Boy from humble roots in Bihar to participate in King Charles coronation

Boy from humble roots in Bihar to participate in King Charles coronation



LONDON: A 16-year-old British Indian teenager whose family has humble roots in Bihar will hail King Charles and Queen Camilla in Latin at their coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Saturday.
Raaghav Das is one of 48 King’s Scholars at the private boarding Westminster School in London, next to Westminster Abbey where the coronation ceremony will take place.
When the King and Queen first enter the Abbey, and when the crown touches the monarch’s head, it is these scholars who, by tradition, acclaim them three times, shouting out loudly in chorus “Vivat Rex (Long Live the King)” and “Vivat Regina (Long Live the Queen)”. The scholars have made this distinctive contribution to the coronation of every monarch since their school was re-founded by Elizabeth I in 1560.
For Raaghav’s grandparents back in India, watching their grandson have a role at the coronation is like a fairytale come true. His paternal grandfather, Rajesh, set up one of the first electrical stores in Munger, Bihar. He left school at 13 and never took his matriculation exams as he lost his mother at a very young age and his father led an ascetic life. “To think his grandson will go to an event with the royal family there and have a role in it is beyond his imagination,” Raaghav’s father Saurabh, who lives in London, told TOI.
“Raaghav sees the contrast when he goes back home. He thinks it is extraordinary where we are right now compared to where I come from or where his grandfather is,” said Saurabh, who was born in India and went to Notre Dame Munger before coming to the UK in 1997 on a Chevening Scholarship to study at Oxford. “The first time I ever got on a plane was to come to Oxford. Now my son will be proclaiming the new King and Queen in Latin at the coronation,” he said. The entire family, including Raaghav’s maternal grandparents in Patna, will be glued to the TV.
Raaghav, who has been rehearsing all week, told TOI: “It is incredibly humbling to think of the opportunity that I now have, given the difficult journey that my parents and my grandparents have had to endure. I am also very glad to see such diversity in the coronation this time — I am proud of my rich Indian heritage and British culture, and I enjoy seeing how the coronation reflects changes that have occurred in the last 70 years.”
Raaghav will witness the entire spectacle of the King taking the oath, being anointed and being crowned, and then taking to the throne, watching alongside foreign heads of state, foreign royals and members of the UK royal family. Indian vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar is expected to be among them.
“He WhatsApped me earlier to say he had seen Prince William. He is quite used to seeing big names around as his school is attached to the Abbey,” Saurabh said.
Raaghav passed a tough exam called “The Challenge” to be awarded the King’s Scholarship (then called the Queen’s Scholarship), which got him a reduction in fees. His mother, Dr Shikta Das, a leading epidemiologist from Imperial College London, gave up her job in pharma to help him prepare for The Challenge. Apart from their role in the monarch’s coronation, King’s Scholars attend certain Abbey services, wear gowns and attend a weekly Compline (Latin prayers) by candlelight. Despite being a practising Hindu, Raaghav relishes all these traditions, Saurabh said. “He wanted to go to this school — one thing that made an impact on him was a bust of Gandhi in the library.” Even though the ceremony falls in the middle of his GCSEs, “the scholars know this is a role that has not happened for 70 years,” Saurabh said.





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