Pataudi
The Nawab of Pataudi - Telegraph
HH Mohamed Mansur Ali Khan,
9th Nawab of Pataudi, who died on September 22 aged 70, captained India in 40 Test matches and scored six Test centuries – all despite having only one functioning eye.
The son of the 8th Nawab of Pataudi, he was born Mohamed Mansur Ali Khan on January 5 1941 at Bhopal, of which his maternal grandfather was Nawab. Pataudi, some 30 miles south-west of Delhi and about the size of Rutland, had been granted to a forebear who supported the British during the Indian Mutiny. The boy grew up in a palace boasting 150 rooms, run by well over 100 servants — eight of whom were employed as personal attendants to the son and heir, known from infancy as “Tiger”. There was also a personal tutor, who ensured that he could speak English as well as Urdu.His father ruled his tiny state as absolute monarch, albeit ultimately under British supervision.
His father died in 1952, aged only 41, so that Tiger, aged 11, became the 9th Nawab of Pataudi. In 1954 he went to Winchester. It is said that Pataudi senior, filling in an early application form for the school, had answered a question about the boy’s “other aptitudes” with just two words: “My son”.
Though stripped of his title, Pataudi retained a certain regal bearing, notwithstanding his affability and laconic humour. After retiring he undertook some work in journalism and television, and even dabbled briefly and unenthusiastically in politics. More recently he had been on the council of the Indian Premier League. On the whole, though, he preferred playing bridge and trying his hand as a cook; at his house in the centre of Delhi he was a most generous host. He also kept an apartment in London.
The crux of his life, however, was his family. In 1969 he married the film star Sharmila Tagore, the great-grandniece of the poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. A rare beauty, and charming with it, she had made her name in Satyajit Ray’s
The World of Apu (1959). When she married Pataudi she converted from Hinduism to Islam. Their son, Saif Ali Khan, born in 1970 , has become one of the heart-throbs of Bollywood. Of their two daughters, Saba is a jewellery designer, while Soha is a film actress, recently seen in
Mumbai Cutting.
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