The soul of Delhi. Delhi is the city of Sufis. It is traditionally known as ‘Bais khwaja ki chaukhat’, the threshold of 22 Sufis. To understand the soul of this city, you must make a pilgrimage to a shrine, which is six hours away from the capital....
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End of a mourning. Today is chehlum, the ceremony commemorating the 40th day after the death anniversary of the Prophet Muhammed’s grandson Imam Husain Ibn Ali. Centuries ago, he and his 72 followers sacrificed their lives for truth and honor in a battle at Karbala, in modern-day...
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The holy land of sufis. The final days of 2011 have ended on a happy note. The Delhi Walla was in the sufi pilgrim town of Ajmer. 400km west of Delhi, it is home to the shrine of Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishty, a 13th century saint....
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The Jewish festival of lights. 27 December, Tuesday, 7 pm. It was the final evening of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC. The Delhi Walla was in a Chabad House, a Jewish community center...
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Bhajans and rotis from Jharkhand. A day before Bada Din, a day also known as Christmas, The Delhi Walla met a migrant from Jharkhand, eastern India, who left her land to make a living in Delhi. A third generation Catholic Christian, Anima Dungdung lives in the servants’...
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Qawwali at Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia’s Dargah. I Between two saints, he shares the earth, Mohommad Shah “Rangeele,” (evoked in Paluskar’s khayal) The beggar-woman kisses the marble lattice, sobs on Khusro’s pillars. In a corner, Jahanara, garbed in the fakir’s grass, mumbles a Sufi quatrain....
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A historically unimportant sufi shrine. An obscure sufi shrine, the dargah of Imam Ullah Shah urf Laddu Shah Baba consist of a small dark chamber. Situated in GB Road, Delhi’s red light district, the dargah’s walls are laid with white tiles; so is the tomb. A few...
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The struggle for the soul of qawwali. Dama dam mast qalandar. Qawwali, Islam’s sacred Sufi music offered in the shrines of the Indian subcontinent, is facing a moment of unease. It is best reflected in the gentle discord between the two leading qawwal families in Delhi’s Hazrat...
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The ‘untouchable’ gods. One of the many gods worshipped in Delhi is Guru Ravidas. The Delhi Walla spotted him near American Center on Kasturba Gandhi Marg. Guru Ravidas was polishing shoes. His hair was long and he had a flowing coal-black beard. He resembled the popular image...
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Delhi’s oldest sufi shrine. Reached via the congested bylanes of Meharuli, south Delhi, the shrine is entered through a broad uncovered pathway. Outside an old red mosque, sit the dargah qawwals. It’s a getaway from the city chaos. The tomb of Khawaja Syed Muhammad Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki,...
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