Sameer Khan for BeyondHeadlines
Delhi has always impressed me and drawn towards it and every time I visit Delhi my love affair with this city grows stronger. I am so fascinated by Old Delhi, every building every road has a story to tell. This time my top on my agenda was to visit Haveli of Mirza Ghalib that has been recently preserved and turned into a sort of museum in memory of Mirza Ghalib.
I made my way into the alleys of Ballimaran Old Delhi to reach Ghalibs Haveli and it was heartwarming to see it restored to some of its past glory. I was also longing to see the Tomb of Sheikh Muhammad Ibrahim Zauq (1789–1854) also known popularly as Zauq which was his nom de plume.
During his times Zauq was more popular than Ghalib and Zauq was a Royal Poet in Bahadur Shah Zafar’s Court and its only when Zauq died that Ghalib stepped on his shoes as the Royal Poet.
I tried to find all the information about Zauq on internet but the only information that I got was that Zauq’s tomb was discovered few years ago to be under a public urinal in alleys of Paharganj Delhi and that the govt has now demolished the Public Lavatory and restored the tomb yet there were no pictures or even a proper address where I could located this historical place. The only information available was that it’s in a place called kadam shareef.
I gathered myself and took a cycle richshaw towards Paharganj. Once I reached Paharganj I asked for Kadam sheriff, It was a huge slum predominately Muslim yet with many Hindus also living in squatters. I kept asking the locals the location of Zauq’s Tomb? Very few people actually had a clue about Zauq or his Tomb yet I kept getting deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of Kadam Shareef. I felt it was like finding a needle in the hay. But fortunately I found an old muslim man who guided me towards it. I kept going and often getting lost and again finding myself.
I was groping in the dark but fortunately I reached the place it was in one such dark and dirty alley. The place itself is thankfully restored a bit but there were gamblers and vagabonds and urchins sitting in the premises. Seeing me some of them disappeared yet I was surprised to find an ASI worker ( archeological survey of India) present there he was a bit alarmed but when he realized that I was a tourist he relaxed.
I took some pictures and I also got to know that the place is known as chinot basti as this information was not available anywhere and could help others who would love to pay home to this Legend of Urdu Poetry. I made my way back once again negotiating the puzzling alleys towards Paharganj.
I can only hope and pray that more people not only get access to such priceless historical monuments that are lying in neglect at many places in Delhi but also all of them are restored to their Glory
(Sameer Khan is a writer and playwright based in Pune. He can be reached at myselfsameerkhan@gmail.com)
