjust to in the changing times what did you feel I mean I know you were stripped of titles palaces power and then even the Privy purses husband used to always say the human is the Privy Purse is go and everything goes will exist and but he felt sorry for the people who were attached to us so one just sort of try to look after them and it wasn't very pleasant feeling with your own country did you only ministration have let you down but what could you do much mother sent you believe in in astrology horoscopes sometimes they read sometimes they're wrong no I don't think anybody knows what's in store you've said that the year of your silver wedding anniversary in 1965 was the last year of happiness and success that you have known but you had a premonition the time was running I mean everything changed about that time my bad brother died in April and my husband was most supportive we went to couch behind thousands of people strong the street and he said to me look how much he was loved within two months he died on the polo field in front of my eyes nothing was predicted nothing in his horoscope nothing lost the two people I loved the most then all these changes in India things were not good and I was very low in those days they do' i i know that you took a very long time to heal a long time i still haven't healed another loss of that [Music] how does one come to terms with these things I just love to know time I suppose you have to think but the new things in their name or for them but what makes life tolerable how does one go on waking up in the morning seeing the sunshine looking at your horses your family coming to see you things go on and on and on you do yourself they say it's not the things one has done that one regrets in life it's the things one hasn't done that's true are there any things that you wish you had done there's quite a lot I mean I think for instance life is so short you may only have one sometimes that mistake you hurt somebody and you regret it there's no way you can resent that so those things I regret having if I've ever hurt anybody or that's all what occupies your thinking most these days I'm very worried about what's happening in Jaipur and I would like the apples beauty restored they celebrate Maharaj Jai Singh's birth anniversary and it makes me so annoyed they asked me if I'd come and address some meetings and also I said no because you don't do anything you gather there near his statue which is in a square which you don't even keep clean I mean the BJP and all even had the nerve to put their flags into his hand till you don't look after anything after all he was the founder of Jaipur but what have you done put up these hoardings what good does the hoarding do anybody male whoever just makes money for a line that to be put up doesn't clean the roads it doesn't help anything they've destroyed jabo completely that's one thing that if I could possibly before my time to go to do something for Jaipur but Who am I going to tell but you have been actually writing letters since 1957 you've been right you wrote two punditji from that time onwards when that was when they were destroying the road the gates of Jabba I said to my husband so look what they're doing and he said well we're not in charge anymore but you guys rattle it up and Iggy and I said oh he's such a busy man how can I just worry him over the Jaipur and all the something within two days Pat came their answer the is the sacrilege what they're doing to Jaipur and I'm talking to the chief minister but today Who am I going to tell that's one thing I'd like to preserve the pristine beauty of Jaipur if it's possible Raj Mathur Saab you've met many fascinating people in your life who would you say has really left a mark in your memory who has impressed you Jacky was a good friend what was she like she was one of those kind of people in a way a perfectionist way she dressed the way she brought her four children the way she ran our house way she did everything and she was a good friend I mean she always gave me the right kind of advice I remember invited about something nice and she gave the right advice and I remember she always looked after you she always cared she was a wonderful person and what about the British royal family you know them well - no not all that well Prince Philip II knew more because he used to come and stay quite often and he used to play polo with my husband it would come to me tell me Raj mother said what for what in your life do you feel most grateful I suppose for the love and the support I've had and so just being born who I am and very happy earth had a very happy family life I've had a very happy married life everything has been fine like that support and just having people who you can look up to who look after you you love you that's the nicest thing in life if a film was to be made on your life who would you choose to play you know but that would be such an honor for me you've lived such a full and fruitful life what personal philosophy have you evolved as to what this whole journey is all about nothing will we all come we've all got to go Monday so while we're here why not try to do what one can to make the world a happier place for other people I understand Raj mathesar being with you today it's been a gift I thank you with all my heart for this honor you've given me but your programs is very very popular and thank you very much for inviting me to be enhancing thank you for this Rhonda thank you for asking me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: SimiGarewalOfficial

Views: 1,430,816

Rating: 4.8671513 out of 5

Keywords: Simi Garewal, Maharani Gayatri Devi, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh, Bubbles Jaipur, Indira Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Jacqueline Kennedy, Rajagopal, Swatantra Party, Emergency, Vijayaraje Scindia, Congress Party, Maharaja of Cooch Behar

Id: RRHRcvsyFM4

Length: 42min 59sec (2579 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 03 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/iroxjsr0011]

simi grewal is so sophisticated and graceful, dont know why that ladyboy karan johar is popular