Crowds throng house for darshan

new delhi: well into her 60s, banwari devi can barely comprehend the talk of the sunday curse doing the rounds in congress circles. for her, destiny has taken away the maharaja. unable to hold herself back after she heard news of madhavrao scindia's plane crash, she decided to make an overnight bus journey from shivpuri village with her son to 27 safdarjung road to pay her last respects.sitting quietly in the lawns, she wiped the lenses of her oversized spectacles with the pallu of her white and green cotton sari, and remembered the maharaja's generosity that got her son a job in gwalior. ''i had made a request to the maharaja when he came to shivpuri two years ago. he asked my son to meet him in gwalior and that is how my son got a job. maharaja was our god,'' she said. the lawns of scindia's residence were spilling over with people waiting to pay their last respects to the gentle and generous royal who infused enthusiasm among the people, especially the youth. carrying wreaths and flowers, people started arriving early in the morning and waited anxiously for scindia's body to arrive. after clearing the security check, they lined up outside the entrance. they carefully avoided the flowerbeds to find an alternate way to the room where the body was kept. outside, the delhi police cordoned off the road and only visitors to the scindia residence were allowed in. slogans rent the air when scindia's body arrived around noon. the coffin was placed in a room adjoining scindia's office. after about half an hour for the family, the darshan was opened for the public. shlokas from the gita floated in the background as madhavrao's son jyotiraditya, daughter chitrangada, and sisters yashodhara raje and vasundhara raje accepted condolences. vasundhara raje arrived around 3 pm from london. according to family sources, madhavrao's elder sister usha raje has reportedly taken the news hard and had not arrived in delhi yet. sonia gandhi, priyanka gandhi, karan singh, salman khursheed and his wife louise took turns to sit next to scindia's wife madhavi, who was said to be in shock. khursheed and his wife were among the the first persons to rush to the site of the crash. the body will be taken to the aicc headquarters at 24 akbar road, for an antim darshan on tuesday and flown to gwalior in the evening. the cremation will take place in gwalior on wednesday.