Under every peepul stays a god. From every other minaret a muezzin pronounces the azaan, calling the faithful to prayer. Together the pandit and the imam stay side by side, at times sharing a common wall, at others the same approach road. New Delhi’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg may be Fleet Street to many. After all, it accommodates the offices of some of the biggest newspapers in the country. Some day though, go beyond the newspaper buildings, the multi-floor Bhawans and you will find the soul of India smiling through it all. The newspapers might often be full of reports of communal carnage or news of a place of worship being demolished at some place or the other. The high-profile religious leaders might be screaming their lungs out to defend their community on television shows. At the ground level, all is calm, all is quiet. The mandir and the masjid stand together, at times stately, at others, simply. In front of the Herald House, in news for all the wrong reasons of late, is a Jheel Pilao Mandir. The Mandir stands next to an age-old masjid and madrasa. Between them is a common floor on which sit old men reading newspapers and magazines. Every evening the bell tolls in the temple. Every evening, around sunset the muezzin pronounces the azaan. Never is a word exchanged in hostility.
Behind these newspaper houses lies another story of a shared past, a shared present. There is a Qadeemee Qabrastan behind Express Building going all the way down to Pratap Bhawan and beyond via Milap Bhawan. In it was buried Ghazi Abdur Rasheed. Outside the cemetery are a couple of temples, one almost at the entrance, the other at the end. In fact, at one place, from a distance it seems the temple and the graveyard could be together. It is only when you go closer to the spot that you find a clearly demarcating wall. Still, on one side you will find people in eternal repose, on the other, the believers seeking the blessings of the deities in prayers every morning and evening. Inside the cemetery stands another mosque! Cross the road and you will find Masjid Bhoor Bhatyari, The masjid comes with its own anecdotes with respect to its name. Some argue, it is so named because it fell in the wilderness beyond the city proper in medieval times. Others argue it is named after the lady who got it built. She, they believe, was a cook. Hence the word ‘bhatyari’. Either way, the mosque with its functional madrasa presents a fine counterpoint to the corporate world around it.
If you are inclined towards Sufism, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg directs you towards Kotla where a dargah beckons the faithful. Even Metro construction was so designed that those wanting to reach the dargah could do so with strategically placed signage.
However, if you do go across the ITO intersection, walk down towards a giant statue of Hanuman. It is the most prominent one at the point where Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg meets Tilak Marg. The temple is well populated. If you stay a little longer though you will find that next to the right foot of Hanuman a little dusty patch leads you to a simple, rectangular masjid. Again, the masjid–mandir stay cheek by jowl. All is fair. All is fine.
A mandir for some, a masjid for others. And a dargah too. Really, faith is alive and ticking at New Delhi’s Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.
