Patiala Peg for Amarinder

It's under the watchful gaze of an imperious Maharaja Amarinder Singh, perched high on the gigantic silvery arch, that you glide into his ki...

It8217;s under the watchful gaze of an imperious Maharaja Amarinder Singh, perched high on the gigantic silvery arch, that you glide into his kingdom. The steel contraption is a new addition as are the rosy Moghul fountains and the bronze polo player8212;a tribute to the first-ever Patiala Heritage Festival that began this Friday. But as first impressions go, this mishmash of styles is a good guide to the erstwhile princely state where tradition is married to modernity.

Barely an hour8217;s drive from Cobusier8217;s Chandigarh, the town charms you with its old-world grandeur. The good news is that it may only get better, thanks to its two new keepers. One dedicated to conserving its past and the other to modernising its future. No tug of war this, for the Patiala Urban Development Authority PDA is headed by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, while Patiala Heritage Society PHS, is the baby of his better-half Preneet Kaur. What8217;s more, Deputy Commissioner Tejbeer Singh is a member of both.

It8217;s this 8216;8216;high-level8217;8217; interest that explains the lick of paint and tar the city8217;s got over the past couple of months. But to a newcomer, it8217;s the antiquity that strikes the eye. You can sense it in the high-domed office of ADC Shivdular Dhillon, a self-confessed heritage fan, who dreams of taking a month8217;s leave to play the tour guide here. 8216;8216;There is so much history in this town,8217;8217; he gushes.

Yes, so much so that you can even trace the city to its smouldering roots. The lore has it that Baba Ala Singh, father of this kingdom, was scouting for a place to build his capital in 1763, when he came across a fakir, who gave him a dhuna eternal flame. The Baba installed it on a high ground and built the Quila Mubarak around it. The flame still burns bright.

The post-Independence years have not been kind to the fort. It would have almost got pulled down by the PWD in mid-90s had it not been for the intervention of late Amrik Chhina, an INTACH member, who got rescue orders from the High Court.

Capt R S Randhawa, a Punjab Civil Services officer led the restoration operation following the court ruling.

8216;I8217;ve nurtured this idea for long8217;

For Preneet Kaur, Member of Parliament from the city and the better-half of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, the scion of the Patiala dynasty, the 10-day heritage festival is a labour of love. 8216;8216;I8217;ve nurtured this idea for long,8217;8217; she says, remembering how in 8217;98, she had intitated a few steps in this direction but was cut short by the new Akali Government. Her mission: to put this city on the heritage map of the world. It8217;s to this end that she set up Patiala Heritage Society in December. 8216;8216;We8217;ve involved INTACH so that we don8217;t falter on matters technical,8217;8217; she dimples. Admitting that they are high on the can-do spirit but low on funds, she8217;s hopeful of the festival becoming an annual feature. They have also made a move towards restoration, and for this the Maharani plans to fall back on Sir Patrick Geddes, who8217;d drawn up a plan for the Walled City at the invitation of her grandfather-in-law Maharaja Bhupider Singh. 8216;8216;In fact, his grand-daughter came and stayed with us a few years ago,8217;8217; she smiles. The society is also approaching international institutions for aid. 8216;8216;Gurmeet Rai, has already made a presentation on the city before Smithsonian but it will take time to mature,8217;8217; she says. Till then, the city of the Patiala-peg fame will take heart in small measures.

The exercise, that was halted by the Akali Government, has been set in motion again. Gurmeet Rai, a well-known conservationist who documented part of the fort last October, calls it the finest examples of Sikh palace architecture.

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8216;8216;We8217;ve tried to showcase our monuments by using them as venues for our events,8217;8217; says the DC. So, the grounds of the resplendent Sheesh Mahal, a pleasure palace built by Raja Narinder Singh, are hosting the crafts fair, while the European-style Rajindra Kothi is home to an exhibition; the Old Moti Bagh Palace at NIS, a backdrop to a fashion fiesta, and the Quila the setting for a musical evening.

The legendary Baradari Gardens spread over 52 acres is also spruced up. So is the rest of Patiala, thanks to a recent order that8217;s made littering punishable with a prison sentence. Every building tells a tale: Mohindra College of a king who was so impressed with Bengalis that he got it affiliated to Calcutta university; the largest collection of medals in the world at Sheesh Mahal speaks volumes about a dynasty devoted to chivalry.

The city8217;s craft culture is woven into its bazaars. A paraandi bazaar vies for your attention with a jutiyaan-wala bazaar, a stone8217;s throw away from the Quila Mubarak, whose outer walls are home to phulkari and gota-sellers. It8217;s this Patiala that the heritage society, which8217;s got a corpus of Rs 1 crore, will try to revitalise. And for this, it8217;s taking a leaf from the plan prepared by Sir Patrick Geddes, the father of town planning in the world, who visited Patiala in 1934 at the invitation of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh.

Restoration, the PHS knows, is a costly affair. 8216;8216;The Quila alone needs around Rs 80 crore,8217;8217; says the DC. Which is why he is focussing on 8216;8216;doable8217;8217; things. These include a heritage hotel at the Quila, a royal garden at Baradari and a wildlife sactuary at Bir in the maharaja style. The futuristic plan for declaring Patiala a counter-magnet to Delhi is also in full swing with the government acquiring around 330 acres on the road to Sirhind. For many, this is akin to pulling in two opposite directions. But officials insist they will reconcile the contradictions. After all, where there is a maharaja, there is a will.