The Jungle Prince of Delhi

[austingirl 2192]

This is a really great read. The story itself is interesting enough but the journalistic skill of the reporter brings it to the next level.

The Jungle Prince of Delhi

Quote

For 40 years, journalists chronicled the eccentric royal family of Oudh, deposed aristocrats who lived in a ruined palace in the Indian capital. It was a tragic, astonishing story. But was it true?

Quote

 

The story began with his mother. She appeared, on the platform of New Delhi’s train station in the early 1970s, seemingly from nowhere, announcing herself as Wilayat, Begum of Oudh.

Oudh (pronounced Uh-vud) was a kingdom that no longer existed. The British annexed it in 1856, a trauma from which its capital, Lucknow, never recovered. The core of the city is still made of Oudh’s vaulted shrines and palaces.

The begum declared that she would stay in the station until these properties had been restored to her. She settled in the V.I.P. waiting room, and unloaded a whole household there: carpets, potted palms, a silver tea set, Nepali servants in livery, glossy Great Danes. She also had two grown children, Prince Ali Raza and Princess Sakina, a son and a daughter who appeared to be in their 20s. They addressed her as “Your Highness.”

The begum was an arresting-looking woman, tall and broad-shouldered, with a face as craggy and immobile as an Easter Island statue. She wore a sari of dark, heavy silk and kept a pistol in its folds. She and her children settled on red plastic chairs, and waited. For years.

“Sitting, sitting like yogis,” recalled Father John, a Catholic charity worker who distributed food in the train station. The children were strangely submissive, he said, reluctant even to accept a banana without their mother’s permission.

“They were more obedient than the dogs,” he said. “They were absolutely under her control.”

The begum’s behavior was imperious and dramatic. She refused direct conversation, demanding that queries be written on embossed stationery, placed on a silver platter and carried to her by a servant, who read them aloud. If the station master gave her any trouble, she threatened to kill herself by drinking snake venom.

 

[Bama Chick 28596]

I read this a couple of weeks ago.

Super interesting and actually quite sad story.

I’m glad the journalist was able to be a friend of sorts to the “prince”.

What a tragic life .

[DoobieWah 1469]

Great read. Thx for posting it. 

 

[Doc Sam Beckett 5800]

Very interesting read

[52-80 19274]

Can you summarize it in a tweet?

[orange dream 1256]

2 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Can you summarize it in a tweet?

Bitches be crazy!!

[Doc Sam Beckett 5800]

10 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Can you summarize it in a tweet?

Read it. It's well written and a good yarn

[52-80 19274]

14 hours ago, orange dream said:

Bitches be crazy!!

#preach

[52-80 19274]

Just realized I was staying literally down the street from that palace.  Friend lives there but had never heard of the lore until now.  You can see a bunch of the documents and paintings mentioned, on Google maps