I could solve the mystery of the hookah. One morning in March 1931 when I was a schoolgoing boy of 16, I saw a conclave of maharajas standing in the circle adjoining Parliament House on Sansad Marg. There was no mistaking Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. He was the only Sikh in the circle. He was very portly, turbanned and bedecked in jewelled regalia. And he was smoking a massive cheroot. I was taken aback. In later years I discovered that many members of the Patiala ruling family, including Bhupinder Singh's son and successor Yadevendra Singh, the author's father-in-law, were not averse to smoking. Only they avoided doing so when in company of Sikhs. Quite a few Sikhs were, and are, bathroom smokers. In Patiala they don't bother with such niceties. Any evening in the Patiala Club you can see sardars at their card tables puffing cigarettes as they down Patiala pegs of whiskey.