I was with a bunch of students in Ballimaran, Delhi, for a photowalk. We started at the haveli of Mirza Ghalib and ended at Lal Kuan, which houses the haveli of Begum Zenat Mahal, the favorite wife of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor.
Bahadur Shah’s trial after the Great Uprising of 1857-58 CE and his transportation to Rangoon, where he died, marked the end of the Mughal Empire, which Babur founded in 1526 CE.
Bahadur Shah Zafar’s writ did not extend even to the boundary walls of the Red Fort, yet he presided over the last burst of extraordinary culture and poetry, the likes of which have not been seen in Delhi since those days.
The British Crown wound up the English East India Company soon after the uprising, and India became a British colony.
They also banned Muslims from entering Shahjahanabad for three years after the Uprising.
Mirza Ghalib was the last poet of that generation, and the only one who lived beyond the Uprising. Bahadur Shah Zafar was an excellent poet himself, and Ghalib lived and composed poetry alongside poets such as Dard, Mir Taqi Mir, Zauq, etc.
Only Ghalib’s haveli survives in the lanes of Ballimaran. We met an extraordinary guard at the haveli, one who could recite Ghalib’s poetry with a rare finesse. Listening to that humble guard bring a spot of magic to Ghalib’s beautiful poetry left us mesmerized. A sign outside Ghalib’s haveli always angers me. The sign states that if Ghalib had written in English, people would have considered him the world’s greatest poet.
Balderdash!! That is snobbery!!
Westerners and Hindus like to believe that Muslim women are uneducated. Yet, throughout the walk, I spotted four girls’ schools!
We ended the walk at Lal Kuan, where you will find the dilapidated ruins of Begun Zenat Mahal’s haveli, now a girls’ school.
I used my Instax Mini Evo Cinema Premium and set it to the 1930 Era dial setting. Music from Epidemic Sound.
