The Jungle Prince, Chapter 1: The Railway Station

[0] I don't find me my way out.

[1] Really strange.

[2] It always was strange.

[3] I never thought I'd be telling you the story I'm about to tell you.

[4] But here goes.

[5] In the spring of 2016, which is when this story begins, I was the New York Times Bureau Chief in Delhi, and I was spending a lot of my time trying to solve problems that were not strictly journalistic.

[6] For one thing, our power blinked on and off at two -minute intervals for much of the day.

[7] This seemed to be related to the troop of monkeys, Reese's macaques, that lived on the roof of the building and had been chewing through the rubber insulation on the wiring.

[8] During the monsoon, water had seeped into the walls of the office, which had begun to ripple and smelled like damp cardboard.

[9] We solved these problems the way we solved all our problems, with makeshift solutions.

[10] There's a word for this in Hindi, to God, It served to preserve some kind of complex equilibrium that kept everything running.

[11] This approach could seem like negligence or, on occasion, like kindness.

[12] Our retired office manager, who was in his 80s, had been disappointed at the news that he had to retire, so we let him come in and spend every day at his old desk.

[13] A few feet away from the woman who had replaced him.

[14] Our landlord insisted on being paid six months' rent.

[15] in advance, in cash, so we would have to take the money over to her in rolling suitcases, as if we were hitmen.

[16] When I did get a chance to focus on journalism, the bigness of it all could be paralyzing.

[17] My beat contained 1 .6 billion people, one -eighth of the world's population.

[18] We were writing about budget reports.

[19] There were landslides, mudslides.

[20] Bloods, droughts, stampedes, avalanches, outbreaks of chicken guinea and encephalitis.

[21] But there was another kind of story that rarely made it into the newspapers.

[22] These were the dramas that captivated people in their everyday lives.

[23] Doomed lovers, epic battles, stunning reversals of fortune, magical transformation, legends.

[24] These stories were at the heart of the city where I lived, but they were not part of my standard workload.

[25] Every morning, when I dropped my kids off at school, I drove past a narrow road that led into a forest.

[26] It was said that deep in that forest, in a palace cut off from the world, lived a prince and a princess, the last surviving members of a Muslim royal family.

[27] Few people had actually seen them, but everyone knew the story.

[28] It was like a story being born in front of your eyes and a story that could easily be fiction.

[29] I don't think I will ever hear of such a story in my lifetime again.

[30] They were kind of semi -mythical figures themselves.

[31] They turned into almost figures from an Indian epic.

[32] And once we were just going for a walk in the forest and he said, oh, have you heard about this prince who lived in these ruins of the forest?

[33] It was all so, so bizarre.

[34] Their story was passed between tea cellars and rickshaw drivers and shopkeepers in old deli.

[35] There were different versions of this story, depending on who you spoke to.

[36] Some people said that the family, the royal family of Avad, had been there since the British had usurped their kingdom in 1856, and that the forest had somehow grown up around the palace, engulfing it.

[37] In the bushes, I just couldn't see much, but I just saw him, he was running.

[38] Some said they were a family of Jins, the shape -shifting spirits that were seen at Delhi's holy sites.

[39] It was a story that had lodged in my mind.

[40] And then one day, in the spring of 2016, I got this message from our office manager.

[41] Ellen, have you been trying to get in touch with the royal family of Avid?

[42] I hadn't.

[43] There was a call from Princess Sakina Mehal, or her secretary, I guess.

[44] The secretary left precise instructions on when you should call her, between 11 and 12 known.

[45] She ended this message by saying, if you're interested, I was.

[46] I'm Ellen Barry, and this is the story of the jungle prince.

[47] Chapter 1, the railway station.

[48] The story goes, in the early 1970s, a mysterious woman appeared on the platform of the New Delhi Railway Station, announcing herself as Valiate.

[49] the Begum of Avad, the great, great -granddaughter of the warrior queen Hasrat Mahal from the fallen kingdom of Abad.

[50] Avad was a Shiite Muslim dynasty that once ruled an area the size of Scotland until the British annexed the kingdom and exiled its rulers.

