“When I say the king was a gentle soul, I totally mean it. He was the gentlest soul. Mind like a child’s . . .” Asan burst out laughing. Then he quickly pursed his lips and looked up at the awning in an effort to control himself, but he couldn’t. He burst out laughing again.

“Look at him laughing! What is making him laugh so hard? He can’t control himself!” said Joseph.

“Back in those days, there was another story about him. But I don’t know if that was true or not,” Asan said, laughing again.

“Well, if you tell us that story, we can join in the laughter too!”

This was, apparently, the go-to story for anyone who wanted to make a point about how guileless the king was. One day, Maharaja Pooram Tirunal went to watch a football match. The sport was new to the kingdom then. Less than ten minutes into the game, tears started streaming down the maharaja’s face. All the officials and guards around him panicked, wondering what had offended the king. But none of them had the courage to ask him directly. Eventually, the maharaja’s private secretary, Sthanunatha Iyer, approached the king and stood respectfully in front of him.

“Sthanu,” the king asked, shedding more tears, “has our kingdom fallen on such hard times? What is going on? Why are twelve grown men fighting over a single ball?”

Asan never told us whether the maharaja was reassured or if the football game continued, but I had the feeling that every player got his own ball that day. Gradually, after we’d all stopped laughing, Asan returned to the story about the maharaja, the tamarind pond, and the mysterious smell.

It was customary for the king to head twice a year to Kanyakumari for a dip in the ocean. It was an age when people possessed a tremendous loyalty toward the king, times when no one was certain whether the king was God incarnate or God was king in divine form. Once they knew that His Highness was making a visit, it was all anyone could talk about.

It took six months of preparation for each royal visit. And as soon as the king had left a place after a visit, preparations for the next visit would begin right away. Every year, all year round, preparations were always afoot for the king’s tours of victory. Roads would be mended. The king only took proper ceremonial baths, so new tanks were dug in every place he stayed, and all tanks, old and new, were filled with fresh water. On the day of the king’s visit, every schoolchild was given a special snack and every poor child was given new clothes.