NK'S POST

NK SINGH The death of 88-year-old Tukojirao III , the former Maharaja of the erstwhile Indore state , has ended an era. He was the only prince getting a pension (Rs. five lakh per annum) from the Government of India even after privy purses were stopped by a government decree. Therein lies a tale of love, lust, passion and a crime that embroiled the Maharaja.  Tukojirao had ruled his state for a mere 15 years, from 1911 to 1926, living in the wilderness for the last 52 years. Yet when he died on May 21 last, the people of Indore made a beeline to the massive Lalbagh palace , once the best garden palace in central India, to pay their last respects to the last of the royal Holkars . The rulers of Malwa since 1740. Biggest Weakness The biggest weakness of the public school educated Maharaja, who ascended the throne at the tender age of 13, was women. U ltimately this weakness proved to be his undoing. Though benevolent and considerate in other matters -- as many of the rajas used to...

NK SINGH The death of 88-year-old Tukojirao III. the former Maharaja of the erstwhile Indore state, has brought an era to end. He was the only prince getting a pension (Rs five lakh per year) from the Government after the privy of India even purses to all the others were stopped by government decree. Tukojirao ruled Indore state for a mere 15 years. from 1911 to 1926, living in the wilderness for the past 52 years. Yet, when he died on May 21 last. the people of Indore made a beeline to the massive Lalbagh Palace, once reputed to be the best garden palace in central India. to pay their last respect to the royal Holkars, the rulers of Malwa since 1740. Pulled down Such was the feeling among the former subjects that along with the Holkar standard, the national tri-colour too was pulled down atop the Indore Rajwada, the former ruling headquarters of the Holkars now acquired by the state government. when his funeral procession passed in front of it. The biggest weakness of the public schoo...

NK SINGH As a not-so-distinguished member of the Fourth Estate, I am used to policemen scowling at me but never before in my career had any policeman refused to meet me. "Our investigating officer is very busy", said Mr Surendra Kumar, the burly, six-footer SP of Indore. I had called on him to gather information about the recent sensational arrest of a prominent Indore doctor on the charge of allegedly raping one of his patients while "examining" her in the privacy of the clinic. I have been trying to meet the concerned officer, without any success, for the last month. But he avoided me like the plague.  Incidentally, there is another case pending in the court in which two police officers, along with some others, have been accused of shielding the doctor involved in the rape case. In a case filed in the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Naresh Chelawat, publisher of a local evening daily, alleged that the police had destroyed evidence to shield the ...

 NK SINGH It may not be prudent to have a toothache if you are an employee at the Government's bank note press at Dewas, near Indore, in Madhya Pradesh. Not since one of the workers, who had duped the security staff into believing that he had tooth trouble, allegedly smuggled four 50-rupee notes by concealing them in his mouth. The supposedly foolproof security system of the printing plant, complete with closed-circuit television cameras scrutinizing movement of the staff and under-underwear pokes known as the "naked searches", failed to curb the temptation to steal from heaps of currency notes. There have, however, been two reported instances of missing bank notes at the press which began churning out bank notes in March 1975. The mystery of fifteen 100-rupee notes of 5AS series (558486 to 558500) that vanished into air in January this year remains unsolved despite the Rs 1,500 reward offered for clues. The entire series of 1000 notes (printed at the cost of Rs 135) had ...