When the lights of the beautiful Amba Vilas Palace were turned on, the ‘royal’ couple — Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar and Trishika Kumari — made their grand appearance before a 2,500-plus audience at the striking Durbar Hall here on Tuesday evening.
Members of royal families from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh; VVIPs, bureaucrats, foreign guests, close relatives and friends of the erstwhile Wadiyar royal family and politicians, were among those who sat in the hall and in the balconies.
The couple sat on the two-seater silver couch, and exchanged garlands, and a few in the audience greeted them, and the duo acknowledged them with a smile.
The guests also greeted Yaduveer’s mother Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, who was seated beside the portrait of the late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar. A few minutes later, the couple sprang a surprise as they made their way towards the guests, who were delighted to see them at such close quarters. “It was totally unexpected. We thought of going to the couple to greet them, but they came to us. It was the most cherishing moment for us,” a few invitees said. As some guests greeted the couple in Kannada — ‘Shubhashayagalu’ (congratulations), Yaduveer replied with a, “Thank you.”
The melodious tunes of the English band regaled the guests. Large digital screens helped others seated at a distance to watch the proceedings.
