After Salman Rushdie, few writers tell a good story any more. For thosedisappointed with modern writing there is the absorbing tale of two emancipatedMuslim families of the nineteenth century. Maula Baksh who sang Carnatic andHindustani vocal with great skill captivates the Maharaja of Mysore in 1860 andis invited to stay on in his capital. Unknown to him, Princess Casimebi, thedirect descendant of Tipu Sultan's surviving daughter has been given refuge inMysore with her two faithful retainers who 'whisked' her away in time beforeDelhi's fall and plunder by Nicholson's British troops in 1857. Casimebi cannotmarry a commoner and Maula Baksh is clearly no commoner. The Bakshs marry andmigrate to Baroda where they set up the Gyanshala or Music Academy. Enter RahmatKhan a Punjabi sufi musician twenty years later, to teach music at the Gyanshalaand marries Khatijabi, a daughter of the Maula. Their eldest child -- Inayat isthe father of the heroine of the book -- Noor Inayat acquired fame as a Sufiteacher or Mursheed, his publications are on sale today in India and he isburied a stone's throw away in Nizamuddin West. Inayat as we say today, probablyhas Shani in his house, for he is a victim of the great turbulence of earlynineteenth century Europe.