1870 Florence

Just when I thought, Italy had nothing more to offer, last week it smiled back at me and whispered that the story had just begun.


I was fortunate enough today to make one of the most precious memories that I will treasure all of my life!!
sit back relax and get some popcorns if you can while I attempted to express the gravity of the situation

So last week I was going through a very old text a gazetteer of Bombay presidency looking for some references for some article but there I found a vague reference that one of the (king) Maharaja of State of Kolhapur Rajaram II has traveled abroad infact he was the first one from his lineage to ever go abroad naturally I got super interested and started reading about him his highness king Rajaram was 20 years old when he left India he went to England but while returning he planed of visiting and travelling all across Europe! surprisingly I found his *personal diary* it was published in London but kept and preserved in university of Michigan.

His dairy tells his day to day activities what he saw what he felt more importantly what his mode of life was.

The diary stops abruptly mentioning he was not felling well and was unable to walk.
However even though he was not well one of his final lines are from Italy as he crosses alps and enters Bolzano, remember he is in this immense pain but looking at the beauty he writes "we passed through this lovely mountainous country rich in grand and imposing scenery"

Anyhow the beauty was not something that could recover him, his health deteriorated following some interesting turn of events he was brought to Florence!! yes Florence!! two leading Italian practitioners were called into consultation Dr Fraser was leading the line of treatment, but unfortunatly things did not went well and to quote Dr Fraser "patient appeared to rally, but on the morning of the 30th November he suddenly expired" cause of death " congestion of the abdominal viscera, together with collapse of nervous power"

The story starts here the few people that were with the maharaja wanted to cremate his body (burn it) !! but Italy had already banned this practice since ages and it was frowned upon.
Imagine it's 1870 few people from a small town of India accompanying their king on an adventure no one has ever head of find themselves in the middle of Italy with their king dead where btw no official is speaking English nor do they know Italian. Now these men had to convince the Italian bureaucracy as soon as possible to allow them to burn the body according to their culture, something which is banned in Italy!!! so if you know how the bureaucracy works here your hairs behind the neck must be standing.



However one fine Italian gentle men Signore Perruzzo one of the officials working for the municipal corporation of Florence at that time was a game changer he took matters with utmost respect and priority and made the arrangements to quote from a letter correspondence of the event "the application request (for cremation) was forwarded from one table to another, finally reaching the council of minister" and I can only imagine what must have seemed like a decade with immense support from locals the permission was granted within 24 hours.


The final rites were performed at the banks of Arno and a sculpture was made in the remembrance of the Maharaj.
But today is very very special not because it's 30th November (because it's not hahaha) but because of different reason so I don't think anyone will read till here but if you do and are interested text me 121 because today something happened at this very exact spot and it's been hundred and twenty years since then it will be too long to explain in here.

Maharaja Rajaram Chatrapatincha Vijay Aso!!