Coomaraswami Quotes in Indian Ink
“Jummapur, Wednesday, April the second. Darling Nell, I arrived here on Saturday from Bombay after a day and a night and a day in a Ladies Only, stopping now and again to be revictualled through the window with pots of tea and proper meals on matinee trays, which, remarkably, you hand back through the window at the next station down the line where they do the washing up; and from the last stop I had the compartment to myself, with the lights coming on for me to make my entrance on the platform at Jummapur. The President of the Theosophical Society was waiting with several members of the committee drawn up at a respectful distance, not quite a red carpet and brass band but garlands of marigolds at the ready, and I thought there must be somebody important on the train—”
“The sightseeing with picnic was something of a Progress with the president of the Theosophical Society holding a yellow parasol over me while the committee bicycled alongside, sometimes two to a bike, and children ran before and behind—I felt like a carnival float representing Empire—or, depending how you look at it, the Subjugation of the Indian People, and of course you’re right, darling, but I never saw anyone less subjugated than Mr Coomaraswami.”
DAS The Empire will one day be gone like the Mughal Empire before it, and only their monuments remain—the visions of Shah Jahan!—of Sir Edwin Lutyens!
FLORA “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
DAS (Delighted) Oh yes! Finally like the empire of Ozymandias! Entirely forgotten except in a poem by an English poet. You see how privileged we are, Miss Crewe. Only in art can empires cheat oblivion, because only the artist can say, “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
FLORA If you don’t start learning to take you’ll never be shot of us. Who whom. Nothing else counts. Mr Chamberlain is bosh. Mr Coomaraswami is bosh. It’s your country, and we’ve got it. Everything else is bosh. When I was Modi’s model I might as well have been a table. When he was done, he got rid of me. There was no question who whom. You’d never change his colour on a map. But please light your Gold Flake.
It is all bosh! The Theosophical Society is bosh! His Highness the Rajah is bosh! I must leave you, Miss Crewe. (He hesitates.) I think I will not be coming tomorrow.
FLORA There is enough light. Mr Coomaraswami was quite right about the moon. (Flora unwraps the paper.) It’s going to be a drawing, isn’t it? … Oh!
DAS (Nervous, bright) Yes! A good joke, is it not? A Rajput miniature, by Nirad Das!
FLORA (Not heeding him) Oh … it’s the most beautiful thing …
DAS (Brightly) I’m so pleased you like it! A quite witty pastiche—
FLORA (Heeding him now) Are you going to be Indian? Please don’t.
DAS (Heeding her) I … I am Indian.
FLORA An Indian artist.
DURANCE Where did you get such a thing?
FLORA His Highness gave it to me.
DURANCE Why?
FLORA Because I ate an apricot. Because he is a Rajah. Because he hoped I’d go to bed with him. I don’t know.
DURANCE But how could he … feel himself in such intimacy with you?
[…]
DURANCE … but I’m in a frightfully difficult position now.
FLORA Why?
DURANCE Did he visit you?
FLORA I visited him.
DURANCE I know. Did he visit you?
FLORA Mind your own business.
DURANCE But it is my business.
FLORA Because you think you love me?
DURANCE No, I … Keeping tabs on what His Highness is up to is one of my … I mean I write reports to Delhi.
FLORA (Amused) Oh heavens!
“Darling, that’s all from Jummapur, because how I’m packed, portrait and all, and Mr Coomaraswami is coming to take me to the station. I’ll post this in Jaipur as soon as I get there. I’m not going to post it here because I’m not. I feel fit as two lops this morning, and happy, too, because something good happened here which made me feel halfway better about Modi and getting back to Paris too late. That was a sin I’ll carry to my grave, but perhaps my soul will stay behind as a smudge of paint on paper, as if I’d always been here, like Radha who was the most beautiful of the herdswomen, undressed for love in an empty house.”
Coomaraswami Quotes in Indian Ink
“Jummapur, Wednesday, April the second. Darling Nell, I arrived here on Saturday from Bombay after a day and a night and a day in a Ladies Only, stopping now and again to be revictualled through the window with pots of tea and proper meals on matinee trays, which, remarkably, you hand back through the window at the next station down the line where they do the washing up; and from the last stop I had the compartment to myself, with the lights coming on for me to make my entrance on the platform at Jummapur. The President of the Theosophical Society was waiting with several members of the committee drawn up at a respectful distance, not quite a red carpet and brass band but garlands of marigolds at the ready, and I thought there must be somebody important on the train—”
“The sightseeing with picnic was something of a Progress with the president of the Theosophical Society holding a yellow parasol over me while the committee bicycled alongside, sometimes two to a bike, and children ran before and behind—I felt like a carnival float representing Empire—or, depending how you look at it, the Subjugation of the Indian People, and of course you’re right, darling, but I never saw anyone less subjugated than Mr Coomaraswami.”
DAS The Empire will one day be gone like the Mughal Empire before it, and only their monuments remain—the visions of Shah Jahan!—of Sir Edwin Lutyens!
FLORA “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
DAS (Delighted) Oh yes! Finally like the empire of Ozymandias! Entirely forgotten except in a poem by an English poet. You see how privileged we are, Miss Crewe. Only in art can empires cheat oblivion, because only the artist can say, “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
FLORA If you don’t start learning to take you’ll never be shot of us. Who whom. Nothing else counts. Mr Chamberlain is bosh. Mr Coomaraswami is bosh. It’s your country, and we’ve got it. Everything else is bosh. When I was Modi’s model I might as well have been a table. When he was done, he got rid of me. There was no question who whom. You’d never change his colour on a map. But please light your Gold Flake.
It is all bosh! The Theosophical Society is bosh! His Highness the Rajah is bosh! I must leave you, Miss Crewe. (He hesitates.) I think I will not be coming tomorrow.
FLORA There is enough light. Mr Coomaraswami was quite right about the moon. (Flora unwraps the paper.) It’s going to be a drawing, isn’t it? … Oh!
DAS (Nervous, bright) Yes! A good joke, is it not? A Rajput miniature, by Nirad Das!
FLORA (Not heeding him) Oh … it’s the most beautiful thing …
DAS (Brightly) I’m so pleased you like it! A quite witty pastiche—
FLORA (Heeding him now) Are you going to be Indian? Please don’t.
DAS (Heeding her) I … I am Indian.
FLORA An Indian artist.
DURANCE Where did you get such a thing?
FLORA His Highness gave it to me.
DURANCE Why?
FLORA Because I ate an apricot. Because he is a Rajah. Because he hoped I’d go to bed with him. I don’t know.
DURANCE But how could he … feel himself in such intimacy with you?
[…]
DURANCE … but I’m in a frightfully difficult position now.
FLORA Why?
DURANCE Did he visit you?
FLORA I visited him.
DURANCE I know. Did he visit you?
FLORA Mind your own business.
DURANCE But it is my business.
FLORA Because you think you love me?
DURANCE No, I … Keeping tabs on what His Highness is up to is one of my … I mean I write reports to Delhi.
FLORA (Amused) Oh heavens!
“Darling, that’s all from Jummapur, because how I’m packed, portrait and all, and Mr Coomaraswami is coming to take me to the station. I’ll post this in Jaipur as soon as I get there. I’m not going to post it here because I’m not. I feel fit as two lops this morning, and happy, too, because something good happened here which made me feel halfway better about Modi and getting back to Paris too late. That was a sin I’ll carry to my grave, but perhaps my soul will stay behind as a smudge of paint on paper, as if I’d always been here, like Radha who was the most beautiful of the herdswomen, undressed for love in an empty house.”
