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Reclusive ‘royals’: Unravelling the mystery of Begum Wilayat Mahal

The monument was home to princess Sakina Raza, and prince Ali Raza (Cyrus), who was the last surviving member of the royal family of Awadh.

Published on: Feb 27, 2025, 10:21:51 IST

By Jasjeev Gandhiok

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One day, in 1975, the first-class waiting room of the New Delhi Railway Station became home to a woman, her three children, a posse of servants, a pack of dogs — and curious reporters, photographers and onlookers showed up with questions.

Authors Aletta André and Abhimanyu Kumar, based in The Netherlands, have attempted to decode the mystery with their book The House of Awadh. (Sanjeev Verma/ HT Photo)

RV Smith, the raconteur of Delhi, who died in 2020, had summed it up best, “I remember that in the late 1970s a strange sight greeted us at New Delhi Railway Station — a gaunt middle-aged woman standing at

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jasjeev Gandhiok

...Read MoreJasjeev Gandhiok is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times, where he covers environment, climate change, the clean energy transition and wildlife at the National Bureau. Gandhiok has over a decade of experience in journalism and is based in Delhi. He has reported extensively on Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). This includes the region's air pollution woes, a polluted Yamuna and on urban wildlife still thriving in the region. He joined HT in October 2021. Prior to that, he had five-year stint at The Times of India in Delhi, where he also covered Delhi, with a focus on environment and wildlife. Gandhiok has covered some recent events around the Capital too, ranging from the farmers' protests, the northeast Delhi riots and the CAA-NRC protests, reporting from the ground on all of these. He also travels across the country to report on how environment and climate change impact everyday life, while also writing on endangered species. His reports in 2019 on toxic leachate from Delhi's landfills led to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) taking suo motu cognisance and ultimately asking the state government to start bio-mining to flatten and remove all three landfills in the capital. He also closely tracks the implementation of government policies on climate, renewable energy and environmental protection. His focus remains on impactful, public-interest journalism which explains how environmental decisions affect people's everyday lives. Read Less

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