married off, and who was better than a Muslim prince from India? For Selma, Kotwara would have been quite a change from both the golden city of Istanbul and Beirut, acknowledged in those days as the Paris of the East, with its lavish lifestyle.
For the first few months I was jealous. My raja had less time for me. He was more interested in his new wife, who was, admittedly, beautiful, fascinating and intriguing. I was no longer the favourite, no more his beloved. I was still beautiful, but in a stately, elegant way that had most men in awe, whereas my rival was beautiful in a sensuous, softly sexy way that had most men (and some women too) desiring her. And desire, as you know, is the strongest of all temptations.
But over time I could see that things were not going all that well between the newly weds. And then we heard the news that the princess was pregnant. As war was approaching and Kotwara didn’t quite seem the best of places to have a baby, the princess was going off to faraway Paris to do so. So, in the

summer of 1939, Princess Selma left and that was the last time we saw her.
A few months later I overheard conversations that mentioned that the princess had given birth to a stillborn child. And that she had decided not to come back to India. And that it was over between the princess and the raja. The raja was devastated. Then came news that the princess herself had died.
It took almost two years to convince the raja to marry again and give building a family another shot. In 1942, the raja married Rani Kaniz Hyder, the daughter of Nawab Mohammad Hasan Khan, the exiled nawab of Muradabad. And, sure enough, I was called on to be the groom’s vahan, the royal carriage. Yes, I had picked up some words of Hindi and Urdu in the meantime….
But after that little bit of excitement it was back to the garage as the raja used other cars increasingly over the years. When Muzaffar, the raja’s first son was born on October 21, 1944, he came home a few days later with me. But with the induction of the princely states into the Union of India in 1948, the

raja decided to shift base to Lucknow and so I found myself spending days doing nothing at all in the garage at Kotwara. those were lonely times for me...
And then I heard that the raja had heard that the child from Princess Selma who was presumed dead was not dead at all, that she had survived her mother and that she had been taken care of by foster parents and that she was fine and healthy and in a convent! I also heard that the raja had tried very hard to get custody of the girl – yes it was a daughter – but had been fobbed off with a whole lot of lies, that the girl had been hidden, and that all kinds of complicated intrigues had been resorted to, to keep her away from him. Matters that were way beyond my understanding: you know, human beings are more complicated creatures than cars!
Time passed and life moved on for the raja. and I languished in a garage. Then in 1962, Kenizé, the daughter of the raja and Selma suddenly arrived in Lucknow.