I was a schoolgirl when Prince Charles and Lady Diana married. It was at a stage in life when everything was seen through rose coloured lenses, and the wedding was like the ultimate fairy tale.
The wedding was broadcast live on television. We did not have a one then, but our neighbours did. It was a novelty in our building, and all children would regularly gather there for occasions like cricket matches. It was like an event, and was something taken in their stride by our neighbours. It is something that is unbelievable by today's standards, but back then it was considered a part of community living. The royal wedding was something not to be missed, and I remember watching it in black-and-white glory.
It was a fairy tale that I was saddened to see go the way it did. It was, in a way, the loss of an innocent belief in "and they lived happily ever after." I was in the US with the husband when Lady Diana died, announced in headlines splashed across newspapers one warm morning towards the end of summer in 1997. In a way it felt like a personal loss. There was sadness for a life so full of promise, wasted and lost.
I remembered Lady Diana...ill-fated, a fascinating personality, complete with her faults...when I saw the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall today on TV during the inauguration ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, so close in their obvious camarederie. Why, why did he have to marry Diana in the first place?
Dedicated to Lady Diana. And no, I was never a fan in the sense the word is used. Just feel sad about a woman's wasted life.
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| Pic courtesy this link |
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
From MACBETH, Shakespeare.
And here's praying for peace to her soul:
'TIS moonlight, summer moonlight,
All soft and still and fair;
The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,
But most where trees are sending
Their breezy boughs on high,
Or stooping low are lending
A shelter from the sky.
And there in those wild bowers
A lovely form is laid;
Green grass and dew-steeped flowers
Wave gently round her head.
By EMILY BRONTE.
5 comments:
She has charm, for sure. Something about her, though she had quite a screwed up personal life. Have read a couple of biographies of hers and she really seemed like a regular person trying to make sense of what she had become.
Nice post. Did you know that Camilla was at a spa in Bangalore? Must be because their acco in Delhi had to be cleaned up...unless they were dog lovers! :-D
Truly, an enigmatic character, now part of history.
Sandhya, I really like your blog's header pic.
@Sangi : Thanks. True, she was an extraordinary ordinary person caught in the time-warp of the monarchy. Which is why so many ordinary people felt for her.
@Vibha : Thanks. The picture is a photograph taken by me on California route one on a summer afternoon.
Hey why the silence for so long?
Laptop hijacked by child and husband both home on holiday- was doing absolutely essential work whenever possible.
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