 I request Jyoti Kamalji to welcome our panelists for the next session, Alia Sultana Bhabhi, Dinosaur Princess from Dujral, but as she is known as Doctor Dinosaur and Malika Singh Dunlur from Baisa's Adventures. Princess Alia Sultana Bhabhi, the Dinosaur Princess is the daughter of the late Nawab of Balasinore, who has been advocating for the protection and preservation of the rare dinosaur fossil site in Raioli near Balasinore. Converting her family home, the Royal Palace in a heritage homestay, she has been successful in bringing recognition for the site. And daughter of the Royal Rajput family, Malika Singh leads Marwadi horse safaris in the Shekhawati region in Rajasthan. The indigenous Marwadi horse was revived by her father in 1985 by starting the horse safaris and she took it a step ahead by founding Baisa's Adventures. Let us begin with the session. Over to you Jyoti Kamalji. Thank you Ashi. Thank you so much. Alia starting with you. An unknown fact or maybe some people know it. Parveen Bhabhi is from your dynasty, the famous actor. And your dynasty of course comes from Afghanistan and then kind of the Bhabhi's settled down in this area of northwestern India and kind of made their strongholds there. How did you kind of really go from being somebody associated closely with royalty to actually making sure that dinosaurs in India get preserved? Because in Balasinore that area that you come from, Raioli, that village, there is this anecdote that is often recounted that you were kind of passing by and there were these flavorsome aromas coming from a hut there and you kind of go in and there is this one lady who is known for her cooking, who is cooking something really yummy out there and then you look at a mortar and pestle that she is using to kind of grind the spices and then when you look at the pestle you see that it is an odd shape, it is like oval and it has dots on it and then you suddenly realize that it is probably a dinosaur egg and you wanted that but they would not want to part with it till the time that you had to exchange a royal utensil with them and then they gave you that egg in return and that's how you kind of got that dinosaur fossil with you. And this is the Rajasaurus Narmadensis that kind of is in that area. How did you kind of traverse this journey of being a princess to actually making sure that dinosaur fossils are preserved in the Balasinore area of Gujarat where you come from? First and foremost, good evening, Namaskar. Thank you, News 18 for having me here. Our pleasure. Yes, I come from Balasinore which is one of its kind dinosaur region and it is considered to be the world's third largest hatchery. So we are in the top three which for us Indians it's a very proud moment and how I came about in it is also I was pushed into it by one of my media friends that you must do something for the preservation of these fossils because India has a lot to offer but we Indians are not aware and this is what I wanted every Indian to know what all India has to offer and today after a long and arduous struggle of more than 27 years we have a fantastic museum solely for dinosaurs in a tiny little village of Rayoli which was not even on the world map and when we have tourists visiting our place you ask any child what's your favorite dinosaur they say T-Rex because they have been exposed to the world of T-Rex through the movies the Hollywood movies but do any one of us know that there are Indian dinosaurs with Indian names I'm sure none of you know that but there are more than 30 dinosaurs from India one is named after the Vindranath Tagore one is named after the Kota formation of rocks and the tiny little of tiny little village of Rayoli also has a dinosaur named after it called Rayoli Sores Gujaratensis so it has Rayoli as well as Gujarat in it and the king of all the dinosaurs in India is the Rajasaurus Narmadensis which had a horn on its head which looked like a crown so it's just a wee bit of an effort that I made to popularize the dinosaurs in India because I felt yes today's generation needs to know about it and I wanted to create something called Dino Tourism you know you have temple tourism you have beach tourism you have wildlife tourism and especially after these movies I created something called Dino Tourism and today the Dinosaur Museum is visited by thousands of people from all over the world and I'm very proud of what I have managed to achieve for the tiny little village and more I'm proud because I through the Gujarat Tourism we have managed to give employment to the local people so that I feel is my biggest achievement and when you come back to the egg the interesting story yes I found this egg with a village woman and she was using it to grind her masala little did she know that in reality it was a dinosaur egg because even today when you go to the rural areas you don't find mixes and grinders in most of the homes they use a mortar and a pestle Silvatta and this egg particular egg was covered with chilies so I very lovingly give it a name Masalanda which is in my possession and Smithsonian did a fantastic story on the fossils that I have the fossil site and about my family so also Rajasaurus a big dinosaur because I've seen