Forgotten years, lingering fragrance

Alys was born in 1908 of French parents who owned a hotel near Paris. She grew up in a country under the German occupation during World War I. Her character was marked by a mystic streak and she was given to reflecting about life and even ‘conversing' with God.

Enter the prince charming from Hyderabad called Ali Yar Khan. The inevitable happened and they got married in 1926. They sailed for India to what, for Alys, was an exotic life among the elite in the feudal State of Hyderabad.

Ali was a grandson of Nawab Imad-ul-Mulk, who had been invited to Hyderabad from the Bilgram village of Uttar Pradesh to be the private secretary of Salar Jung I and tutor of Nizam VI. Later, he became the Director of Education and was also appointed to the India Council. He was very influential in the affairs of the State.

He became the paterfamilias of the Bilgramis, the powerful Shia clan in a State under a Sunni ruler. All doors were thus opened to the new couple. Ali started as a lecturer in the Osmania University and rose to be the Minister for Constitutional Affairs of the State.

Full report here Hindu