'The House of Awadh' delves into Begum Wilayat Mahal's hidden world

With intrigue at the heart of it, The House of Awadh unravels the enigmatic life of Begum Wilayat Mahal and her family

THE HOUSE OF AWADH: A Hidden Tragedy

Authors: Aletta André & Abhimanyu Kumar

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 332 + xviii

Price: ₹599

  On March 28, 40 years ago, a curious family moved into Malcha Mahal. Believed to have been built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, the 19th sultan of Delhi, in the 1300s as a hunting lodge, it was by then a decrepit, decaying monument deep inside New Delhi’s Ridge Forest. The family — a woman who called herself Princess Wilayat Mahal, and her two children, a young woman named Princess Sakina and a young man who went by Prince Ali Raza — claimed to be