Author: Bilkees I Latif
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 247
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788129115454
Description
A young French girl, straight out of a finishing school in Switzerland, falls in love with a handsome Nawab from Hyderabad. She marries him and finds herself transported amidst the grandeur of the aristocratic Nizams. Surrounded by an alien culture, she is drawn to its sun-filled skies, the fragrance of jasmine and the spirituality of its people.
Yet, within the bustling life of the feudal Nawabs and their beautiful ladies, she finds herself isolated and lonely. To fulfill the yearnings of her spirit, she visits godmen and their ashrams and then gets involved in the cultural ethos of the rural and urban poor. Bikees Latif depicts the joys, disappointments and dreams of her mother who grew to identify herself with the spirituality and warmth of the Indian people.
Within the framework of the biography of her mother, the author brings alive the city of Hyderabad – a conglomerate of various cultures, religions and backgrounds forming a harmonious whole. The familial, social, cultural and political milieu of the pre-Independence Hyderabad, its Nizams, Nawabs, ladies, its poor and the changes brought by time – all form a part of The Fragrance of Forgotten Years.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Sunlight and Warmth
1. The Fragrance of Incense and Jasmine
2. The Story of Alys
3. Mulhouse and the First World War
4. Joy and Sorrow, Life and Death
5. Sadness is the Gap between Expectation and Reality
6. The Nizams
7. Nawab Imad-ul-Mulk Bahadur
8. ‘Tell Papa We Are Happy’
9. The Seventh Nizam
10. Integration
11. Sarojini Naidu
12. Some of the Elite
13. Miracles, Saints and Charlatans
14. Divine Love: The Pomegranate Flower
15. The Hydari Family
16. Living and Feeling
17. The Razakars
18. The Police Action
19. Police Action: A View from Hyderabad
20. Laik Ali’s Escape and Other Events
21. The Old Order Changeth
22. The Harijan Boy
23. Reviving a Beautiful Craft
24. The Beginning of the End
25. The Horizon Draws Near
26. The Words of the Author
Glossary
Bibliography and References