DELHI BY HEART Read online

  Raza Rumi

  HarperCollins Publishers India

  For my parents

  Bilquis and Sheikh Riaz Ahmed

  Contents

  Preface

  1. The City and I

  2. Realm of the Sufis

  3. Meeting Again

  4. The Sultanate’s Ruins

  5. Earth’s Music

  6. Lover’s Heart

  7. The Chosen Spirits

  8. Those Who Stayed

  9. Centuries of Flavour

  10. The New Delhis

  11. Rivers of Fire

  12. Ghalib’s Delhi

  13. Love’s Labyrinth

  14. Familiar, Unfamiliar?

  Glossary

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Preface

  I have always wanted to be an author. This, an unintended and unplanned book, is my first attempt at trying to be one. And while not unaccustomed to writing per se, I must confess I was quite unsure how the book would shape up until the publisher gave her approval to the initial draft.

  Delhi by Heart was written between 2007 and 2009 as a testament to my discovery of Delhi and its multi-layered history. By no means is this venture an academic one, nor is it a journalist’s ‘contemporary’ account. It is in many ways an internalized dialogue with a bit of research and occasional interviews. In other ways, it is a great leap into the unknown.

  As a Pakistani who was born into textbook nationalism, the process of viewing the ‘other’ and what separated us from British India in 1947 has been an arduous one. I grew up and lived in a milieu that conditioned me to resent India, especially its role in dismembering the Pakistani state in 1971. At the same time, I also lived in the semi-schizophrenic state of being part of the ‘enemy’ landscape. The cultural references, historical threads and many other bonds were far too strong. These bonds became stronger as I went abroad for my studies and befriended many Indians in a neutral territory. A Kashmiri Pandit, a Calcuttabased Punjabi and many a Dilli-wala humanized the vision that had been imposed on me. Unlearning was a rare gift that I am tremendously thankful for. I think my Indian friends must have gone through a similar process when we were twenty-somethings attempting to understand the world.

  My second meeting with Indians took place when I worked in Kosovo as part of the UN peacekeeping mission during 2000–02. As an officer of the administrative service, the Indian civil servants in Kosovo were my friends and there was far too much in common between us, given how we were all, at the end of the day, cogs in unwieldy post-colonial states to be ignored or wished away. My entry into the Asian Development Bank in 2002 again brought me in contact with dozens of Indian colleagues, their spouses and families, who represented another variant of India’s multitudinal reality.

  It was during those days that I arrived in Delhi for work. There were frequent visits as a staffer of an international organization, and the work entailed interaction with different segments of Delhi society. This was also the time when I was fascinated by the city and that is when the idea of this book first took root. However, writing this book as a full-time civil servant was not easy. In 2008, my life took another turn when I decided to treat myself to a well-deserved sabbatical, returned to Pakistan, and started a career in journalism and freelance policy work. I was free to travel and open to meeting more people; it was during this period that I discovered the countless, interconnected worlds that exist across the border.

  Since then I have also been part of several peace initiatives, both on the Track II diplomacy side as well as cultural cooperation between the two countries. Therefore, the seeming chaos in the organization of this book and its occasionally rambling tone are reflective of diverse influences, scattered notes and raw memories. As I read the draft before it went to the publishers I could not help notice how awestruck I appeared in some of my initial reactions, especially in the early days, and instead of changing them I have let the original emotion remain.

  Delhi has undergone several changes over the past few years. People and places have changed too. The book might seem a little dated in places but I would like to remind the readers that it was written four years ago. Updating it would have been a bit unfair to the spirit in which it was authored.

  By no means is this an exhaustive travel guide. These are impressions of a foreigner—an ‘outsider’—who has obviously selected moments and histories of his liking and penned them down. In that sense, I admit its partiality and perhaps a sense of incompleteness. I do fervently hope that my views are appreciated as that of a faint voice that wants to transcend boundaries and borders and reject the ills of jingoism spun by nationstate narratives, which permeate our troubled consciousness. I hope, also, that it will be received by readers on both sides in its true spirit.

