please tell us about your early life in rajasthan and the place you hail from devgarhi spent my childhood at devgarh or deogarh in rajsamand district of rajasthan though i attended st marys school in ajmer and did graduation in english literature from sophia college devgarh is famous for rajasthani miniature paintings which has mughal influence as well bagta and chokha were masterpainters from the place the colourful paintings that project minute details and designs were done in organic colours and by grinding coloured gemstones some notable points about your ancestral familyour family history dates back to 1382 when maharana lakha of mewar founded the dynasty the ninth generation ruler of this family was maharana pratap singh a notable incident that took place in one of our residences in udaipur was signing of certain pacts between the marathas and the mughals in the 17th century at the lake palace in udaipur which is now converted into a hotel my father mandhata singh was a ministerplease mention some notable contributions of the maharajas of jeyporeat 24 i was married to shakti vikram deo of jeypore estate in odisha and came to jeypore in 1987 the roots of the deos can be traced to rajasthan as the rajputs had expanded their territories in the eastern and northern parts of india in the mughal era right from jammu in the north to kalinga modern odisha region in eastern india founded by sri vinayaka deo in the mid15th century the family has major contribution towards making visakhapatnam a cultural and educational hub in preindependent india most of the agency areas including coffee plantations of visakha district were part of the jeypore estate the dynasty later donated the krishna mutt panduranga temple site of the municipal stadium and artefacts and curios to visakha heritage museumwhats the historical significance of vizags heritage building hawa mahal owned by youthe building on beach road was constructed between 1917 and 1923 on a threeacre area it was the jeypore maharajas summer palace and transit home in those days the boundary wall extended much beyond with marble staircases leading up to the sea later the government took up roadlaying works and reduced the boundary wall under the rent control act the government took it away it was then converted into nurses training school and later the first allwomens college started in south india in this building in 1971 it continued till 1993 then the rent control act was scrapped and we got the building vacated under a court order in the 1990s the building housed a horse riding club later real estate sharks supported by political parties started eyeing the building and some encroachments also took place how did the landmark building of hawa mahal contribute to the promotion of art and culturetoday we use it for cultural programmes for schools and colleges such as quiz and poster making competitions book releases have been held art camps are conducted to provide a platform to talented artists to showcase their