Recently i picked up white mughal by william dalrymple, a book i'd wanted to read ever since it first released in march, 2002... however i am glad i waited some time cause at that age, the thickness of the book as well as some of its content would've totally turned me off... now that i am 20, i have the patiebnce to sit through some boring pages, to reach the more interesting ones...
The name of the book can be misleading. When i first read the introductory pages, i presumed it would deal with the lives of children born from white fathers and their mughal (princess) mothers... I was not completely wrong in my assumption... but it is more of a historical account and hence cannot deal with just a couple of people and their lives....
The basic story is of james achilles kirkpatrick and khair un nissa....and the story of their love, sacrifices and finally of their misfortune... James, was an officer of the east india company, posted as resident of hyderabad (through most of the story, although the beginning does show his rise to the position) and khair un nissa being a teenage girl of 14 born in a highly conservative shi'a muslim family.... Of course they fall in love and the middle few chapters deal with the hardships they had to face to get together...
Anyway, few good points about the book are:
1. it tells us a lot about our country's history and makes you appreciate it (and in my case makes me want to go to hyderabad and have that biryani that is mentioned in the very beginning).
2. it is not a "typical love story" and shows even the humanly and more selfish side of people (well this is a true story so...) , so those who appreciate realistic things will really love this book.
3. it shows how the british weren't exactly ruining the country...coz i used to believe that somehow all the britishers (of that era) were monstrous but by the looks of it...most of them were really nice and were actually more passionate about india that their homeland...
4. each part has been ended in such a way that you really don't wanna out the book down.
some (not so) bad points (about the book):
1. there are pages that go on and on about the food that was prepared on a certain day and although it shows how much work has been put into the book, do you really care???
2. oki, reality or not, i just don't get how this khair chick at the age of 14, gets pregnant and within a couple of years, gives birth to 2 healthy babies... that's like a rare case....
3. this james guy, all respect for his love, how many people destroy their whole life and everything else for a woman, who he's prolly never gonna get, and for whom, he'll have to change his religion? besides, if khair was so much in love, she would've never asked him to change his faith, she was basically trying to escape the other bad guy who she didn't wanna get stuck with.
Its a really great book, should be read by anyone who can sit through 500 pages, mostly interesting (with occasional irritating descriptions)... but definitely... i have great respect for the author, william dalrymple, who's put a lot of work into this book, it comes through in a really marvelous manner.