  1

  The City and I

  U

  nder the overcast Delhi sky, I turn my face towards the monsoon breeze. The faint scent of champa flowers seems hauntingly familiar. Somewhere within me I am plagued by the fact that this, my very first trip to Delhi, is an official one. But with more visits, coming ashore has become more and more easy. I am always excited, never tired of coming to Delhi.

  It is my first day in the city, a Saturday. I am without a guide book—I have always been averse to these travel instruments. I did not want to use the hotel tourism services either. They are expensive and soulless, herding travellers into a minibus with maverick guides spouting oriental phraseology. As a Pakistani I feel that I am not lonely on planet Delhi.

  My earliest memory of the city is mingled with the image of the Hazrat Nizamuddin shrine dedicated to the Sufi saint, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, and discovering a muse that now seems a little pre-arranged by the stars—not that I have ever believed in the immutability of destiny or of pre-ordained occurrences. I dig for the little scrap of paper hidden somewhere in my laptop bag. I find a little note with the name ‘Sadia Dehlvi’ and then a telephone number. I have a femme fatale image of Sadia stuck in my memory from Khushwant Singh’s book, Women and Men in my Life and, of course, from knowing the family of her late Pakistani husband, a man much older than her who loved her with cavernous passion. My questions on the telephone are routine—what is the best time to go to the shrine, how do I get there etc. She tells me that I should go there around the time of maghreb.

  A yellow-black Ambassador taxi takes me to the shrine. We go through the shady boulevards of Chanakyapuri, the posh diplomatic suburb of Delhi. It feels remarkably like another serene neighbourhood of Lahore, my home town, especially when the monsoon rains have washed away layers of dust that clings to the trees during the arid heat of Delhi’s summers.

  Accident of history turned Delhi into a sacred space for Muslims during the medieval period. Its centrality as the cultural heartland for South Asia’s Muslim past is well known. It emerged as a grand city during the several years of Muslim rule to be known as the ‘city of cities’. Much of contemporary north Indian cuisine, manners and language evolved within the precincts of Delhi.

  The legendary twenty-two Sufis sleeping under its urban mass turned the city and its environs into an unmatched place of reverence. Termed as ‘Little Mecca’1 by medieval and colonial tazkiras of the subcontinent, Delhi’s primacy as the Sufi capital was unchallenged except by Ajmer, cited as ‘Little Medina’2 by the biographers of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. And in medieval times, this was best summed up by these lines in a mathnawi of Khusrau:

  Noble Delhi, shelter of religion and treasure

  It is the Garden of Eden, may it last forever.

  A veritable earthly Paradise in all its qualities

  May Allah protect it from calamities.

  If it but heard the tale of this garden,

  Mecca woul
d make a pilgrimage to Hindustan.3

  Apart from the spiritual solace they provide, the tombs of Muslim emperors and saints in Delhi can be seen as transitional spaces between the temporal and after-world of Muslims. But more significantly, they are markers of Muslim identity in India. Grave visitations and associated events turn into informal statements of local communal memory and the substantive content of such personal and communal statements as well.

  In Pakistan, with Delhi and Ajmer having been lost to the arbitrary line drawn by Radcliffe, Lahore was to acquire this status in the new Muslim state. Data Darbar, the shrine of Ali Hujweri, in Lahore, is now the equivalent of Little Mecca and Little Medina in India.

  These jumbled thoughts surface and disappear as Delhi’s tombs merge with the chaos of the city traffic.

  Delhi’s international airport is named after the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, famous for her parentage, mourned for her tragic assassination and reviled for the emergency she imposed on a stubborn democracy. For a second, the name made me a little nervous because of her trumpeted role in ‘breaking’ Pakistan. Pakistani sensibilities can be offended easily, especially when you are brainwashed about the ‘other’. The Haj Terminal, an appeasement carrot for the Muslim minority, is boldly displayed among the signages. This, of course, comes as a surprise to a sceptical Pakistani.

