Common Person's elevation to Royalty

From the middle of the twentieth century, our country has become a democratic republic. So the selection of the rulers is in the voters' hands & a moiety of the royal ruling privilege has devolved into the citizens. Here, how other royal privileges of earlier times have percolated to the commoners are listed.

Firstly, the most essential item, Food. Earlier rare & diverse dishes were prepared only in palaces or houses of the wealthy by specialist chefs. Eating those was a pipe dream for the hoi polloi. Now the common man can savour those dishes at least once in the restaurants even in small towns.

Regarding clothing, silks & woollens favoured by the rich, are inferior to the current synthetic fibres both in appearance,  durability & affordability. How can the earlier clothing, which would wrinkle after a single use, compete with the "drip-dry" wrinkle proof synthetics? The commoner now may well be better dressed than the earlier royalty. Costume jewellery has made even the indigent girls vie with the earlier princesses!

Many huts have been replaced by pucca houses. Public taps, bore-wells & electricity have brought cleanliness & light to everyone. Even slums now, with their electric lights, are better lit than the torch lit palaces of yesteryears.

Education & Culture are within everyone's reach. Especially Philosophy & Scriptural knowledge, once the domain of the few, are now thrown open. Classical music, once reserved for the ears of the royals & the rich, can be heard universally. Classical dance & Art meant for royal eyes, can now be feasted upon even by plebeian eyes.

From this viewpoint, the common man of the 21st century has the opportunity to lead a better life than even the erstwhile royalty.

Largest Music Industries in the World

The four largest music Industries are in USA, Japan, Germany & UK, with the others lagging far behind. It is noteworthy that the two most populous countries China & India are nowhere in the list.

It is also a vicious (virtuous?) circle that where people buy more hi-fi, they also buy more LPs or CDs to play on them. This is because a true music lover will not be satisfied with the quality of music available free on-line. Also by buying records, one repays at least partly the musicians who make the music in the first place, which is good ethics.

At least as far as music is concerned, "The Best things in Life are free" quote (attributed to the Couturiere Coco Chanel) does not hold good!

Feline Characters in Ngaio Marsh's Fiction

Ngaio Marsh, the Kiwi/British writer of Detective Fiction, was indubitably a lover of cats. She introduced many of them into her novels as crucial characters.

Probably the most famous of them is Lucy Lockett in "Black as he is painted". She is picked up after being injured in an accident by Samuel Whipplestone. She helps in solving the crime by literally depositing the clue at his feet!

Then, Thomasina in "Scales of Justice" plays an obviously important part as the "Scales" in the title refer to both "Justice" & "Scales of a fish" (which latter are the crucial clues) & Thomasina is fond of consuming fish.

Slyboots & Smartypants in "Tied up in Tinsel" are the pets of the cook, appropriately nicknamed "Kittiwee", who frighten the aspiring Chatelaine, Cressida Tottenham, by hiding in her bed. Cressida, however, proves to be the murderess at the end.