Born with a silver spoon in her mouth to the House of Mewar, Padmaja Kumari Parmar is glad to have been born to parents who have believed in working hard. To have the ‘princess’ tag only means added responsibility to live upto the name and respect that the Mewar dynasty rests upon her shoulders.
Brought up in the epicenter of hospitality, Mewar, the genre has been her second nature for eons. “Being a member of the House of Mewar has helped me enormously as a professional hotelier. I have always maintained that hospitality comes naturally to people from our background. We grew up with lots of people around us—there is protocol to be maintained and hierarchies to be understood and followed,” points out Padmaja. She still moved on to fine polish and globalize her knowledge and started her career in the hospitality industry with the Four Seasons Hotel in New York at age 23. She respects the training she received there even today. She has not looked back from there, and has only hopped levels to put all her skills into practice for HRH Group of Hotels while learning along.
There’s more on and from the pretty princess-turned-business tycoon in the article by Meghna Agarwal in the October issue of Corporate Tycoons. Please click here to jump on to the full version!
Maharana Pratap (1572-1597), the 54th custodian of the House of Mewar and son of Maharana Udai Singh, has been a Rajput ruler who is celebrated throughout the country for his courage and patriotism. Col. Tod, the famous British antiquarian, says, "There is not a pass in the Alpine Aravalli that is not sanctified by some deed of Maharana Pratap – some brilliant victory, or oftener, more glorious defeat."
As the first freedom fighter in the annals of India, he was the precursor and inspiration for Mahatma Gandhi himself. To the people at large, he is known forever as "the Light and Life of the Hindu Community." What is the mettle that made Maharana Pratap? Undoubtedly, it was his seamless courage, respect for his dynasty and the unshakable principle of never bowing down to the wrong or unjust. A famous poem on him rightly asks the readers, "Has anyone seen the Maharana bow his head before the balustrade in the Mughal court?"
Maharana Pratap’s principles never failed to flow down to his horse. Chetak, his favourite charger died in the battle, but not before saving his master's life. The horse is known to have jumped over a mountain stream when pursued by two Mughal chiefs. Chetak died soon after he had seen his master to safety.
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