The Princess Royal has unveiled a sculpture of Noor Inayat Khan, a WWII agent dubbed the “Spy Princess” by her biographer Shrabani Basu, in London’s Gordon Square Gardens.

Raised in Britain and France and a descendant of Indian royalty, bilingual Noor Inayat Khan was recruited by the elite Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1942 to work in Paris as a radio operator.

Records from the national archives show she was the first female wireless operator sent to Nazi-occupied France during World War II.

After evading capture for three months, the spy was imprisoned, tortured and eventually shot by the German Gestapo at Dachau concentration camp in 1944.

Her final word - uttered as the German firing squad raised their weapons - was simple. “Liberté”.

Liberty was a notion the pacificist-turned-war-heroine held deeply, according to Ms Basu.

For her bravery, she was posthumously awarded the George Cross. In France she was honoured with the Croix de Guerre, and later with two memorials and an annual ceremony marking her death.

Brave, glamorous and both sensitive and formidable, it is said she acted not out of a love for Britain, but out of an aversion to fascism and dictatorial rule.

Her father was a musician and Sufi teacher, and Noor Inayat Khan was raised with strong principles and believed in religious tolerance and non-violence.

Ms Basu claims she “couldn’t bear to see an occupied country”, a notion that seems to run in her family.

Noor Inayat Khan’s great-great-great-grandfather was Tipu Sultan, an 18th century Muslim ruler of Mysore. He refused to submit to British rule and was killed in battle in 1799.

Born on 1 January 1914 in Russia to an Indian father and American mother, the agent’s infancy was spent in London.

The family moved to France when she was a child and lived in Paris, where she was educated and learnt fluent French.

The national archives describe how the sensitive young woman studied both medicine and music.

In 1939 the Twenty Jataka Tales, a collection of traditional Indian children’s stories she had retold, were published in Le Figaro.

When war broke out in 1939, Noor Inayat Khan trained as a nurse with the French Red Cross.

She fled the country just before the government surrendered to Germany in November 1940, escaping by boat to England with her mother and sister.

Shortly after arriving in the UK, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as a wireless operator and soon caught the attention of recruiters from the SOE.

Also known at the time as Nora Baker, Khan joined the elite spy squad in 1942.

She was deployed to France a short time later despite an SOE training report describing her as “not over-burdened with brains” and “unsuited to work in her field”.

Codenamed “Madeleine”, she joined others in the resistance network Prosper, famously tasked by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill to “set Europe ablaze”.

Despite suspicions that the network had been infiltrated by a Nazi spy, Khan refused to return to Britain, risking arrest by the Gestapo.

Ms Basu - who spent eight years researching her life - told the BBC: “She was this gentle writer of children’s stories, a musician, but she was transformed. She was a tigress in the field.”

With her team gradually captured by the Gestapo, Noor Inayat Khan continued for as long as possible to send intercepted radio messages back to England.

Despite her commanders urging her to return to England, she single-handedly ran a cell of spies across Paris for three more months, frequently changing her appearance and alias.

Eventually, she was betrayed, arrested and imprisoned. She was sent to Pforzheim prison in Germany where she was kept shackled and in solitary confinement.

She refused to reveal any information, despite 10 months of repeated beatings, starvation and torture by her Nazi captors.

Her fortitude - and two escape attempts - led her captors to brand her “highly dangerous”, despite her pacifist upbringing.

In September 1944, she and three other female SOE agents were transferred to Dachau concentration camp where on 13 September they were shot and killed.

Ms Basu has described her life as “inspirational”, and said the modern world can draw lessons from the story of Noor Inayat Khan.

She said: “For her to come into this world on the front line taking on the Gestapo, showed her inner strength and her courage, her immense courage and resilience.

“It’s very inspiring, especially given the the troubled times that we live in. It is important to remember these qualities and values.

“Two and a half million Indians volunteered for the war effort and it was the largest single volunteer army.

“I think we must not forget their contribution. Noor was part of this.”

thegoddamazon:

glossylalia:

nooranium:

purplechansey:

“Candy cabbie” Mansoor Khalid gives passengers as much candy as they want.

Now that’s one sweet ride.

Taxi driver Mansoor Khalid is on a one-man mission to cheer up New Yorkers with a daily dose of candy.

“The New York life is not the easy life,” Khalid, 36, told the Daily News. “People are depressed. I see a lot of people stressed sitting back there.”

Khalid is no stranger to stress. He dubbed his taxi the NYC Candy Cab after his 2-year-old son died in April from a long battle with heart disease.

“I learned a lot of things,” he said of the trauma of losing his child, who underwent two heart transplants and lost a kidney before he passed away. “Life is too short.”

Khalid, who moved to New York from Pakistan in 1993 and has been driving a cab since 1997, had already seen the impact of small acts of generosity. During the two years he spent in the hospital with his son, he routinely brought coffee and desserts to the doctors and nurses when he got off his shift at 1 a.m.

“They got so happy when in the middle of the night I gave every person coffee,” he said. “I was so nice to them and they were so nice to me.”

After his son died, Khalid decided to bring his routine to the people he interacted with every day in his cab.

Khalid said he was inspired to do something sweet after the death of his 2-year-old son.

“I was very depressed, losing my little boy,” he said. “Somehow, God gave me this idea. Now (I’m) chit-chatting and time is flying by!”

Though he doesn’t eat much candy himself — “Skittles, only” — Khalid offers a wide variety of sweets, and has started cataloguing his collection on Instagram. Fans can also follow him on Twitter (@CandyCabNYC), and he may even start a blog for his growing following.

One such fan was thrilled to discover the cab on a late night out last weekend, and quickly spread the word about him through social media.

“We all started freaking out,” said David Weiner, 27. “You don’t see piles of candy like that in adulthood. It’s just one of those things that reminds you you’re in New York and anything can happen.”

And Khalid’s unusual project has the full support of the city.

“We encourage drivers to go the extra mile in the name of customer service, and Mr. Khalid certainly does this,” said Taxi and Limousine Commission boss David Yassky. “We appreciate the loyalty he inspires in his passengers.”

Loyalty isn’t the goal, considering that Khalid responds to every hail, candy or no candy. His mission is to spread warmth.

“It’s a little thing,” he said, “but people get happy.”

God bless you<3

Masha’Allah. People like Mansoor Khalid are the reason I’m adamant that all New Yorkers - and all humans - aren’t awful.

This might be even better than Cash Cab.

This is awesome. :D