Page 14 - Seniorstoday June2023

First Person
A jug-eared prince, eared prince,
A jug-
a pantomime villain, and now:
a pantomime villain, and now:
a caretak
a caretaker kinger king
At 74, most men in England would be planting tomatoes or cabbages and enjoying
their pints. At 74, Charles is a caretaker King, writes Vickram Sethi
In a moment of reckless driving, Prince
Charles ran over one of the queen’s dogs.
He was convinced that this would end any
hopes of his ever becoming the king. Just
then he remembered that on a visit to Saudi
Arabia he was gifted with a bottle that
had genie. He was told that the genie once
released from the bottle would only fulfil one
wish. Charles got out that bottle and asked
the genie to make the dog alive again. The
genie said, “I am sorry we don’t look into
matters of life and death.” Charles then asked
if he could make Camilla beautiful, the Genie
had one look at Camilla and said let’s look
at the dog again. In Hindi, we have a very
appropriate saying “Jab pyyar hua gadhi se
to Pari kya Cheez hai“ (If you fall in love with
a female donkey, then what’s a beautiful
fairy).
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King Charles III was crowned on May 6,
2023 at Westminster Abbey, in an event full
of all the pageantry Britain could muster.
Enrobed clergymen handed over the
medieval symbols of power — the rod, the
scepter and the orb. Brass bands and soldiers
in bearskin hats trooped through the streets.
And the new king and queen ended the day
on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to
wave to cheering crowds.
The purpose behind the pomp, the
pageantry was to buttress the Crown’s
foundations and show that the people of the
United Kingdom still support their monarch.
It was a celebration as well as a test of how
the public sees the new sovereign.
“A lot of critics around the world especially
from the Commonwealth countries, the
Asian, the African, and the Caribbean, where