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<p><b>The Golden Calm</b><br><b>An English Lady's Life in Moghul Delhi</b><br>Edited by M.M. Kaye<br>Webb & Bower<br><b>Pages</b>:217; <b>Price</b>:Rs l94</p><div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><amp-img  src="https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/sites/media2/indiatoday/images/stories/1981March/delhi-11_112713095627.jpg" alt = "" height="425" width="650" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img></div></div>The funniest known story about Sir Thomas Metcalfe, British Resident in the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar, Delhi's last Emperor, is his mode of meting out punishment to native offenders.<br><br>Metcalfe wielded no whip and ordered no thrashing. He merely raised his eyebrow at a waiting attendant who produced a silver salver holding a pair of white kid gloves. As he gently advanced upon the waiting offender, he delicately put on the gloves; reaching close to the man's face he raised his hands and gently pinched his earlobes.<br><br>Stories such as these come from the pen of a young girl, the Resident's eldest daughter Emily who, at 17, joined her father in 1848 for two years before marrying Sir Edward Clive Bayley, under-secretary to the Foreign Department.  Although born in Meerut, Emily had been raised in Delhi, and grew to love it. On her return to the city she began to keep a diary of events of life in the Moghul capital.<br><br>Her father's associations with Delhi were stronger still. He came from the distinguished Metcalfe family that had served in India (his older brother Charles had also been a Delhi Resident), and spent much of his working life in the Delhi territories. His love of Delhi manifested itself in commissioning Company artists, most of them unknown, to paint the leading sights of Delhi in the style of Moghul miniatures which he compiled into an elaborate album to dedicate to his children.<br><br>This was the origin of Sir Thomas Metcalfe's famous Dehlie Book - a unique pictorial record of pre-Mutiny Delhi's architecture, topography and established sites.<br><br><b>Detailed Record</b>: M.M. Kaye, the novelist, whose excruciatingly long epic journey into the Anglo-Afghan wars,<i>The Far Pavilions</i>, was a best seller to beat best sellers, now puts together the superb selection of illustrations from Metcalfe's Dethie Book and interpolates them with passages from his daughter's diary.<br><br>The result is a very memorable book-it is at once an amateur's documentation of a charmed period which was an almost magical lull before the hell of the Mutiny broke out; at the same time it is the only detailed pictorial record of aspects of a city.<br><br>Not a sight, famous, infamous, casual or panoramic is left out-interiors of mosques, vistas along the river, details of architectural motifs or mosaics supplement real-life vignettes of city life. Modes of travel (the Tangah, the Ruth), aspects of dress, sequences of nautch girls in performance are executed with a warmth that is as intimate as it can only be in a personal memoir.<br><br><div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><amp-img  src="https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/sites/media2/indiatoday/images/stories/1981March/delhi-12_112713095649.jpg" alt = "" height="425" width="650" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img></div>Emily's portrait: A diligent diarist</div>Emily's written account of life in Delhi among the English community is equally fascinating. Her father, an adventurous man, built himself a pleasure house in the shadow of the Qutab Minar (the Metcalfes' official residence was on the site of the present Metcalfe House in Old Delhi on the bank of the Jamuna, though the existing house is not the same).<br><br>"It was a delightful residence," wrote Emily of their pleasure dome at Qutab, "and a very quaint one, for it was originally a Mohammedan tomb, surrounded by a big stone dome, our house was called the Dil-Koosha and was constantly lent by my father to bridal parties for their honeymoon.<br><br><b>Alien Folly</b>: Visitors to Delhi may never find it, but the Metcalfe Dil-Koosha still exists inside the tomb. So do some very odd fragments of architecture, which passers-by notice but never inquire about as they round the bend past Qutab on the Mehrauli road.<br><br><div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><amp-img  src="https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/sites/media2/indiatoday/images/stories/1981March/calm_112713100904.jpg" alt = "" height="425" width="650" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img></div>(Left) A miniature of the Red Fort (</div>Looking left against the horizon they may spot some absurd follies from an alien culture: something that looks like the battlement of a European castle; a little further on there are stone blocks piled into a mock-Greek temple. These are some of the amusements and eccentric whimsies that Metcalfe left behind.<br><br>Being a diligent diarist, his daughter noted them and condensed in her pages the romance of the folly: "All the waste ground in the neighbourhood of the Qutub was very rocky, and extended for miles without a building of any kind and as my father's favourite amusement was brick and mortar, he designed and built at some distance off, on a high ground, a lighthouse and a small fort...these created a diversion from the level monotony of the rocky ground, and as my father always had a light put in each of the buildings on the nights we stayed at the Dil-Koosha, we could see the buildings as we sat on the chabootra of an evening, and fifty years afterwards to my amazement, in a picture exhibition in Bond Street, I saw a watercolour drawing of the same little fortress, entitled 'the Metcalfe Battery'.<br><br>'The Metcalfe Battery' still exists in Delhi, but a view of it could hardly be complete without this engaging guide to its origins.<br><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Nov 27, 2013 08:55 IST</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