images of it it looked like a Tyrannosaurus but a smaller version of it we call it the Indian cousin of the T-Rex it had a horn on its head which was the most distinguishing feature it was approximately 30 feet in length and weighed approximately 4,000 kilos but the recent research says that it had a more ferocious grip much more than the T-Rex so it was an ambush predator so yes when the tourists visit to the museum and they do a tour with me I definitely managed to change the mindset of the children and instead of loving the T-Rex they start loving the Rajasaurus great and in fact the name itself is the royalty of dinosaurs Rajasaurus probably because of the crown that it had for two reasons first and foremost because it came I had a horn on its head which looked like a crown and secondly possibly I'm not to sure about that but I would like to say because it came from the princely state of Balasinor and that is why mighty king of the Narmada but scientifically speaking every naming of a prehistoric creature has a significance the region it was found or who founded it right I'll come back to you for another bit of kind of dinosaur trivia that's there in that region which is a snake that was also found which used to kind of eat up dinosaur eggs and like that was a non-dinosaur snake predator predator of dinosaurs some Indicus I forget its name but I'll come back to you for that going to Malika Malika the most yes good evening and thank you so much for I mean a very different outfit in terms of what you do in terms of preserving the Marwari war horse the most famous of them all of course is Chetak when we kind of talk about a war horse in India it was Chetak Maharaja Pratap's Marana Pratap's war horse and eventually they kind of started losing their kind of value in folklore and journal presence till the time that your father really decided that the war horses had to be kind of preserved and that's when the tourism started that's when the safari started what kind of a war horse was the Marwari or is the Marwari war horse okay so Kamagani to everyone and thank you for having me here so the Marwari horse is I'm not too loud right because my voice is already husky okay so the Marwari horses are very well known as war horses but as you said after the Britishers invaded and you know a certain time they were sort of getting lesser known and they guess they are very much read by our children and by all of us when we were in school in the history but people started knowing more about Polo and the Tharobreds and at some point you know the Marwari horses were not known and I would say even now the journey carries on in 1985 my father decided to revive the breed it was actually just out of his passion he bought a batch of 25 horses which was in Jaipur it was in our ancestral home known as Dunlod house and those days you know there was some information about it in South Africa that safaris like this take place so he thought that why not take this forward so we started doing horse safaris which was a way for equestrians from all over the world to come in experience India mounted on the horse and of course it it was something which you know began as his own passion to revive the breed and then we realized that people from all over the world really appreciated it they want you to know about the unique war horse and so and so for the you know there were times when we used to be like we used to my father used to be six months on a horse like from all the way to October to March and then we have off season now coming back to me looking at this since I was 13 I guess I would say it also came genetically and when you are around you know a family where someone is so involved in horses it automatically becomes you know a part of your life so yes yeah but when you look at these four horses now they are in this safari that you run and it's an amazing experience that you offer in that whole shekha with the region of Rajasthan and people come they do not know riding and then they have to figure out how to ride this horse and then but after they figure it out it's a magical experience of actually going out for two-day safaris on horseback how did how did you kind of really make all of this work and are people afraid of kind of learning to ride a horse for the first time these are war horses I mean in one's imagination they come across as kind of war horses really so I mean how how did you kind of blend the two this whole safari thing people not knowing how to ride horses getting them to really mount the horses getting them to form a bond with the horses and then actually taking them out there how does this whole process work like if suppose one amongst us who doesn't know horse riding turned up for you safari how would it work will we get to ride the horses yes yes so there are two things to your question so I'll have to answer it separately firstly when we heard about the Marwari horse like we know it's a war horse but there are many more features about it it's extremely sensitive it's extremely loyal and it's very spirited a lot of times people imagine that you know this horse is something which they may not be able to ride so there are two kinds of things when we are talking about long