I am reviewing the book "Memoirs of a rebel princess " by princess abida sultan for you. ___________________________________________ Abida Sultan better known as Bia Hazur was the last truly Begum of Bhopal. The book is the second part of "Begums of Bhopal" by shahryar khan. It begins where Begums of Bhopal ends. Adida Sultan or Bia was the eldest child of nawab hamidullah khan. When she was born her mother was only 12 years old!!! As a result the first thing that strikes you in the book is that she refers to her mother by her nickname "beeva". "Beeva" was never her mother to her only a friend. Second aspect she writes about is her rigorous upbringing at hands of her grandmother.Little abida when only five was made to wake up and recite the quran. For slight mistake , her head would be bashed against the wall. In the book, she has written almost 50 times , that she hated her grandmother. This torture made her a rebel. Her only supporter was her father Hamidullah khan. She writes how Simple and spartan rule of her grandmother was replaced by gaiety and opulence of her father's reign. Soon she became the chief secretary of the state. her married life was a disaster by she only blames herself for it. The third part of her book is her moving to pakistan. The real reason for moving to pakistan was not her love for pakistan, but her differences with her father when he married her classmate , the aftab begum.How she lived for 8 years in malir without eletricity.And how in the end she was disillusioned by pakistan. One aspect about her personality that i noticed in the book was attitude towards hindus. Unlike hyderabad, where there was large hindu aristocracy. There were almost no hindu nobles in bhopal. There are almost no hindu names in the book, not even of servants. Though princess abida does not have any religious animosity against the hindus, she comes across as a person who is stauch believer in concept of "hukumran kaum".These are people who believed that muslims were the "RULING RACE" and hindus were "RULED". I dont think she had a good opinion of hindus. The only hindu friends they had were the cooch behar royal family. This apart the best part of this book and "begums of bhopal" is that they are totally non- biased. Abida is quite blunt about mistakes she made in her life. It makes a good reading. Overall I would rate the book 9 out of 10.The cost of the book is Rs 600. ___________________________________________________ I would like to know your comments on the book. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail