During Prime Minister Modi's visit to the UK in April 2018, Queen Elizabeth presented him with a crocheted cotton lace, which Mahatma Gandhi had presented to him on his wedding to Prince Philip in November 1947. Gandhiji himself spun its yarn on his spinning wheel. This 12 by 14 inch lace was taken by the then Governor General Mountbatten to London. Jai Hind was written on it. It was one of two and a half thousand gifts received by the royal couple. By then Gandhiji had given up all his wealth, yet he wanted to give a gift to the royal couple, so he spun yarn on the spinning wheel, from which the lace was made. The queen kept it forever

I scrolled my phone remembering this little story on September 8, when the news of Queen's death broke. I came across a tweet by Sanjoy Ghosh, in which he shared a story of how his grandfather BC Ghosh – the then Vice Chairman of the Tea Board of India – visited the Queen at the Raj Bhavan in Bengal. The Queen then came on a visit to India. 

This is one of the best stories about the Queen's generosity and will put a smile on your face when you hear it. Once the Queen was walking in the Gardens of Balmoral Castle. This is his holiday home in Scotland. He was accompanied by Washer Protection Officer Richard Griffin. Suddenly she saw two American hikers approaching her; the Queen said hello to her, but she did not recognize them. He asked where she lived. The Queen said, "I live in London, but here is my house on the other side of the hill." On this the tourist asked, do you come here often? When the Queen told the Americans that she had been coming here for the past 80 years, one of them asked, "Have you ever met Queen Elizabeth?" Queen was famous for her sense of humour. Pointing to the officer accompanying him, he said, I have never met him, but these gentlemen keep on meeting them often. Excited hikers turned to Richard and asked , Oh so you have met the Queen , what does she look like ? Before Richard could answer, he took out his camera and gave it to the Queen. He placed his hand on Richard's shoulders and asked the Queen to take a picture of him. Since a Protection Officer is trained for such situations, he immediately took the Queen's place and photographed the hikers with the Queen, without telling them who they were photographing. After they left, the Queen said, “When they show these pictures to their friends in America and someone tells them who I am, I want to be a fly on the wall there so that they can see the scene.”