Cavils apart, this is an immersive novel, remarkable for the thoroughly Muslim world it creates
The Begum and the Dastan could have been titled ‘The Begum & Her Bluebeard’. Bluebeard has many wives Scheherazade, Jane Eyre, Rebecca and their stories are a disjointed, inverted version of the classic fairy tale: a hasty marriage, then a wooing, curiosity, secrets, and finally, a husband who’s revealed to be a monster. The Bluebeard in Tarana Husain Khan’s story is Nawab Shams Ali Khan, ruler of the princely state of Sherpur.
Like all the wives in the Bluebeard tales, the Nawab’s begum, Feroza, the beautiful blue-eyed daughter of Miya Jan Khan, a wealthy Rohilla Pathan, is an independent, curious soul. It is her curiosity that seals her doom.
Micro review: Desi Delicacies: Food Writing from Muslim South Asia
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A Magical Realism Journey Into the Old Feudal Nawabi Culture Weaving Two Eras
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SAMAA - Secret lives of Begums in the harems of princely India
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