equestrian rides it has to be equestrians which are experienced we will never let anyone mount a horse who does not know riding and that to somebody who we have different levels it has to be intermediate or in advance because you're going ahead you know on you're literally like seven days on a horseback you're finishing 25 to 30 kilometers so that is one part of the business now the second thing is Baisa's adventures happened in 2019 because I myself been on horse safaris with my father and I wanted to open the world of Marwari horses to everyone it was my wish that you know everyone should experience what we feel and I created this experience called bonding with horses it's something which has really come about well it's about it is all about getting to know the horse in India everybody is very spoiled people come here and they go to a stable and they just mount a horse and go so this is not only for non-equestrians it's for equestrians also how are you going to spend the next six days with the horse they need to get to know you and you need to get to know them so because of that this idea came to me that why don't we create this for people who don't know how to ride so we created an experience where they could come and brush the horse get to know how to put a saddle you know simple stuff a lot of touches involved and everybody who likes animals will love this experience because you're getting also it's very therapeutic it's extremely interesting to be around an animal people do feel that it's a bigger animal so they tend to you know sort of have different ways of dealing with it I just let it go on and carry it on as the comfort of the person who's right there there is no time limit to it there are people who end up wanting to be with the horse for a way longer time there are people who end up saying that look we would just like to watch you know the person next to us could go ahead so you get a basic lesson of how to put a saddle we get you to mount the horse and a basic lesson on the posture and the little start of how it is to go riding I've had people who've come back to me and said that we want to join a club we are going to get to ride now and eventually when we sort of get somewhere we may want to come back to you so this is just a small way to sort of get them to experience how it feels to be with you know Marwari horse and not anything to do with knowing how to ride so that's it thank you so much it's so amazing that people like you and Alia who have been associated with royalty and absolute high ends of luxury and everything really kind of make sure that those communities where you kind of have your ancestral places where you have your family homes people around are also a part of your initiatives now they become an absolute part of that ecosystem that people like you who have taken the initiative have created you're offering an experience to people and along with it you're offering a livelihood to people who are kind of in that area so Ali in fact you've started your own line also called Alia so which is got a lot of these people from that area feeding into it so how did you kind of decide that okay this is how I'm going to make it all work together so that it becomes a viable business model for everyone and thereafter you can really focus on what you want to do which is taking care of the dinosaur fossils because a lot of that area still gets vandalized despite the fact that it has such a rich presence of fossils there they're all over literally like like you were talking about Smithsonian in Smithsonian again there was this description that you actually stand up on a slightly raised hill and then you kind of describe and ask what do you see there so people say that we just see some rocks bushes and stuff and then you say no that's the head of the dinosaur that's the body of the dinosaur that's where the tail starts and goes whatever fragments are available there so similarly there are dinosaurs all over the place and fossils everywhere so do you find it a challenge in terms of how these fossil parks are not really that well cared for there are these fossils that are there you have kind of filled that gap there in that ecosystem that I was talking about that whole business ecosystem which can help sustain and support all of this as I said earlier I created something called dino tourism so actually my parents were the pioneers who started the heritage homestay which is called the garden palace heritage homestay in Balasenor so we started with just one renovated room and at that time I think Gujarat was not even on the tourist map seeing to our neighboring state of Rajasthan where it was like every tourist wants to go to Rajasthan but no one wanted to come to Gujarat so when we started our place as a heritage hotel what do you offer the tourists of course Gujarat is very rich in terms of arts and crafts and all but that is more or less in catch and the other areas so when it came to Balasenor what were we going to offer the tourists the dinosaur site was discovered in 1980s but as I said not much was done about it and the second famous thing of Balasenor is the cuisine which my mother tried to revive and this is not Mughalai cuisine we call it