The Kohinoor Diamond and The British Raj in India

 Not many people know this but in the 16th and 17th centuary, India was the richest country in the world.

Unfortunately, the wealth of the country attracted a lot of idiots, especially from Britian and France in the 18th centuary.

The Kohinoor Diamond was considered to be the richest, most precious jewel ever. Originally it weighed 186 carats. It belonged to various Indian rulers back then. Where is it now? On the Queen of Englands' head. It had been recut down to 108 carats as it was cut to fit on the Queen of Englands' crown.

It has been also known as "Samantik Mani" meaning Prince and Leader among diamonds and "Mountain Of Light" which was the Persian-Arabic name for it. It was said that "He who owns the diamond will own the world, but will also know it's misfortunes. Only God, or a woman can wear it with impunity." 

In the 16 and 1700s, Britian would trade with India for things like spices and tea. They eventually decided that they would take over after the government got involved. The British "invaded" India around the mid 1800s and India was a part of the British Empire by the early 1900s. Some saying that India was "the jewel in the crown" of the British Empire. In 1876, Queen Victoria was declared as the Empress of India. Prior to this, India was made up of small kingdoms and some might say that Britain "unified" India for commerial gain. But others would say that they caused wars between the smaller kingdoms (among them being Hindus, Muslims and Sheiks) so there wouldn't be a huge backlash against them. The latter is obviously the case as India was made independent in 1947. That was when India first requested the diamond back. They tried again 6 years later during the period of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the second. There was an argument that the diamond wasn't taken in war but was formally presented to the British. Yeah right.


How amazing would it be if The Queen suddenly woke up one day and this conversation happened:-

Queen:    I say Jeeves, one has awoken enlightened

Jeeves:    How so Your Majesty?

Queen:   That diamond on ones' crown-you know, the most precious one of them all.

Jeeves:    Ah Your majesty, I believe you are referring to The Kohinoor Diamond.

Queen:    That is the one. 

Jeeves:    What about it Your Majesty?

Queen:     I think maybe I should do the right thing and return it to where it belongs.

Jeeves:     Back to India? Bravo Your Majesty. Jolly good show.       

Queen:     Do prepare some cucumber sandwiches for the journey.            

Jeeves:     One has to admire this sudden burst of generosity.                         

Queen:     Nonsense Jeeves, one is only doing what one should have done a long time ago.

                                   

Jeeves:     Rather.         

Queen:     Get Coleman to ready the plane.                   

Jeeves:     Of course Your Majesty.

It's all well and good giving back the independence but isn't keeping the riches not just a sign of greed, but a sign of still showing that you still have the power?

Give the Kohinoor diamond back to India.

Inspiration.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. But I do believe that you have to have an open mind to be truly inspired.

I realised something the other day and that was that I haven't written a new song, a completed one with lyrics and melody in about a year and a half. The scary thought that firstly enters my mind is that this was about the same time that I started my old job. Is it coincidental or am I just looking a bit too much into this?

I know that being in the environment that you are in and also who you associate with can make you who you are. Your mood, perception and your whole personality can be affected by these. Is it also a coincidence that when I was in college or when i was working in a record shop and a gig venue, I would constantly be writing all the time? So being in a working environment where in the nicest possible way, most of the people are robots-what do you do? Can you be inspired by robots? I don't think so. But the problem is that no matter who I am around, I ALWAYS give people a chance to get to know them, to try and get to know the person they are inside. Unfortunately that is when you sometimes discover that there is no person inside. This can be quite frightening. Think about it, you think to yourself  "I wonder what they are outside of work?"

And then you discover they are nothing. It is kind of like looking at a totally empty canvass and having no paintbrushes available.

Now like I said, having an open mind is very important in life. But I've discovered in the past 18 months or so that even when people are empty, narrow minded, have no personality, no morals, are robotic and the only visible aspect of their character that you actually see is when they are kissing backsides and that is it. They will ALWAYS be like that. No matter what happens in life, that is all that they will ever be. There could be paintbrushes available-you could give them all the paint brushes in the world but they will always be the same. Sometimes narrow minded people will forever remain just that and it is a horrible thought. That some people are beyond saving and in some cases, don't even deserve to be saved.

A breath of fresh air, an open mind. It sounds so simple. But sometimes it can be so difficult to get.

But for me, not anymore.

Succeed or Fail

You always hear people when they see someone better off then they are say something along the lines of "He's so lucky, he has everything. A beautiful woman, a nice house and car, a great job. I wish I was him".

etc etc etc...

And going back to what I have previously stated before that you have to be some kind of a jerk and an idiot to get ahead in life, to get the things you want. You have to treat girls like shit to get them in the first place.

etc etc etc...

I wanted to state a point in relation to all that and that is that there are some people that no matter how talented and hardworking they are-they have some kind of self destruct thing inside them that stops them from succeeding in life. I think that there are people with just a load of self destruct buttons inside them that they maybe subconsciously press all the time and that they are always doomed to fail or worse. And if they do somehow succeed then it's something that they can't handle Whether they feel like they don't deserve it or it's something else, I don't know but just look at all the famous people who end up going half insane or even worse because of succeeding in whatever it is that they do. It might be because they can't handle the fame or it could be something more deeper than that.

When I was in school, one of the subjects I chose to do was Business Studies. Not that I cared for the actual subject, I only did it because I knew that in some lessons you got to go out during lesson time to do market research. When I left school, my Business Studies tutor Mr Wilson signed my leaving book and wrote "Don't let yourself down. You deserve to succeed".

Sometimes I think that I press self destruct buttons too. Sometimes, I don't believe that it's true and I will become a better person. I really don't honestly know what to believe at the minute but I might find out which way life is going to go in the next few months or so.