A prince dreams of recreating a darbar

chandigarh: being a prince does not mean you throw attitude and refuse to meet your subjects. in the indian context a raja was one who served his people, says 27-year-old prince rupendra palji bahadur, of the kutlehar estate near dharamsala. having seen his grandfather and father mix with the villagers there and help them with their problems, rupendra also adopted the practice.i still sit on the floor and share meals with the villagers - no matter what their caste is; they give me a pattal (leaf plate) to eat on, but look at the love. an alumnus of st john's school and gcm, chandigarh, rupendra says his parents always insisted that it was important to become a good person in life above all. i am very impressed by thinkers and writers, artists, poets; i don't think what you have makes you better, only how you think. and what he's thinking about right now is pretty impressive too. rupendra plans to set up a museum in his native place where the family's antiques will be on display. however, instead of straitjacketing them in glass boxes he will dress up mannequins and recreate the darbar as it used to be. even bedrooms etc will be made to look like the days of yore. also, it won't be like a government undertaking because each object belongs to my family so i have a personal bond with the items. in the same premises, rupendra wishes to give a few shops free of cost to himachali craftsmen who will create works of art that can be sold to tourists there, as himachali art needs to be revived. other than that, there is nothing remotely princely about rupendra - despite a home in sector 23 that's virtually a mini palace - complete with an intricately carved silver throne on which resides an idol of the buddha, other priceless antiques, various black and white portraits and a domestic help who serves tea on a large thali (on bended knee!). rupendra's wife, omkareshwari, is from the royal family of nagod (madhya pradesh). daughter durgeshwari and son shivendra study in carmel convent and st john's respectively.they are a fairly modern and progressive couple. my daughter was the first girl in the family after 150 years, and when i die she will cremate me. as to the property, it will be divided in half, says rupendra, and his wife agrees wholeheartedly. princess omkareshwari also works with the underprivileged women in kutlehar. both talk animatedly about how they met, discovered a mutual liking for dogs (he had 14 then and has five now) and agreed to marry each other at ages 17 and 19, respectively. when we went to the estate office here to get our marriage certificate years later, the authorities realised we were underage but by then we already had two children so they decided to give us the certificate, says rupendra. the couple has never been abroad, except to nepal, and professes no ardent desire to go. both are home birds; they love cooking and spending time with the children, with prince rupendra dividing time between chandigarh, dharamsala and kutlehar. any foreign trip in the future, they say, would have to start with england because its museums have so many of our indian antiques. geetika_bhandari@indiatimes.com