Fort St. George in Madras
” Fort St. George , there it is!” Linda rang out. We had circling around seemingly endlessly with our guide Mr. Gupta we met at the Hotel Madras when suddenly, like the parting of the sea, the great military architectural wonder that is Fort St. George burst into view. Linda had minored in East Asian studies at University, long before I met her, and was always interested in colonial periods, and especially the colonizers themselves, what made them tick, be they the Spanish, the Dutch, the Japanese, whom ever. She positively squealed with delight as the shining white structure loomed into view its thick walls and moat, a splendid edifice. “This was built in 1640!” cried Linda. “Think of it, 1640!” I loved her enthusiasm. She went wild at Fort Erie Ontario, at the Spanish installations in Puerto Rico, and hoped some day to go to Cuba and check that out. And do not even get her started on Rome and the Roman empire.
We scampered out and checked out the fort’s museum and looked at the gruesome battle axes, blades of all shapes and uses as in swords, old pistols (how accurate, I wondered. You ‘d have to be pretty close) as well as the weaponry of the native Indians, and one could see the disadvantage they had, and their vulnerability. A whole section featured the uniforms of the day, and then I got a little less interested as we went along, as crockery just didn’t float my boat. But it was old and Linda seemed to really enjoy the displays. The we went up spiral stairs to the art section and saw elaborate paintings of past governors, Susan Marchioness and military mucky mucks. I wonder what they thought about, astride the country of India, in all its exotic glory. It must have been as fascinating for them as it is for us today.
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