At The Edge

Tough chance anyone of those is going to claim a seat. But the reservation for them remains in UP state roadway buses. Gajendra Moksha symbolism at a Sikh Gurudwara in Agra. Reached Delhi just before midnight. Got off at Badarpur border and hitched a ride in a cab onway to Gurgaon. The roads were still alive. Young boys on bikes, three on almost each one of them, all screaming, 'Nara-E-Takbeer' and answering their own calls with 'Allah-o-Akbar'. Men walking back home, waving at vehicles to stop, asking for destinations, hitching rides. It was Shab-e-Barat... the night of records, the night of assignment and the night of deliverance, the night of ancestors. -0-

A woman, her head covered, like she was on her way to a temple, praying aloud for the welfare of her family, like at a temple, walked past me and entered the chamber that is believed to house the grave of Akbar. The unconventionally plain walled chamber in fact houses the cenotaph of Akbar the Great.  The tainted spot where tourists test the 'Mughal Telephone'. Completed in around 1613, the mausoleums built to Abkar's syncratic taste, is believed to be the first Indian monument to have included the 'four minaret' design today associated with Taj Mahal. In most of the images of the mausoleum drawn by early western visitors to this site, the minarets look damaged with the top part missing in all minarets, even as late as 1875. [ref.  images at columbia.edu ] by William Hodges, 1783 The mausoleum of Akbar at Sikandra, shown both in plan and in elevation; Jaipur style, c. ...

Male Grave Female Grave And what about the middle. A guy put a chaddar over my head and starting chanting something about banishing 'Kala Saitan'. 'No, No, not the Kala Shaitan. Not the Chaddar,' I wanted to shout. The poet Guide repeated for the nth time: AKBAR THREE WIFE. ONE HINDU. ONE CHRISTIAN. ONE MISLIM. NO SON. AKBAR GOT SALIM ONLY BECAUSE OF SALIM CHISTI. NO SALIM CHISTI. NO SALIM. NO FATEHPUR SIKRI. NO TAJ MAHAL. In that instant, I realized what had happened. One moment, I was checking out a Chaddar portfolio with pictures of Tina Ambani, Shahid Kapoor and likes, and the next moment I was owner of a Chaddar sold in the name of poor women, not necessarily Muslim ( I was promisingly informed) who can't afford to get married. The scene was later repeated at the grave of Salim Chisti's kid son. SON CONVINCED SALIM CHISTI TO HELP AKBAR. YOUNG KID. TOO YOUNG TO TALK. BUT STARTED TALKING. DIVINE. AND THEN DIED. NO ...