society-and-the-arts

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<p><b>The Golden Calm</b><br><b>An English Lady's Life in Moghul Delhi</b><br>Edited by M.M. Kaye<br>Webb & Bower<br><b>Pages</b>:217; <b>Price</b>:Rs l94</p><div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  title=""  class="" alt="" src="https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/sites/media2/indiatoday/images/stories/1981March/delhi-11_112713095627.jpg" loading="lazy" /></div></div>The funniest known story about Sir Thomas Metcalfe, British Resident in the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar, Delhi's last Emperor, is his mode of meting out punishment to native offenders.<br><br>Metcalfe wielded no whip and ordered no thrashing. He merely raised his eyebrow at a waiting attendant who produced a silver salver holding a pair of white kid gloves. As he gently advanced upon the waiting offender, he delicately put on the gloves; reaching close to the man's face he raised his hands and gently pinched his earlobes.<br><br>Stories such as these come from the pen of a young girl, the Resident's eldest daughter Emily who, at 17, joined her father in 1848 for two years before marrying Sir Edward Clive Bayley, under-secretary to the Foreign Department.  Although born in Meerut, Emily had been raised in Delhi, and grew to love it. On her return to the city she began to keep a diary of events of life in the Moghul capital.<br><br>Her father's associations with Delhi were stronger still. He came from the distinguished Metcalfe family that had served in India (his older brother Charles had also been a Delhi Resident), and spent much of his working life in the Delhi territories. His love of Delhi manifested itself in commissioning Company artists, most of them unknown, to paint the leading sights of Delhi in the style of Moghul miniatures which he compiled into an elaborate album to dedicate to his children.<br><br>This was the origin of Sir Thomas Metcalfe's famous Dehlie Book - a unique pictorial record of pre-Mutiny Delhi's architecture, topography and established sites.<br><br><b>Detailed Record</b>: M.M. Kaye, the novelist, whose excruciatingly long epic journey into the Anglo-Afghan wars,<i>The Far Pavilions</i>, was a best seller to beat best sellers, now puts together the superb selection of illustrations from Metcalfe's Dethie Book and interpolates them with passages from his daughter's diary.<br><br>The result is a very memorable book-it is at once an amateur's documentation of a charmed period which was an almost magical lull before the hell of the Mutiny broke out; at the same time it is the only detailed pictorial record of aspects of a city.<br><br>Not a sight, famous, infamous, casual or panoramic is left out-interiors of mosques, vistas along the river, details of architectural motifs or mosaics supplement real-life vignettes of city life. Modes of travel (the Tangah, the Ruth), aspects of dress, sequences of nautch girls in performance are executed with a warmth that is as intimate as it can only be in a personal memoir.<br><br><div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  title=""  class="" alt="" src="https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/sites/media2/indiatoday/images/stories/1981March/delhi-12_112713095649.jpg" loading="lazy" /></div>Emily's portrait: A diligent diarist</div>Emily's written account of life in Delhi among the English community is equally fascinating. Her father, an adventurous man, built himself a pleasure house in the shadow of the Qutab Minar (the Metcalfes' official residence was on the site of the present Metcalfe House in Old Delhi on the bank of the Jamuna, though the existing house is not the same).<br><br>"It was a delightful residence," wrote Emily of their pleasure dome at Qutab, "and a very quaint one, for it was originally a Mohammedan tomb, surrounded by a big stone dome, our house was called the Dil-Koosha and was constantly lent by my father to bridal parties for their honeymoon.<br><br><b>Alien Folly</b>: Visitors to Delhi may never find it, but the Metcalfe Dil-Koosha still exists inside the tomb. So do some very odd fragments of architecture, which passers-by notice but never inquire about as they round the bend past Qutab on the Mehrauli road.<br><br><div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  title=""  class="" alt="" src="https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/sites/media2/indiatoday/images/stories/1981March/calm_112713100904.jpg" loading="lazy" /></div>(Left) A miniature of the Red Fort (</div>Looking left against the horizon they may spot some absurd follies from an alien culture: something that looks like the battlement of a European castle; a little further on there are stone blocks piled into a mock-Greek temple. These are some of the amusements and eccentric whimsies that Metcalfe left behind.<br><br>Being a diligent diarist, his daughter noted them and condensed in her pages the romance of the folly: "All the waste ground in the neighbourhood of the Qutub was very rocky, and extended for miles without a building of any kind and as my father's favourite amusement was brick and mortar, he designed and built at some distance off, on a high ground, a lighthouse and a small fort...these created a diversion from the level monotony of the rocky ground, and as my father always had a light put in each of the buildings on the nights we stayed at the Dil-Koosha, we could see the buildings as we sat on the chabootra of an evening, and fifty years afterwards to my amazement, in a picture exhibition in Bond Street, I saw a watercolour drawing of the same little fortress, entitled 'the Metcalfe Battery'.<br><br>'The Metcalfe Battery' still exists in Delhi, but a view of it could hardly be complete without this engaging guide to its origins.<br><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Nov 27, 2013 08:55 IST</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

