The duty of being the royal guardian of Udaipur, an Indian city renowned for its serene lakes and illustrious heritage, remains a top concern for Padmaja Kumari Parmar of Mewar.
Padmaja is currently based in Boston, thousands of miles from India, where she was raised in the middle of a distinguished family legacy. But, she still holds a piece of Rajasthan in her heart.
And it was this sense of obligation she had to her country that inspired her to start The Friends of Mewar foundation, a nonprofit that supports women's empowerment, education, and the preservation of cultural heritage in rural India.
A recent international show called "A Glorious Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur" at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, was made possible thanks in large part to Padmaja's charity. It includes a collection of works from the Maharana of Mewar Charity Foundation's collection in the City Palace Museum in Udaipur.
Padmaja, who also holds the position of Executive Director-Business Development for the HRH Hotel Group, one of the biggest hotel chains in India, discusses running a charity and providing the rural women of Udaipur with jobs and medicine.
Padmaja says of her family's roughly 1400-year tenure as custodians of Mewar, now more often known as Udaipur in Rajasthan, India, that it was their early inspiration for them to engage in charitable work.
Titles of the royals were abolished as their states were amalgamated into the Union of India in 1947, when India was an independent, democratic country free from British rule, she recalls.
The idea of custodianship was created as a result of our dedication to our community, claims Padmaja. "A custodianship is a kind of unwritten contract, a promise that my family makes with each new generation to preserve the heritage that we have been entrusted with maintaining."
Although there is no formal constitution, it continues to exist because we are fully conscious of our responsibility to protect this tradition, the woman claims. The Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation (MMCF) was founded in 1969 by my grandfather, Maharana Bhagwat Singh Mewar.
"I came to the US as an undergrad at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana," Padmaja says of moving there. I spent a few years living and working in New York for The Four Seasons.
Nevertheless, life had other plans in store for Padmaja just when she believed it was time for her to go back to India. She came to Boston after getting married in 2011 and has been residing there ever since, together with her husband and daughter.
She explains, "There are so many driving forces that motivated me to form Friends of Mewar," while speaking of the organisation.
According to Padmaja, she wished to show the world just how much the small area had to offer. The charity's goals include safeguarding cultural heritage, facilitating access to preventive healthcare, and advancing women's emancipation and education.
According to her, offering educational opportunities, preventive healthcare, and making efforts to maintain and preserve the rich culture that has long been a proud component of our Mewar history are the most efficient strategies to raise the quality of life in the underserved segments of society. "Our goal is to unite the community in support of initiatives and programmes that deal with these issues."
Through her NGO, Padmaja has been sponsoring and developing new childcare centres in tribal, high migratory villages in Rajasthan to promote childcare and nutrition.
In collaboration with their longtime collaborators Alakh Nayan Mandir, they have also been conducting eye care initiatives in villages for those in need, such as cataract surgeries and the distribution of free glasses.
In order to overcome gaps and build an online curriculum to instruct mental health professionals in the creation of psychological therapies, the foundation has also been sponsoring the Global Mental Health programme of Harvard Medical School.
