Operation London bridge
Possibly the most (in)famous operation that had worldwide coverage this month. The queen is dead long live the king would’ve been the new catch phrase that people world wide would’ve started to adapt. Someone who was in the psyche of 3 generations as queen, whose face was plastered across multiple major world currencies, some one who (as a positional head) was revered across multiple countries, someone whose reign saw the demise of once a major empire, someone whose personal life saw so much of turmoil, that was gobbled up by public as tabloid news unlike any of her predecessors who didn’t have to live through the level of public scrutiny like her, someone who saw major deviations in Royal household be it on the people who made it to her inner circle by way of relations or her own blood relatives who had a fall out. In a nut shell, Queen Elizabeth’s reign and time would’ve been possibly the most drastic and different one ever in the life and times of British Monarchy. Risking a comparison, I would slot her along with Bahadur Shah Zafar the last Mughal king. But unlike the Mughal, her empire and country is not left floundering yet. Britain still happens to be the 6th largest economy. But monarchy wise, even though her son takes up the mantle right along, the impact and lingering effect that the queen had on the masses, sheerly by legacy of longevity, would be a struggle for the new incumbent, who has been one of the prime reasons of many a heartbreak for the late queen. I remember her as the face on Penny stamp, that was the first of many that I collected as a hobby. I despise the fact that, even after 7 decades, where the world has started becoming politically correct in fixing their past mistakes, she refused to pay heed to that sentiment and never publicly apologized for the harms done by her countrymen – not just in India but world over. There was another demise that hardly captured the news waves to the effect of the queen’s but that person too reigned over the biggest landscape in world history as a non-monarch, who goes by the name Gorbachev. If at all there was a figurehead for disruption, his would win the competition hands down. From lording over a region that had 11 time zones to dying an relatively unrecognised death, that man must’ve seen it all. The present guy who is presiding that once mighty nation is hell bent on reversing every single trend initiated by him and might soon push the world to witness the same scenarios and situations which happened exactly 100 years ago. Be it Gorbachev or the Queen, they have had their time in ruling over empires that were touted as never seeing the sun set or the day end. Be it operation London bridge or Moscow bridge for that matter, as a resident close to Napier bridge, it hardly matters to me like million other saga citizens who would’nt give a damn even if aliens come marching right on the highway.
Comments
Yeah, I have been witnessing the outpouring of emotion on the Queen's passing away. Her only claim to fame is longetivity - otherwise the Queen plays no role in the life of modern Britain. It is easy to be loved if you do nothing at all - it is far more difficult to be loved and respected, when you have to take difficult decisions, take responsibility for a nation, etc etc. The Queen has done nothing of that kind and frankly is irrelevant. In recent history, Maragaret Thatcher and Tony Blair have been infinitely more consequential to Britain. And yet both of them are reviled.
Gorbachev on the other hand did the difficult things. And when he passed away, few in his country mourned.
This is a reflection of where our society is. Shining exceptions were Gandhi and more recently, Mandela. The were hugely consequential. Alas, I feel their like will become rarer and rarer.