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| M.K. Gandhi's room in his house in Mumbai |
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| Ghandi's letter to Hitler 45 days before the start of it all |
Nevertheless, wargaming and more precisely 17th century military history did catch up with me within 3 hours. As you will see, the extremely imposing and eye catching statue which faces down the last vestiges of the British Raj - India Gate is of a man well worth knowing about.
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| Remember 29/11/2008? - security here is much tighter now |
Bombay/Mumbai is the human condition in its entirety. Spend a few hours here and you'll see the greatest wealth (a massive 40 storey building which is home to 4 mega rich yet detested people and 500 servants), the greatest poverty and mind bending humanity - the house/museum of M.K Gandhi was a real epiphany moment.
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| Our 15 minutes in the sun - Once there was an Empire - India Gate, Bombay |
This blog is not a travelogue but sometimes it is nice to share particularly with friends. I am here to work but the privilege of this job is that I also get to see what I would never have expected.
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| Kick Ass Indian General - Shivaji Maharaj 1680 |
At the seething India Gate is an imposing equestrian statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Who? says Mrs H. Hmm, not sure but with a statue like that he must be somebody really important. He looks like a Mongol Prince says the Memsahib (I've always wanted to call her that! - she is well trained at spotting wargaming trivia). I'll Google him back at the ranch.
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| Plaque on Shivaji's equestrian statue |
And, so I did... what a find! I love this guy already and I've only known about him for 15 minutes! Read this folks. What a find. It makes for fascinating and inspiring wargaming fodder. I may even start collecting/modelling a force to mirror the warfare of India between 1630 and 1680.
Click on this link to learn more about a real 'geezer'. It is pure wargaming manna from heaven (sorry to mix religious metaphors)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji
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| End of a dream or a gravy train depending on your PoV |
To all you fellow Brits out there.. we were only passing through this place for a few minutes of history. We made a mark yes but really, taking into account the big picture... it was a flash in the flintlock pan.
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| The last Tommies would have seen this view - boarding from India Gate |