Vandals Of History Afghanistan's Taliban regime remains undeterred from its hard-line agenda of destroying historically valuable Buddhist idols. A look at the present regime and its slide to orthodox fundamentalism at a time when a drought has ravaged its economy and people.

Taking On the Family
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Yadav is once again facing a tough fight for survival--this time prompted by a near revolt in the RJD fuelled by rumours of a dynastic takeover. Ranjan Yadav has emerged as a potential rival to Rabri Devi, enjoying the support of both the party rebels and the NDA allies.

Chennai Confusion
The upshot of the great Tamil circus: Jayalalitha needs Moopanar, but not the Congress.

Creepy Acquisition
With Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha determined to bring corporate payslips comprehensively into the taxman's dragnet, the salaried class is having a few palpitations. For them, it means that a long era of tax-free emoluments is coming to an end.

"Indians lack unity"
Two of cricket's finest brains met for a rare conversation:Bishen Singh Bedi takes on the role of interviewer for Aaj Tak, seeking to get into the mind of Australian captain Stephen Waugh.

Revenge Of the Bears The sudden fall in share-prices points to yet another rigging controversy, and raises questions about the efficacy and credibility of SEBI as a regulator.

OFFTRACK: PATNA, BIHAR

Hidden Treasure

The little-known Qila House is a repository of historical articles

By Shuchi Sinha

Deep in the grimy heart of old Patna lies a home that leaves you with a sense of frozen time. Nestled on the ramparts of what was once Sher Shah Suri's fort (which the Muslim ruler built on his return from an expedition to Bengal in 1541) lies the Qila House. The Ganga flows eternally by it and the graceful, if rather worn columns of the Qila House stand like impassive sentinels guarding the entrance to the past.

TIME TRAPPER: Satya Bhama Jalan amid the opulence of period furniture and artefacts

It was perhaps as much for the historical significance of the house as for the fact he collected antiques that the late Diwan Bahadur Radhakrishna Jalan bought Qila House in 1919 from a nawab who had fallen on bad days. The Diwan Bahadur is long gone, but his family, the Jalans, have put in effort and passion-even at times of great financial difficulty-into maintaining the priceless collection of artefacts collected over 60 years by the patriarch.

The Jalans, a business family, shun publicity and the collection is not open to the general public. But those who are interested in taking a look are never turned away. The Diwan Bahadur's great-grandson personally takes you around, often with old-fashioned hospitality and a pure silver coffee service at the end of the tour.

The collection is a reflection of elegant, if not royal, living in a bygone era. There's King George III's Crown Derby dinner service, specially commissioned in uncharacteristically bright shades of blue, red and gold as he was losing his eyesight. A bed that Napoleon III (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and his successor) once owned stands next to a collection of swords. There are two there that conquered India: Humayun's (with a jade hilt) and Akbar's. Ming and Ching dynasty chinaware sit cheek by jowl with ancient Tibetan and Indian scriptures. A Peruvian bull pendant dating back to 800 B.C. finds pride of place in a room appointed with Louis XV and Louis XVI furniture. Equally fascinating are the Celadon plates commissioned by Mughal kings which could detect arsenic in food (one of the plates is cracked, a sign that poisoned food was served in it).

Unlike museums with their orderliness and funereal atmosphere, Qila House is a lively place. As it should be too, for as a Jalan family member quips, "It is our drawing room, not a museum." So as you walk along you can't but notice the absence of chronology and geography in the way the objects are displayed-a Marie Antoinette wine cooler and plates between Thai sculptures, Dresden china next to Mughal glassware, Tipu Sultan's palanquin beside a Henry VIII dresser.

With such legends under its roof, Qila House was bound to generate a few of its own. There is a particularly delightful one that involves a silver dinner service believed to belong to Birbal. On his visit to Patna in 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru was served food in the Birbal set. The impulsive prime minister was angered by what he thought was a show of wealth. He was somewhat mollified when the host said that it was a symbolic gesture since Birbal had been Akbar's prime minister but demanded to know how they were sure the plates were genuine. His doubts subsided when he was told that all the articles had been authenticated by the Archaeological Survey of India. There's a post-script. Forgetting in his enthusiam that most things around him were priceless artefacts, Nehru climbed on an antique chair to look at an old clock. The chair broke and sent him tumbling to the floor. The broken chair today has a place of pride in the collection.

History and archeology buffs who visit the house, especially after it was mentioned in a Lonely Planet guidebook, don't realise how close the collection came to ruin. Grand dame Satya Bhama Jalan sold her jewellery to help the Diwan Bahadur, her father-in-law, save the items from being auctioned off in a moment of financial distress. On his death, rightfully, he willed it to her. Says the matriarch: "This is the work of a man whose appreciation of history was so far ahead of his times that he was often misunderstood. It is our duty is to preserve it with the same single-minded devotion." It is a sense of devotion that, like the artefacts, is rare in a cynical world.

MetroScape
Triple Act
What I would love to do more than anything else in the world is to write another play," says Gurcharan Das. "But I don't know if I have the courage." He should have dollops of it, going by the audience reaction to his 9 Jakhoo Hill--performed to mark the release of Three English Plays by Das --at Delhi's India Habitat Centre
last week.
more...

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