The Guardnees of the Zenana, a.k.a. the Zafer Paltan,
and the battle of Kharda Sometimes, my search for information takes me to unrelated
but strange and interesting stories, and this is one of them. It has nothing to
do with the establishment of the Amazon office in Hyderabad and deals with somethi…
The Amazons of Hyderabad
The Guardnees of the Zenana, a.k.a. the Zafer Paltan,
and the battle of Kharda Sometimes, my search for information takes me to unrelated
but strange and interesting stories, and this is one of them. It has nothing to
do with the establishment of the Amazon office in Hyderabad and deals with somethi…
The Swati Tirunal – S Balachander imbroglio The serene and melodious Carnatic music scene at Madras suddenly
found itself in a cacophonic conundrum, when a doyen among them - Veena S Balachander,
decided to throw a heap of mud on the face of one of the greatest musical
exponents, the Swati Tirunal M…
The travails of a lady colonel in Hyder’s army The story of Mme Mequinez comes to light, vividly explained
in the pages outlining a history of Hyder Ali penned by one MMDLT. MMDLT stands
for Msieur Maistre de la Tour, a French general in Hyder’s army, who as he
says, was in command of 10,000 men and…
The Catholic harquebousiers of Travancore It was while studying the character of De Lannoy that I came
across the mention of the Mavelikkara Malittas, a group of well-trained
Christian mercenaries, serving the local kings. At that time, I read that the
Malittas who trained at their Kalari’s like the…
Tipu, Haider and Balthazar from Belthangady One of the most alluring and fascinating legends in the collection
of Mangalorean lore is that of Balthu Chutney, the shadowy figure flitting in
and out of the Seringapatam palaces of the Mysore Sultans and doing his best to
help his community of Mangalore…
