White Mughals

I finally read ‘White Mughals’, and, yes, I do realise that I’m probably one of the last people in the world who has read it.

I didn’t pick it up earlier because it was one of those books which everyone was reading and I figured that that meant that it wasn’t a masterpiece. I didn’t want to pay for a copy of my own and someone never got around to borrowing one from someone else.

Last week though I happened to chance on it and I haven’t been able to decide what to make of the book. It’s obviously well-researched and the subject is interesting. That being said, the book reads like a well-researched Mills and Boon product – without a happy ending. Personally, I’d have liked to have read more about some of the people mentioned in the book other than Khair un Nissa whose love life is the book’s focus.

I can’t really claim to be disappointed: considering that the book did well in the market, one couldn’t have expected too much more, I suppose. That doesn’t stop me from wishing that there was more to it.