Even in fiction, these lives are intertwined with India’s history and Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings

Munna is a nickname used throughout northern India to address boys. Its counterpart is Munni, used for small girls. Both have become so ubiquitous that now, few parents choose them as a specific nickname for their child. Earlier, this was not so. When my mother used it to address Viresh Pratap Singh some seventy years ago, his parents appreciated it so much that they switched over from the nickname Vir, which they had given him, to Munna. Vir suited his royal background more, but my mother’s affection for him, and her own status as an educated woman in that small town in a princely state ensured that her choice prevailed. She had been appointed as the headmistress of the first-ever school for girls that Vir’s uncle, the King, had established. At that time, central India had hardly any educated, let alone trained, women who could serve as teachers and headmistresses in schools for girls that the provincial government of the newly independent India was keen to promote. This region had not yet fully merged into the Union of India, so the King’s initiative was highly appreciated.

His brother, Viresh Pratap’s father, rented out a part of his mansion to my parents...

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