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Humor / Satire
The Hari Putar Dialogues � 20
by
Rajesh Talwar
(The
Times of India, 27 August; LONDON: Almost 27 years after her marriage
with Prince Charles, a slice of Princess Diana's wedding cake goes under
the hammer and is expected to fetch up to 20,000 pounds. The Princess of
Wales gave a nine-inch square piece of the cake, along with a letter
signed by her and a bottle of beer, to Moyra Smith in 1981. Smith was
working as a cleaner for the Queen Mother at the time.)
Putar:
According to a report carried in the Times of India today, a slice of
Princess Diana�s wedding cake went under the hammer at an auction and is
expected to fetch up to 20,000 pounds.
Hari: I�ve read that story, putar. I understand that the piece of
cake had been kept wrapped in metal tin foil for almost 27 years. The
slice has remained in the loft of the cleaner�s London home ever since.
Putar: According to the newspaper report the cleaning lady died last
month, aged 78, and it was her dying wish for it to be sold.
Hari: Don�t you think it was very strange for the cleaner to have kept
that piece of cake all these years instead of eating it up on the
wedding occasion?
PutarI: I don�t think so. Apparently in 1998, a year after Diana's death
in a car crash in Paris, a similar slice was sold for 17,000 pounds.
Hari: So apart from the cleaner there were other people who have also
kept a piece of cake?
Putar: Exactly.
Hari: In that case my question is why do people keep such things - as an
investment or for other reasons?
Putar: I guess it�s possible that some people may keep it as an
investment, but it�s very unlikely. You would have to be very farsighted
to think of that.
Hari: Makes sense though. If you eat it up that�s just a momentary
pleasure, but if you keep it, it can become a valuable property. You
could buy a thousand small cakes for this amount.
Putar: Yes, this cake has actually appreciated a thousand fold in value:
more than shares or property.
Hari: As a matter of fact, for twenty thousand pounds you could buy a
small flat somewhere in the countryside.
Putar: The thing is that you can�t know that it will have that kind of
value. Had Diana still been alive its doubtful that the cake could have
fetched such a price. People keep it for a sentimental reason, but later
events may give it a commercial value. I think that the cleaner Moyra
probably kept it for sentimental reasons.
Hari: Do you think she would have kept a piece of her own wedding cake?
Putar: Unlikely.
Hari: Shouldn�t she feel more sentimental about her own wedding and
about the wedding of her children?
Putar: Her wedding, and that of her children was not important in that
sense. She felt honored to have been given that piece of cake. People
often think their own lives are not so important.
Hari: But Princess Diana�s marriage was not even a happy one.
Putar: That�s not important. As a matter of fact had it been a happy
one, and had she still been alive the slice of cake would not have
fetched such a price.
Hari: Most cakes become soggy and moldy with time. They could even have
a foul smell.
Putar: I think perhaps after some time the smell goes away. It depends
on the cake. You can apparently keep some of them looking presentable
for years.
Hari: I wonder what condition the cake is in after all these years.
Putar: Apparently it�s in good condition. According to Diana memorabilia
specialist auctioneer Chris Albury, from Dominic Winter: "The decorative
sugar icing of the royal coat of arms on top of the cake is very skilled
and while there is some cracking and damage it is in remarkably good
condition."
Hari: What is the cleaner�s husband going to do with the money?
Putar: He will not use it for any personal benefit. The proceeds will go
to charity. The Daily Mail quoted Moyra�s husband as saying: �I heard
the last slice went for a fortune so that would be great for our
charity."
Hari: The Princess of Wales also sent a signed letter and a bottle of
beer. What about those things?
Putar: Not so important. The signed letter may have been a standard one,
and a beer bottle somehow doesn�t have that intimate connection with the
wedding. Don�t forget this was a designer cake, not just some cake you
can pick up from a bakery.
Hari: I remember the first time someone climbed Mount Everest, they
auctioned some chocolates returned by the mountaineers as �Everest
returned chocolates.�
Putar: That�s possible of course. Tell me something Papaji?
Hari: Bol, putar?
Putar: Do you remember Marie Antoinette, the beautiful Queen of France?
Hari: She was there at the time of the French Revolution, wasn�t she,
putar?
Putar: Exactly. Do you remember what her famous quotation concerning
cakes was?
Hari: I do, putar. Common people were starving and she said that,
well, if they don�t have bread to eat, let them eat cake.
Putar: But here the Princess was actually offering cake to a commoner.
Hari: That�s true.
Putar: And it was the commoner who decided not to eat the slice of cake.
Hari: I guess so.
Putar: The cleaner might have spoken aloud: I can eat cake, but I won�t.
I�ll keep it in memory of the fact that the Princess did offer me cake.
Hari: Well, possibly.
Putar: But people wouldn�t cite that remark, even had she made it.
Hari: Unlikely.
Putar: Is that because she is a commoner?
Hari: I don�t know, putar.
August 31, 2008
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