The Life I Lived
The newspapers illustrators depicted my husband as a fat man weighed down with jewels. I thought that painting him so was quite reasonable, as he had always been stout, since childhood and the poor thing had spent his whole life dieting…
The Maharajah of Kapurthala when hi was a child
Since everything is shared in co-existence, I caught His Highness’ fondness for precious stones, jewels and bits of jewellery so with time’s passing my jewellery collection began to flourish with beautiful and valuable pieces.
H.R.H. The Maharajah of Kapurthala, my husband.
I recall that on the ninth year I took a fancy to a crescent moon shaped emerald. The gem was part of the decorations that harnessed the head of the oldest elephant in the palace. I became infatuated by it, I thought it a pity such a beautiful gem be worn by an elephant, and I asked the Prince for it. Finally and after a lot of begging, he gave it to me. The crescent moon shaped emerald is my favourite jewel. I like it some much I have had several portraits done with it. No matter how many jewels I may receive, it will always be my favourite.
Posing with my favourite jewel.
My husband was eager to see the publishing of the book which I myself had written telling about the travels we made given that the Maharajah loved to see me writing my daily diary, answering my correspondence and noting anecdotes of our daily lives.
One of my diaries, from 1913.
So in 1915, His Highness handed my manuscript to an editorial in New York. The piece is called “Impressions de mes voyages aux Indes” and is written under my Indian name.
It is a precious and singular book.
My book Impressions de mes voyages aux Indes.
Meanwhile my sister Victoria had married Jorge Winans. However the American turned out to be a bad husband. He was a womaniser, libertine, and fond of drugs. In the summer of 1917 he abandoned her for a woman of perverse nature with whom he was having an affair with in their own house. The grief due to her husbands outrage, the War and the Spanish plague all finished with my poor sister who passed away in 1918. She was twenty nine years old and left behind her four children of which only two survived her: Guillermo and Victoria Ana María, who is my goddaughter and has always been by my side.
My goddaughter Victoria Winans Delgado.
As the saying goes - when it rains it pours and, life took a turn for the worse. I was very saddened over my sister and I fell ill. I suffered: “Complications of an interesting state with a massive blood deficiency” -as was diagnosed in the medical certificate- which was brought on as a result of an abortion, a complicated surgical intervention and a long recovery period away from Kapurthala.