Gayatri Devi recently passed away! Who was she? She was the Maharani (Princess) of Jaipur, the city where my parents both came from. Following India’s independence and the change in government from princely states to a democracy, she became an incredibly successful politician with the biggest landslide victory in the world (192,909 votes out of 246,516 cast). The reason I found her so interesting was the contrast in her personality – royalty, and widely considered to be one of the most classically beautiful women in India in her youth, but also a tomboy who learned riding, spent a lot of time with servants, and did a lot of big game hunting. She personally hunted and killed 27 tigers! Damn.
If you’re curious, here’s a link to her wikipedia article, and here’s the great obituary that ran in the Economist. Apologies if I’m a little helter-skelter, it’s been a crazy couple of days. Oh, I have internet now. :)