the signature Balasenori cuisine so my mother was teaching the cooks teaching the chefs the recipes which she had inherited from her families or from the other families whether they were our own families or the other royalties and she in her own way through hosting food festivals across India in five star hotels be it the Ditaaj or the you know the Grand Maratha and all she was showcasing the cuisine of Balasenor to the world and these were all age-old recipes and the same kind of food we are serving our guest at the Garden Palace Heritage Hotel of course now my mother has retired and this the she's passed the baton on to my brother and my sister-in-law and in this way when you try to revive the cuisine you are also giving employment to the locals be it the chefs be it the waiters the head you know the room boys or you get the local musicians so we also played host to Maraja's Express which is a super luxury train and it came to Balasenor for nearly eight years and I think Balasenor was the only destination in Gujarat and we were giving them a traditional welcome so how were the locals benefited they were the Shenai Valas they were the Dolis so they were getting employment we had the dancers we had the Siddhi Dhamal dancers who were performing for them and this is how even this is what is happening today also for any tourist who wants to have this kind of an experience you want to learn cooking as Siddharth Daspa said we also do that you want to learn a traditional cuisine we will do that for you so this way we are trying to revive our heritage and maintain it for the future generation. India is such an amazing country the idea of getting you all to kind of join us for events like this is to kind of actually showcase what all is happening in India you as a dynasty come from Afghanistan and you come to Gujarat and then you just mentioned the Siddhi dancers the Siddhi dancers were slaves who were brought in by the Portuguese from Africa and now they have also by the Nawabs of Junagara yes absolutely they have also become such an integral part of society these Africans and royalty from Afghanistan and then the Maharaja Express coming in and people so much is going on in India Malika another quick question for you before we wrap up Marwari war horses you are kind of using them or you are kind of really being able to take care of them because they have become a part of the safari tourism circuit there then you have other race horses which are also bred for racing so there are the breeders there are the racers and then there are the safaris so do you see horse numbers in India rising do you see the horse having a good future that will kind of gallop into or do you see horses numbers going down in India in Punjab you specifically have the Nihang who really take care of the horses and they kind of make sure that horses in Punjab are kept alive but are you seeing numbers increasing dwindling what's happening to horses in India so I very much see that the numbers are increasing I mean I wouldn't have been like to put it like that because there's a whole world out there for Marwari horses today and we are proud to say that it's because of the hard work of many of our elders who have been passionate about the Marwari horses and that is the reason we are here today it's completely different when we talk about races when we talk about sports when we talk about polo and we talk about safaris each one has its own importance and all I could throw light on is that Marwari horses are extremely well known for tent pegging it's one of the sports we take part in we are very well known also for the endurance in fact my first endurance was a 40 kilometer it was with my father we were in a group of four and I got my first gold medal in endurance nationals and I would say it's not because of my hard work I would say it was 20% mine and 80% my horse so there is a whole world out there where the horses are taking us I would like to personally say that in fact my uncle Colonel Sal Pratap he's here in the you know in the people here and he has a stable called the stables and he is really fiercely you know taking jumping also for the Marwari horses and that is something which I'm interested in also I'm also interested in dressage for the Marwari horses so there is nothing which is not possible for the horse is just that they are differently trained so you cannot have a safari horse which will also do a jumping but that's about it the journey from here I would say it's just only begun thank you so much in fact you spoke about endurance a little known fact that an animal that can outrun horses in endurance in long distance is the human being so humans can actually run outrun horses on a continuous stretch so that's like a little known fact but thank you so much Malika thank you so much Alia for being a part of this evening and joining us here thank you so much thank you so much Alia thank you Malika thank you Jyoti Kamaldi please stay on the stage I'll now request news that in India editor to felicitate our panellists Alia Sultana Babi doctor dinosaur and Malika Singh don't load from Baisa's adventures thank you Alia thank you Malika I'll now request Jyoti Kamaldi to please stay on the stage