Damn it - when we can celebrate the likes of the Jhansi Ki Rani as national heroines, pretend that the Lakshmi Sahgals of the INA were part of something worthwhile, and more recently hail as inspirational a various assortment of female odd-bags from disastrous leaders to long-legged beauty queens to weird nuns to dead astronauts, one thing becomes obvious. For a desh which some call the motherland, and which many would like to praise as Devi, we are kind of short on heroines.
Oh we have plenty of filmi ones, glamorous sexy and ravishing they all are too, but we want real women, real heroines, who were not only beautiful but brave, resourceful, and intelligent, the type to fight against tyranny and oppression, the type who would risk their necks for their cause if need be, a woman to admire and adore and draw inspiration from, that's what we want! On second thoughts, maybe we don't want real women after all, we want a super woman.
Luckily I have managed to find just such a woman. I present for your consideration Miss Noor Inayat Khan
What a life-story! First of all the perfect birth: Noor was born a princess royal! Not only that, she was a direct descendant of the legendary Tipu Sultan, a great hero of our National Mythology. To add to the mystique, her father the king was a sufi scholar, the head of an "international order of sufis"!
The young princess grew up glamorously in Paris, but of course remained a patriotic Indian through and through. Academically Brilliant (this is National Mythology not History, so same rules apply as for other NM figures) , the artistic and also socially conscious Noor studied both music and medicine ("they say when she sang, even the birds would became silent so they could listen to her" "her heart was moved by the plight of india's sick and poor and she resolved to become a doctor" some NM type manufactured quotes)
Just in her twenties, she turned to writing and with what success! By 25, her stories were being published in the internationally renowned Le Figaro, and she soon had a book out too - a collection of jataka stories (such cultural awareness! what good press opp. - a muslim girl telling 'hindu' jataka tales! such incomparable literary talent! and so beautiful too!)
As you can imagine, such a talented and successful woman was not short of eligible suitors. They say her admirers would rent out accommodation on her street just so that they could have a glimpse of her when she floated past (like the spring breeze), and they would sigh deeply! Her laughter was melodious like ringing church bells (which are actually not at all melodious and very loud, but imagine you have a church bell fetish), she smelled of roses and jasmine (she must have used ittar)
Anyway, back to the story. The fated year 1939, when dead zombie mental patients would aggress against the borders of Germania, with significant consequences for all. Noor our young beauty was only 25, yet when war broke out (a war between good and evil!), she knew what was at stake. This was a war for the freedom of the world, a war between humanity and inhumanity, where from the opposite trenches came the stench of the devil himself (the much older and idioter subhas chandra bose saw the same situation, sized it up, and went off to berlin to ally himself with adolf hitler. and he's our hero. for shame you bastards). Our Noor was wiser of course (women tend to be don't they? (this kind of sexist line always goes well with female audience)). She decided to get involved in the war effort in any way she could.
She left her life of comfort and signed up as a nurse with the red cross, making use of her medical training to save lives and care for the injured. her handsome courageous brother joined the airforce, flying dangerous sorties into the heart of darkness itself.
But women like Noor are not meant to exist at the periphery of life - they always end up in the centre. Noor had been training as a wireless operator. And having lived in Paris, she spoke flawless French. The British secret service tasked with covert missions overseas - the Special Operations Executive found out about her talents, and proposed a most dangerous mission - Would Noor be willing to become a Special Agent, and go to Nazi occupied Paris to work as a spy and radio operator behind enemy lines? Noor had an argument with her recruiter about India's freedom that day (See told you she was patriotic and all) - but though the English were wrong to colonize her land, she also knew there was a far worse evil that mankind needed to defeat. The brave girl went to Paris.
Codenamed Madeleine (an aside: I prefer macaroons. don't you?), Noor was an incredible success in Paris. Soon after her arrival, the Gestapo raided and captured the other british spies in the city. Noor was alone. But instead of going back now that the support network was gone (and she was ordered to return) she chose to stick it out, continuing to work in secret and relaying invaluable information to allied intelligence, as well as helping and enabling communications with the legendary* french resistance. Her courage, her bravery, her fearlessness, her long eyelashes!
For months she continued, taking increasing risks with the Gestapo bloodhounds on her trail, their noose growing tighter and tighter. But Noor stayed till the end - for the service of mankind and freedom, she was willing to risk everything. The odds had been against her from the start, but she had managed to survive and carry on, thanks to her wits, resourcefulness, courage and secret supply of comestics. Eventually the fateful day came, when there was a knock on the door, and it wasn't the milkman or the newspaperman or even the landlord, but the dreaded agents of the Gestapo.
Noor was captured and taken to Nazi Germany. There she was interrogated and tortured to get her to confess. Noor was resilient ("she spat in her interrogator's face") but in the dungeons of the third reich there were tools to break the courage (and bones) of any living being. Noor, an Indian heroine, died in a nazi concentration camp.
She was only 29 at the time, which means that there would never be any wrinkly pictures of her. She would always look heroic, beautiful, and well, young. You can't argue with good luck like that - she was destined to be a legend.
Posthumously, she was awarded the George Cross, Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and the Croix du Guerre (with goldstar). But the country she loved best, the country her heart beat till its last for, that country barely knows her name. I said it earlier. For shame.
Le fin
N.B. This is National Mythology not a fact-finding mission. Noor's story was largely based on the material here , with a few other sites as well.
*legendary, as in a fictitious story.