[51] And at that point, that's when the queen, Hazrat Mahal, led an uprising against the British.

[52] It's sometimes called the First War of Indian Independence.

[53] but her army was vanquished.

[54] She died in obscurity.

[55] So the woman in the train station said she was Hazrat Mahal's great -great -granddaughter, and she and her two children had come back for their property.

[56] It included mosques, shrines, and palaces.

[57] Famous buildings now maintained by the Indian government.

[58] It's almost as if she had come into Washington and asked for the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument, She declared that she would stay there in the railway station until they had been restored to her.

[59] So she settled in the VIP waiting room and unloaded a whole household there.

[60] Carpets, potted palms, a silver tea set, huge, glossy, great dames.

[61] She and her children settled on red plastic chairs and waited.

[62] They waited for almost a decade.

[63] The Begham was an arresting -looking woman.

[64] nearly six feet tall and broad -shouldered, with the face as craggy and immobile as an Easter Island statue.

[65] She wore a sari of dark, heavy silk, and kept a pistol hidden in its folds.

[66] The children appeared to be in their mid -20s.

[67] They were known as Prince Cyrus and Princess Sakina.

[68] I'm told that they were strangely submissive, reluctant even to accept a mouthful of food without their mother's permission.

[69] They addressed her as, Your Highness.

[70] They were attended by Nepali servants in livery, wearing white turbans, so overawed by their mistress, the Begham, that they approached her on their knees.

[71] If you wanted to talk to the Begham, you couldn't just go up and talk to her.

[72] You had to submit a written petition on embossed stationery that would then be placed on a silver platter and carried to her.

[73] She would write back a response, which would be read aloud by one of her children.

[74] Crowds would sometimes gather around the begum, sometimes weeping to see a queen in such a lowly condition.

[75] Sometimes people walked away backwards so as not to insult her by turning their back.

[76] Once, during Muharram, the annual Shiite ritual of mourning, a visitor found her surrounded by pilgrims, flagellating themselves with chains to which razor blades had been attached, leaving the railway platform.

[77] spattered with blood, the mention of the kingdom of Avad, even today, stirred feelings in most Indians, but especially in Shiite Muslims.

[78] And seeing them, homeless, on a railway platform, was even more powerful.

[79] Her story of treachery and dispossession had found an audience, but still, the government wouldn't budge.

[80] And after several years of things, this, Wolliott hit upon a far more effective way to advocate her case.

[81] Journalists.

[82] In particular, foreign correspondence.

[83] The Washington Post, Sunday, August 9, 1981.

[84] Stubborn Queen holds court and New Delhi Railroad station.

[85] Air to a long banished throw, the Beggam's dogs have teeth.

[86] Princess stationed at Depot waiting for her kingdom.

[87] The Begham imposed stringent conditions on journalists.

[88] She could only be photographed when the moon was waning when outlet reports.

[89] reported, the journalist complied, delighted by the gothic peculiarity of it all.

[90] For the 51 -year -old matriarch, of a royal line that once ruled five million subjects in an area the size of West Virginia, resides today just off platform number one at the New Delhi Railroad Station.

[91] Her aristocratic bearing and an entourage that includes seven servants and nine Doberman pinches lend a regal air to her presence.

[92] Her surroundings definitely do not.

[93] Hoping to shame the Indian government into returning the family.

[94] property in luck now.

[95] Her royal highness, now lives in decayed grandeur, and a fly -infested 15 -foot square, open -sided portico of the train station with her son and daughter, surrounded for security by 10 dogs and waited on by two Nepalese servants.

[96] This coverage worried the government.

[97] It was inconvenient and embarrassing.

[98] The last thing they wanted was more unrest.

[99] The dogs appear to be ferocious and people are wary of...

[100] They seem to have free run of the area near the Puerto Rico.

[101] Photographer visited the station, the dogs, Labrador's, and gay, and pictures, made a bedding, are tied the trees outside to the webbed.

[102] One person who worried a lot about the Begham's appearance was the chief minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Aved had once been based.

[103] The Shiite population there could easily explode if they believed that their queen was being abused, so the officials there put together a plan to get the family out of the public eye.