  When I first visited the Indira Gandhi International Airport, its lifeless architecture and shoddy facilities nearly shocked me (the new terminal, T3, was a later development). In contrast, Lahore’s glitzy airport named after the poet Allama Iqbal, with swanky interiors and polished floors, speaks of the Pakistani elite’s quest for grandeur. Immigration queues are long with languishing non-resident Indians and foreign tourists. But for a Pakistani, it is an entry into a highly guarded domain protected by quirks of history and ideology rife with suspicion. Pakistanis need to report at a separate counter to fill up a rather banal form detailing where in India one intends to visit, and that one has to inform the government if there is a change in the duration of stay. Of late, Pakistanis are viewed as terrorists; I am sure the feelings are mutual at Pakistani airports too.

  I encounter a colonial anachronism—a specific form for Pakistani nationals, entailing a process reminiscent of the snail-paced era of Raj officialdom. But it is not all that unpleasant. The immigration officials are helpful, but only after the usual barrage of questions and visa inquiries. The Sikh gentleman at the counter hears my Punjabi and his attitude undergoes a noticeable shift from curtness towards familiarity; he immediately asks me where I am from. He tells me that his parents were from ‘western’ Punjab. I find it difficult to conceptualize the west and the east of what I have known all my life as the Punjab.

  Deep down, I am excited and terrified and stand in a world that hitherto existed only in books, discussions and images. A part of me also inappropriately remembers the poem of a Pakistani poet, Neelma Naheed Durrani:

  I have come to see the city

  Longing for which my elders left this world

  In their graves, in Lahore’s Mominpura graveyard

  My father and grandfather must be saying joyfully

  Our daughter has gone to our city, Amritsar.

  Well, here is a son and this is not Amritsar, does it make any difference?

  My mother’s family migrated from Amritsar and I knew what it meant to her elder sister whose best childhood and adult moments were spent in that holy town also known for its thriving commerce. But memory can be treacherous. Amritsar was remembered in the golden sunlight of memory that constantly brightened my aunt’s existence. I had promised her at the dawn of the new millennium that we would travel to Amritsar. Her husband’s family had little interest in revisiting the city as the burden of dislocation was solely hers. She died a few years before I stood at this conveyor belt, waiting for my luggage.

  Ah, this luggage. If not picked up in time, it turns into a lifelong trial.

  Navigating through Delhi’s traffic, I reach Mathura Road in less than an hour. Very soon, I wade into a distinctly medieval ambience—labyrinthine alleys, crowds of beggars and street-vendors, a distinct bazaar atmosphere. As I walk towards the Hazrat Nizamuddin shrine, I spot a board pointing towards Ghalib’s mazar. This is a traditional Muslim area—there are several advertisements offering pilgrimage packages to Mecca and Ajmer, identifying places where Pakistani currency can be exchanged and many signboards are in Urdu. The stereotype of the marginalized Indian Muslim seems somewhat obvious here. I try not to notice all that and walk around until Ghalib’s tomb appears. Having being fixated on Ghalib and his poetry for the better part of my life, I am a little disappointed by the matter-of-factness of the place. Even though the tomb has recently been renovated after a court order, it is still a little bit of a disappointment. Ironically, on the signage, ‘Ministry of Tourism’ is more visible than the name ‘Ghalib’, and addition of the latter looks almost like an apologetic afterthought.

  Nevertheless, the area retains a unique atmosphere and the structure surrounding the tomb appears intriguing. I am late and rush to Hazrat Nizamuddin’s dargah. I am as much a victim of ‘shrine commerce’ as the next person and the scent of desi roses (a native variety known for its crimson hue and heady scent) wafts up until I find my way to the tomb.

  The narrow lanes and hugely crowded alleys open up into a set of courtyards linked to each other. Inside the dargah compound, calm prevails despite the growing number of visitors. Surrounded by old buildings and congested houses, the tombs of Amir Khusrau and Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya keep the twelfth century intact in the heart of a teeming metropolis. This is a sort of homecoming even though I do not belong. The predominantly Muslim locality reminds me that this part of the city is at the core of my cultural heritage. For a second I am not an alien even though I have filled in the form some hours ago under a law that regulates foreigners of Pakistani origin. I am there yet not there. Elemental yet separate.

