The
ever popular Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain and her grandson Prince William and
Princess Kate
Queen
Elizabeth is undoubtedly the most popular queen in the world judging from the crowd
that queued up early in the morning on Thursday, 13 September 2012 to buy up all the stamps
that were all sold out within two hours of opening of post office in Gombak
where I went to buy the stamps. I
thought there will be no rush since Malaysia received her independence from the
British on August 31, 1957. But by the time I went, it was a
little too late.
I
did not expect Queen Elizabeth is still on the mind of even many younger Malaysians judging from the popularity
of the commemorative stamps sold, and the huge crowd that went to see her
grandson and his charming wife at KLCC the next morning. The crowd was so huge, that I hardly managed
to have a look at the royal couple.
The
only consolation was, I met and came face-to-face with Queen
Elizabeth herself in India half a century ago. This was how I met Queen
Elizabeth herself.
I
was in India then as a student in the early 1960’s, It happened Queen Elizabeth
made an official State visit to India sometime in January 1961.
I
was then invited to a reception in New Delhi by the British High Commission as
a Commonwealth student representative from Malaysia. I was the only Malaysian
student among the Commonwealth countries invited to meet the Queen. That was 51 years ago
The
Queen was a very charming and a very elegant 35 year old lady when I first saw
her. That was some 8 years after she was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom,
and Head of the Commonwealth.
I
too then was just a 22 year old student at the Muslim University of Aligrah. I
really do not know how the British High Commissioner in New Delhi managed to
get my address to send me a very nice white invitation card to meet the Queen
of England. I kept the card for many years after that.
It
was such a rare honour for me to meet the Queen of England. After she shook my
hands, I did not want to bathe or wash my hands for 3 days.
Little
did I realize that a few years later in 1964 I went to the University of London
to do my postgraduate at a college named after her - Queen Elizabeth College
(QEC) in Campden Hill Road, in Kensington, London W8. QEC
was historically part of King’s College (KC) London, and has now being taken
back by King’s College as part of the University of London.
But today half a century later, I could not even get to see Queen Elizabeth grandson Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his beautiful wife, Catherine Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge.
I
was there at the KLCC Park since 9:30 a.m. with a small crowd then. The crowd
swelled to such enormous magnitude by the time he royal couple arrived, that I
could only have a fleeting glimpse of them from their backs when they arrived
about an hour later, and when they left.
What
an irony, to be able to meet their grandmother Queen Elizabeth as a young
student, but now retired after having
gone through a much more matured life, I
don’t even get a chance to have a glimpse at the Queen’s grandson.
The nearest opportunity for me in recent years was to be invited
to the British High Commission Residence at Jalan Langgak Golf, in Kuala Lumpur on two separate occasions at an Alumni gathering of the
University of Reading where I also do my postgraduate degree, besides at the University
of London.
But there was no Princess
Catherine and her Prince Charming around, but just a tea reception to meet
Professor Gordon Marshall, the former Vice Chancellor before Sir Bell took over
as the current VC of the University of Reading, England.
Dr JB Lim
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