Tweet

The Paperclip

Feb 11 • 10 tweets • 3 min read

Today is the day that led to the inception of an iconic Bengali dish and also a day that tells a story of a tragic Indian mother buried in Paris. A short thread on a fabled concourse of history. (1/10)

Back in 1856, on this day, Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of British India, annexed the kingdom of Awadh with the allegation of misadministration and exiled the Last Nawab Wajid Ali Shah to Calcutta. (2/10)

Wajid Ali Shah arrived in Calcutta, started living in the Metiabruz area with the aid of a pension, built a mini Lucknow around him, inspired the art scene heavily and introduced Thumri and Kathak to Calcutta. (3/10)

He also brought his exotic Khansamas with him from Awadh who were inventing a new genre of food marrying local ingredients with Awadhi cuisine. They experimented with the famous ‘Alu’, adding it to the Lukhnow Biriyani, thus giving birth to the enigmatic Calcutta Biryani. (4/10)

The story of the mother of Nawab took a completely different turn after the exile.The Queen Mother of Wajid Ali Shah,Malika Kishwar aka Janab-i ‘Aliyyah who spent her entire life behind Purdah,travelled all the way to England to meet Queen Victoria pleading her son’s case. (5/10)

Unfortunately, by the time she met the Queen, Sepoy Uprising had begun back home, her son was declared a traitor and she was denied a passport back to India. An illustration of the Queen from Le Monde illustré by artist Nélie Jacquemart. (6/10)

The helpless Queen Mother tried to go to Mecca via France but unfortunately, her health deteriorated and she breathed her last stranded at a hotel in the rue Lafitte in Paris. The funeral was covered in detail by the French journal L’Illustration and Le Monde illustré. (7/10)

Numerous candles illuminated the scene, the Queen was given a guard of honour and she was carried in a white wooden coffin to the Muslim quarter of Père Lachaise cemetery. (8/10)

The forgotten Queen Mother is buried in the most visited cemetery of Paris in an uncelebrated way. (9/10)

Source: The Last King in India: Wajid Ali Shah by Rosie Llewellyn-Jones. Narrative of the Indian Revolt from Its Outbreak to the Capture of Lucknow
By Colin Campbell Baron Clyde.
Photo courtesy: Madhura Roy, Ahmad Ali Khan, Wikimedia Commons, Le Monde Illustré. (10/10)

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @Paperclip_In

The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

Feb 12

As we witness the quality of journalism sinking deep into the bottom bit by bit, on this International Journalism Day we remember the fearless Nellie Bly. A thread on the origin of investigative journalism. (1/7)

New York, 1887. When 23-years-old Nellie was stuck with fashion reporting, one fine morning, she stormed into the office of New York World, a newspaper owned by eminent Joseph Pulitzer, with an outrageous idea. (2/7)

She wanted to report on the inhuman brutality conducted at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. But there was no way to report from the outside. What Nellie did was nothing short of fiction. (3/7)

Read 7 tweets

The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

Feb 9

Education is the only effective medicine for these trying times. We urge our readers to take a pause & read the excerpts from The Proudest Blue, a children's picture book and NYT bestseller,written by Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad and S.K. Ali,illustrated by Hatem Aly. (1/10)

This powerful and vividly illustrated story revolves around two sisters, Asiya and Faizah, and their first day of school and one of them having the first day wearing a hijab, a blue one. (2/10)

It is Asiya's younger sister Faizah who is the narrator of our little story. During the school day, Faizah's classmates ask about her sister's hijab in a whispering tone, and she honestly explains why. (3/10)

Read 10 tweets

The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

Feb 8

Telephone Operators at work in the New Delhi Telephone Exchange. 1950.

The early telephones required the use of a switchboard and a human operator to physically connect the phone lines so that people could talk to each other.

The new profession has given way to a wave of women-led jobs, in male-dominated society. Women were seen as a better choice not only because of their supposedly caring nature and soft voice, but also because they’re paid significantly less than their male counterparts.

Vocational qualifications involve taking height,weight & arm length tests to ensure they are fit enough in the cramped quarters of a telephone switchboard.The job is to answer an incoming call,ask for a number, & then connect a wired outlet to the appropriate switchboard circuit.

Read 4 tweets

The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

Feb 7

A thread on Lata Mangeshkar, the photographer.

Although it is not widely known, the Nightingale of India was also an avid photographer. She had quite a collection of state-of-the-art photography equipment, including cameras and lenses. (1/11)

Her fascination with photography may have begun with her love for painting during her childhood days. She once drew a wound on her face, and pretended to be hurt. She bought a Rolleiflex camera in 1946 for Rs 2000, which became her inseparable companion. (2/11)

Lataji had a fascination for people and their faces. Most of her photos demonstrate her keen understanding of how to use natural light and shadow. This photograph of her nephew Adinath, taken by her, is a prime example of her brilliant expertise in portraiture. (3/11)

Read 11 tweets

The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

Feb 5

A thread on the astonishing story of how apples were introduced in Himachal Pradesh.

When the snow melts in Himachal Pradesh, orchards spring to life with apples of different hues. But who had introduced apples to the Himachal? (1/12)

Apple cultivation was introduced to Himachal by an American gentleman named Samuel Stokes, son of a wealthy American businessman. Instead of joining his family business, Samuel decided to help less fortunate Indians. (2/12)

Stokes first came to India in 1904 from Philadelphia as an ardent Christian Quaker missionary and began by caring for leprosy sufferers in the Sabathu Leper Home in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh. (3/12)

Read 12 tweets

The Paperclip

@Paperclip_In

Feb 4

On Sri Lanka’s Independence Day, remembering a beautiful story connecting the nation, one of the most beautiful words in the English language, and Sherlock Holmes. A thread. (1/9)

Cut back to 1754, London. Notable English polymath Horace Walpole wrote a letter to a reformer named Horace Mann and coined a word derived from the title of a silly fairytale he read - ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’. (2/9)

‘The Three Princes of Serendip’ is an old Persian fairy tale dating back over a thousand years. Serendip is the ancient Arabic name for Sri Lanka, which was essentially derived from Sanskrit Siṃhaladvīpa, the island of the lions. (3/9)

Read 9 tweets

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Share this page!

The Paperclip

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @Paperclip_In

The Paperclip

The Paperclip

The Paperclip

The Paperclip

The Paperclip

The Paperclip

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Like this author's thread?