[104] Amar Risvi, an aide to the chief minister, was sent to Delhi to present the Begham with an envelope containing $10 ,000 rupees to be used for her return to Lucknow.

[105] The Beggam's reaction was imperious and dramatic.

[106] She threw the bills up into the air so that they fluttered down to the platform.

[107] Rizzi asked his personal assistant to run around and pick them up.

[108] They returned with an offer of a four -bedroom house in Lucknow, which the Beggum dismissed as too small.

[109] small.

[110] She wanted something grander, a palace, something that would separate her and her children from the commoners.

[111] The Begham has rejected as meaningless an offer in 1976 of a modern home in Lucknow, formerly known as Avad, in Uttar Pradesh bordering Nepal.

[112] I never even looked at it, she said.

[113] It isn't good enough for my precious dogs.

[114] I would rather die in one small ruined palace or in this dirty, vulgar railway station than accept dishonour.

[115] This offer still stands.

[116] The cases at a standstill, the petitioning continues.

[117] As the years went by, the government got more anxious.

[118] And then, in 1984, nearly a decade after the Avad family began its campaign on the railway platform, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi accepted their claim.

[119] She granted them the use of an abandoned 14th century hunting lodge, with pavilions and a commanding view of Delhi.

[120] It was known as Malchamahal, a retreat built for an emperor.

[121] It had no electricity or running water, but it had grandeur and separation, the things that the Begham had demanded.

[122] The Begham found this offer acceptable, and so they packed up their trunks, rolled up their carpets, and with their ferocious dogs and their loyal servants vacated the railway station for good.

[123] They moved their belongings into Malchamahal and proceeded to cut themselves off from the city that surrounded them.

[124] They lined the perimeter of their property with loops of razor wire and menacing signs warning intruders will be gunned down and that's where they stayed for the next 40 years in the middle of the city in the middle of the forest hidden from the world.

[125] It's the time of year when everyone is traveling or running around getting thoughtful gifts for the people you care about.

[126] Think about giving yourself the gift of an Audible membership.

[127] Now is the best time to do it, with a special offer of 53 % off your first three months.

[128] For a limited time, you can get three months of Audible for just $6 .95 a month.

[129] Visit audible .com slash jungle prints, or text Jungle Prince to 500500.

[130] My name is Achitz.

[131] I'm a rider, a cyclist, and one day while riding, we saw this road going up.

[132] And we never knew what is up this road.

[133] So just we noticed a strange, sort of haunted and a quiet place.

[134] There were no windows, no doors.

[135] There was a board over there.

[136] That said that if you cross this line and if you come over inside, I have the authority to shoot you.

[137] So we were scared initially and we went off.

[138] A lot of times what happened was that a few guys, local guys, they were trying to sneak in.

[139] And once I saw that the prince was running and those guys, they got scared and they jumped off the fence and they ran away.

[140] He was very, very thin, very thin, pale.

[141] That's the only visual contact of the prince I ever had.

[142] They never interacted with anyone.

[143] The Begham and her family had settled in the woods, in absolute seclusion.

[144] But they were still an object of fascination in Delhi.

[145] People would come to the lodge, braving the guard dogs, hoping to get a glance of what was inside.

[146] scholars, artists, filmmakers.

[147] Your Highness, I'm a Dutch writer residing in New Delhi and was very moved and interested in retelling their story.

[148] I am an artist and would like to draw some sketches of Mahal.

[149] It came as a profound shock to me to learn that the Royal House of Awaat is devoid of light and water and honorable allowances.

[150] Most of their visitors were journalists.

[151] BBC News and Current Affairs 18th of July 1997.

[152] Your Highness, I thank you for.

[153] kindly sending me the dynasty of the dead and the death.

[154] Your Royal Highness, please accept our salutations and forgive us for interrupting your Sunday morning.

[155] Most respected majesties, Christopher Thomas, of the Times, told me the story of your family, and I've been doing a little research of my own.

[156] It is one of the most amazing and moving histories I've heard about, and I would like to tell your story on international television for those who have not read about it.

[157] Leaving letters full of flattery and compassion, I would be honored to meet you.