M.M. Kaye, the novelist, whose excruciatingly long epic journey into the Anglo-Afghan wars,&nbsp;<i>The Far Pavilions</i>, was a best seller to beat best sellers, now puts together the superb selection of illustrations from Metcalfe's Dethie Book and interpolates them with passages from his daughter's diary.

India Today

M.M. Kaye, the novelist, whose excruciatingly long epic journey into the Anglo-Afghan wars, The Far Pavilions, was a best seller to beat best sellers, now puts together the superb selection of illustrations from Metcalfe's Dethie Book and interpolates them with passages from his daughter's diary.

A memorable account - India Today

Book review: The Golden Calm: An English Lady's Life in Moghul Delhi

A memorable account

A PhD scholar at IIT Bhubaneswar died after allegedly falling from the sixth floor of a hostel building on campus. Police are investigating the circumstances after the student was declared brought dead at a private hospital.

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Celina Jaitly said in a Mother’s Day note that she is being denied communication with her three children during her divorce battle with Peter Haag. The post linked her custody claims in Austria with her domestic violence case in India and her vow to continue the legal fight.

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Celina Jaitly

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Nasa’s Psyche spacecraft captured a stunning crescent image of Mars from nearly 5 million kilometres away on May 3, 2026. The spacecraft is using Mars’s gravity as a slingshot before heading to a metal-rich asteroid in 2029.

Nasa’s Psyche spacecraft captured this colorised crescent image of Mars on May 3, 2026, from a distance of roughly 4.8 million kilometres, ahead of its gravity assist flyby on May 15. (Photo: Nasa)

Nasa’s Psyche spacecraft photographs Mars as a glowing crescent. See pic

A Bengaluru commuter’s electric unicycle ride caught the attention of a traffic policeman during his journey home.

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Bengaluru traffic cops stop man riding electric unicycle. And then...

Suspended Trinamool Congress spokesperson Riju Dutta praised West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and said he stopped retaliatory violence after his aide's killing earlier this week.

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TVK leader C Joseph Vijay on Sunday took oath as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu amid a sea of supporters, his friends and family, and several political leaders. Eight other TVK leaders were sworn in besides him, as ministers in the new government. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also attended the ceremony. The TVK managed to secure the Governor's nod to form the government after the Congress, the CPI, the CPI(M), the VCK, and IUML extended their support to the Vijay-led party for a colaition government.

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Newly sworn in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay shared a headline-grabbing selfie moment with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shortly after taking oath in Chennai, adding a viral political-pop culture touch to the historic ceremony.

Rahul Gandhi, Joseph VijayRahul Gandhi, Joseph Vijay

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hugged and honoured 98-year-old Makhanlal Sarkar, one of the earliest and senior most members of the BJP. The scene unfolded on the stage ahead of Suvendu Adhikari's swearing-in as West Bengal's Chief Minister in Kolkata. PM Modi also touched Sarkar's feet and presented a shawl to him as a mark of respect. In 1952, Sarkar was arrested in Kashmir while he was accompanying Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee as the latter was marching to hoist the tricolour there. BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya described the elderly party leader as "one of the earliest grassroots figures associated with the nationalist movement in post-Independence India."

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Yogi Adityanath on Saturday presented a saffron gamcha to Suvendu Adhikari, shortly after the latter took oath as the first BJP Chief Minister of West Bengal. The crowd also erupted into a loud cheer as the scene unfolded at the swearing-in ceremony in Kolkata. This was at least the second such instance in recent weeks when the duo's bonhomie was witnessed publicly. Earlier, during the election campaign in the state, a powerful scene was witnessed when Adhikari bowed down at the feet of the UP Chief Minister as a mark of respect.

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Book review: The Golden Calm: An English Lady's Life in Moghul Delhi

M.M. Kaye, the novelist, whose excruciatingly long epic journey into the Anglo-Afghan wars, The Far Pavilions, was a best seller to beat best sellers, now puts together the superb selection of illustrations from Metcalfe's Dethie Book and interpolates them with passages from his daughter's diary.

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