A Victorian tale

Basu moved to London in 1987 and since then,has worked as a correspondent for Kolkata-based newspapers. She has also written two books,Curry: The Story of the Nation’s Favourite Dish and Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan. The film rights of the latter have been acquired by a British production house.

In fact,it was research for her book on curry that took her to England where she discovered that Karim was the one who inculcated a love for curry in the queen. “Chicken curry and dal were her favourite,” says the author.

The story of Victoria and Abdul,which was launched at Oxford bookstore in Mumbai recently by Shabana Azmi,was culled from the queen’s Hindustani journals first translated by Basu,letters and newspaper clippings at the Windsor Castle,Osborne House and the Widow’s Cottage in Scotland where the duo spent some days together. She also visited Karim’s house and grave in Agra (he died in 1909 at the age of 46).

The book,which Shashi Tharoor tweeted as “well-researched and a racy read”,adds dimensions to the queen’s personality. She might have been maddeningly domineering but she was also the woman who advised Karim on how to get his wife pregnant (“it may be that in hurting her foot and leg she may have twisted something in her inside,which would account for things not being regular and as they ought”) and flew into a rage when one of her ladies-in-waiting,Harriet Phipps,suggested that her household was averse to her taking Karim with her on her Europe trip.

The book leaves you with many questions which are mostly relegated to the sketchy terrain of speculation (like the exact nature of the relationship between Victoria and Abdul). But if nothing,it resurrects a bygone era filled with royal dances,insidious court gossip,summer trips to the French Riviera and shopping expeditions to Balmoral.