[158] I greatly admire your courage for taking such a principled stand to regain your palace and what is rightfully yours.

[159] Sometimes outright begging.

[160] I am truly sorry for this botheration, but we have tried every option on flights to meet Your Highness's specified time.

[161] The Begham would speak only to foreign correspondence.

[162] Commoners, by which she meant Indians, were not allowed in, and her children followed suit.

[163] Your Highnesses, I am a Canadian broadcast journalist in India preparing a one -year, One -hour radio program for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC.

[164] I feel your own words in your own voice will set the record straight.

[165] We do not wish to pry into the private and personal grief which Your Highness clearly feels.

[166] But this, I repeat, is a story which must be told to the world, accurately, carefully and in your own words.

[167] With respect and every good wish.

[168] Respectfully yours.

[169] Respectfully yours.

[170] Yours humbly.

[171] Yours respectfully.

[172] Very truly yours.

[173] week magazine.

[174] The Associated Press, the Washington Post.

[175] The Associated Press for India.

[176] And then, in 1997, the Begham's children, Prince Cyrus and Princess Sakina, told the Times of London that their mother, in a final gesture of protest against the treachery of Britain and India, had committed suicide by drinking a poison made with crushed diamonds and pearls.

[177] They called it the drink of silence.

[178] She took her life.

[179] You asked me how you crush up a diamond.

[180] I think it's pretty difficult, but crushing diamonds, drinking them, which then destroys the esophagus in the stomach and just rips your incised to pieces.

[181] And it's a very empress -like way to take her own life, shall we say.

[182] Cyrus, he then took her body and put it in his bed and lay with her for several days or weeks or months until she decomposed to the extent that they decided to bury her.

[183] And the dogs dug her up and ate her.

[184] They then became absolutely paranoically obsessed with the fact that the spirit of the royal tradition of Elwad was also inside the dogs.

[185] Because the dogs ate part of the mother.

[186] I think so, yeah.

[187] I really do believe so.

[188] In the early 2000s, a man named Nikulukundas, a friend of a friend, heard about the story over dinner one night and decided to look into it.

[189] So anyway, we did this some.

[190] background research, and we'd come to understand quite a lot of this, which meant we wanted to get in, and myself and Sachin persevered and persevered.

[191] I don't think anyone, you know, some journalists have been about it.

[192] They didn't let anyone in.

[193] Nick and his brother -in -law, Sachin, weren't far from Malchamaha, and they decided to take their chances and walk through the forest, up to the lodge, to see for themselves.

[194] Eventually, a figure came slowly, slowly down, and we spent about an hour, I think, watching him come down, and he came to us, and it was Cyrus.

[195] And he said, go away.

[196] You're not welcome here.

[197] Nobody is welcome in here.

[198] But he had a dog, and it was a very big dog, and it was looking vicious.

[199] But I like dogs.

[200] So I said, what a beautiful dog.

[201] He said, oh, you like dogs?

[202] And that was the bond.

[203] With that, Cyrus softened.

[204] And a kind of friendship began to form.

[205] Whenever they were in town, Nick and his brother -in -law would go back to visit Cyrus in the woods.

[206] But they were never allowed inside the lodge.

[207] and if he was there we shouted loud enough he'd come down but we started talking and he would talk about himself in a very peculiar language which you're probably familiar the royal we the we the us the queen the princess we had no idea what any of this meant we never saw the sister not for many years i mean not for three or four years of going there but i did once uh have a camera i was taking a picture and i just had a very long telephoto lens and i got an image of this woman standing up on the sort of parapet of the lodge, but with hair literally to the floor.

[208] And she looked weird.

[209] I mean, I was transfixed.

[210] Oh, this is extraordinary.

[211] What is there?

[212] When you say weird, what do you mean?

[213] There's a feeling that she was almost, almost she looks like a human animal.

[214] And I saw wearing a black robe, but with this hair all the way to the ground and just matted into solid lumps, as I could see.

[215] But then finally, one day, Cyrus invited them in.

[216] There were lots of carpets, cannons, gold, swords, things on the wall, pictures.

[217] And what they found was a grand building, but one with no electricity, no running water, completely open to the elements.