  The sajjadah-nashins of the tomb have mastered the art of making one’s entire experience commercial. There are issues of maintenance of the dargah, arrangements for regular langars for the poor, but over time, this has turned into an industry by itself. Among other things, we share this curse with the dargahs of Lahore. Thus, I have to guard myself from solicitations and offers of intermediation with the saints. This offer can quickly metamorphose into intimidation if not tackled with indifference. So I just walk straight and look for Sadia.

  Incidentally, the place where Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s tomb is located is not where he established his khanqah. When he arrived in Delhi, he had ambitions of becoming a qazi. However, the spiritual world of the Sufis, especially the Chishtiya order, attracted him, and soon he joined Baba Fariduddin Ganj-e- Shakar’s khanqah in Ajodhan, Punjab (now in Pakistan). After spending a few years with Baba Farid, he returned to Delhi as a Chishti ambassador and made his home near the river Jamuna, about a kilometre east of the present-day dargah. This is where he prayed, meditated, and attracted the inhabitants of Delhi. The place has changed, and as I find out later, relegated to the footnotes of history books.

  I ask around for the tomb of Amir Khusrau, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s most prominent devotee, who lies buried close to his beloved saint. The convention is that you have to first pay your respects to Khusrau before offering your salaam to the saint. I have been an unabashed admirer of Khusrau since I became familiar with Urdu and Persian poetry. Sadly, though, his contribution to the evolution of Urdu and modern Hindustani is still under-acknowledged. He was truly avant-garde, using modern idiom and imagery in medieval India.

  Amir Khusrau’s domed marble tomb dates back to the early sixteenth century. Intricate red sandstone jalis displaying the refined nuances of Mughal aesthetics enclose the room with the tombstone reportedly constructed by a Mughal courtier. The illustrious keeper of the dargah, Hasan Nizami, in the early twentieth century, unearthed the dates in Persian etched on the sandstone. The marble jalis, however, cannot be fully cleaned
, given that they have been whitewashed over the centuries and now embrace hundreds of coloured threads that devotees tie through the fine filligree to fulfil their fleeting wishes.

  Overawed by the mood of this setting, I wait for Sadia. What a place this must have been, given the deep effect it had on language and multi-cultural-inter-faith communication and the evolution of north Indian musicology.

  Sadia and I meet outside Hazrat Nizamuddin’s tomb, where a qawwali is being performed in the courtyard and hundreds of people of diverse faiths—Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs—are present. While I imbibe the mellow notes of a taan prior to a full-scale performance, Sadia introduces me to the local sajjadahnasheen; Sadia and her eccentric, loveable mother are lifelong devotees and know everyone here.

  That this first meeting was going to turn into a deep friendship was not known to me till later. It was from the very start a hit, as we clicked with the very first joke about Muslims. To recall the little epitaph to our conversation, ‘yes, we are at liberty to joke about ourselves’, what is better than the ability to be irreverent about one’s own self? And this is what Sadia and I share as we were to discover in due course. We sit with the affable, plump shrine keeper, Pir Hasnain, who offers us masala chips and a much needed cup of tea. Being Pakistani, I am the recipient of extraordinary attention from the visitors at his gaddi. I get a sense of what is likely to come—questions about my exotic Pakistani identity, questions about Musharraf, jihad, and other stereotypes that occupy the Indian mind pedalled by the media. I pander to this discourse as far as possible until I can take it no more, reminding myself that Pakistani textbook representations of the wily, untrustworthy Hindu are mirror images of this syndrome.

  Pir Hasnain ushers me into the tomb and I follow the motions. There is extended dua and I am presented with a chadar (in fact, the chadar is tied around my head much to the envy of many other visitors). There is an intrinsic profundity in the small space. The interior of the tomb is quiet, despite the human traffic. My senses are heavy. I wonder if it has to do with the climate or my own psychological disposition at the time.