From India, childhood memories of royal grace that reached around the world

My connection with Thailand began as a 12-year-old growing up in India. In 1956, my school in Nainital, Uttar Pradesh, was inundated with an influx of Thai students. In those days St Mary’s Convent was located in one of the most scenic spots in North India, with rowboats and sails gliding across the emerald-coloured lake and cycle rickshaws plying the streets. The more adventurous could hire a horse to gallop around the lake for the princely sum of three rupees (about Bt1.5).
Thai girls and boys were sent to boarding schools in India mainly in order to learn English. At our school the culture shock of wearing school uniforms, eating together with 200 other girls and weekly walks, always shepherded by nuns, must have been fairly severe for them, especially in the first few months. The Thai girls in my class became my dearest friends. Somkid Sangchai remained my friend even after we left school. 
We corresponded regularly and met up in Bangkok twice, in 1987 and a year later. 
But I was closest to Suree Chadweosri, whose grace and beauty shone and marked her out. She taught me how to jive, waltz and do the foxtrot – no dancing allowed with boys then, even if they were from the neighbouring school. She married Sukrit Gajaseni, who was in the Thai foreign service. 
Suree and I met again in Bangkok in 2008. By this time Sukrit was no more, taken by cancer. The family urged me to join the merit-making ceremony for Suree in a temple on the outskirts of Bangkok.
Kinkao and Vandi Ananda were my other two Thai friends in my class. In a letter home to my parents in 1958, I talk about the Ananda sisters and their accounts of politics then in Thailand. Their Majesties King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit feature large in that letter. 
My Thai friends talked at length about their King and Queen and showed me pictures of the royal couple. Perhaps my love of jazz – especially Dixieland and the big bands – was inspired by  HM Rama IX. Pictures of Queen Sirikit revealed a beautiful woman, whose style and elegance my friends and I tried to emulate. I don’t know why but the passing away of King Bhumibol last year affected me in a strange way. It was as if someone very close to me had been taken from me. If I could, I would dearly love to be a part of his funeral ceremony and merit-making. I understand that all of Thailand will be present in the capital, in person or in spirit, to bid farewell to their cherished King. It is the end of an era, and I really wish that I could be there to be a part of this slice of history.
Instead I can only extend my deepest condolences to the people of Thailand for their loss. 
Aruna Reena Singh
New Delhi