Iron Maiden playing heavy metal in front of 38,000 people on the grounds of Windsor Castle? Surely not. Well perhaps not in the original English royal residence, but anything goes at the replica of Windsor in Bengaluru.
Bangalore Palace has a lively history. It has hosted raucous rock concerts, is decorated with stuffed animals, was built by a flamboyant maharaja in the 1870s, has been dogged by controversy for decades and is now one of the city's best offbeat tourist attractions. Oh, and it's also linked to an ancient curse.
Within minutes of entering the palace, my eyes become so busy that my ears go to sleep. The audio playing through my headphones is explaining the palace’s history, but I’m not registering, on account of being mesmerised by the interiors. I would not call them classy and they definitely are not understated. If I were being generous, I’d define them as eye-catching, although my most honest assessment would be gaudy. Most importantly, though, they’re interesting.
In the palace foyer alone there are myriad motifs, colours and design schemes vying for my attention. Beneath my feet are ceramic tiles with green, yellow, cream and orange geometric patterns. Looming over me is a grand staircase embellished with complex woodwork, featuring flowers, stars and royal crests. Flanking those steps is a lemon-yellow wall.
White stucco, burgundy inlays, intricate awnings, arched windows and glazed reliefs compete for wall space with paintings of members of the Mysore royal family, who owned this palace. And that is only one wall of one room, of one wing, of this giant complex.
As you might imagine, enormous costs were incurred while building Bangalore Palace, which blends elements of Scottish Gothic and English Tudor architecture. The lower part of its facade is covered in lush green ivy, above which are a sequence of turrets and towers. Money was no issue for its owner, Chamaraja Wadiyar, the former ruling maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore.
The Wadiyar dynasty commanded much of southern India for hundreds of years before the country became a republic in 1950, three years after gaining independence from British rule. Chamaraja Wadiyar purchased this enormous 184-hectare estate in Bengaluru's suburbs from a wealthy Englishman. He opted not to build an Indian-style palace, such as the magnificent Bangalore mansion of Tipu Sultan, a previous warrior ruler of Mysore. A low-slung structure decorated by a sequence of teak wood archways, Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace is subtle and traditional compared to the brash Bangalore Palace. Intent on highlighting his wealth, Wadiyar modelled it on the Tudor castles of the UK.
It is inside the palace, however, that the full extent of its kitsch is revealed. Wadiyar, apparently, an admirer of taxidermy, placed stuffed animal busts throughout this palace. He even reportedly had a stool made with the paw of a giant cat. Similarly unusual is an old sofa within the palace, designed to weigh whoever sits on it.
When I catch sight of the central courtyard, splashed with so many colours, arches, artworks and mosaics, I'm astounded. I utter a curse, but when your ears are blocked by headphones, it's hard to moderate the volume of your voice. My blunt critique echoes down the hallway and reaches a security guard, whose face stiffens as he shakes his head in disapproval. I raise my hand as an apology and remind myself I'm in a royal abode.
The gardens of the palace are more refined, however. They were designed by John Cameron, the English botanist responsible for redesigning Bengaluru's serene Lalbagh Botanical Garden in the 1880s. It was Cameron who installed the glass house that became the focal point of Lalbagh, which showcases more than a hundred species of native Indian plants and flowers.
Cameron must have turned in his grave when these meticulous grounds began being rattled by rock concerts. In 2007, Bangalore Palace was the venue for Eddfest, one of the largest rock-metal musical events in Indian history. Headlined by Iron Maiden, it was originally meant to be attended by 25,000 people; a number that swelled to 38,000.
World-famous musicians and bands, such as Santana, Bryan Adams, Metallica and Enrique Iglesias, all performed giant concerts at the palace before it was shut as a music venue in 2012. The closure coincided with a long, ongoing legal battle over ownership of the premises between the Karnataka government and descendants of the Wadiyar dynasty.
The Wadiyar royal bloodline has reportedly been cursed for 400 years. The legend of the Curse of Alamelamma dates back to the 1600s, when Raja Wadiyar dethroned Tirumalaraja, an ailing ruler of another Indian kingdom. Rather than surrender to the Wadiyars, Tirumalaraja's wife fled with her family's royal treasure.
Clutching these jewels, she leapt off a cliff. Her final words were a curse on the Wadiyar dynasty, asking the gods to make their land barren and deny them heirs. This curse has remained famous due to the family repeatedly failing to produce a new male heir to their throne.
Yet this dynasty lives on, albeit without the power and riches it once possessed. Wandering the opulent halls, offices and dining rooms of Bangalore Palace, it is easy to imagine the lavish lifestyle led by Chamaraja Wadiyar.
While those days are gone, the splendour of the palace remains intact. It was renovated by the Wadiyars a decade ago. Now, for a small fee, curious visitors like myself can inspect most of the grand structure. The concerts might be over, the dynasty ousted and the architecture questionable, but Bangalore Palace is a joy for any lover of the bizarre.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile
Name: Back to Games and Boardgame Space
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
Types of fraud
Phishing: Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
Smishing: The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
Vishing: The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
SIM swap: Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
Identity theft: Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
Prize scams: Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
* Nada El Sawy
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