Jungle Prince The New York Times
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- Documentary
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For 40 years, journalists chronicled the eccentric royal family of Oudh, deposed aristocrats who lived in a ruined palace in the Indian capital. It was a tragic, astonishing story. But was it true?
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Chapter 3: A House in Yorkshire
In a ruined palace in the woods, rummaging through discarded papers, our reporter finds a clue.
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Chapter 2: The Hunting Lodge
“Ellen, have you been trying to get in touch with the royal family of Oudh?” Our reporter receives an invitation to the forest.
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Chapter 1: The Railway Station
The story passed for years from tea sellers to rickshaw drivers to shopkeepers in Old Delhi. In a forest, they said, in a palace cut off from the city, lived a prince, a princess and a queen, said to be the last of a Shiite Muslim royal line. Some said the family had been there since the British had annexed their kingdom. Others said they were supernatural beings.
It was a stunning and tragic story. But was it real? On a spring afternoon, while on assignment in India, Ellen Barry got a phone call that sent her looking for the truth.
In Chapter 1, we hear of a woman who appeared on the platform of the New Delhi railway station with her two adult children, declaring they were the descendants of the royal family of Oudh. She said they would not leave until what was theirs had been restored. So they settled in and waited — for nearly a decade.
Customer Reviews
So very profound
Read the news story a while back and it was such a wonderful yet deeply saddening story . Now I Heard the podcast and the audible effect is just so powerful . Hearing the voice of mickey/ali Raza/Cyrus added so much depth to his personality. Partition did impact south Asian history so very powerfully and yet we have no truth or reconciliation about it . The trauma lives on and is heart wrending when it emerges from time to time . So much uncovered yet so much remains unsaid and shrouded in mystery. This is the very essence of the trauma of partition and the havoc it wreaked on families and Individuals . Mental health and disease is also a strong current that receives far less attention than it should . I am from Pakistan and there is a large part of life in Pakistan that should be explored which I feel was not touched upon at all : neither was life in Lucknow . Another series of podcasts should be done to explore more .