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Basai in Agra too!
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Like in Delhi, there was a Basai in Agra too, and it was as notorious for its sinful activities, says R.V. SMITH
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Old Bundu Khan for long occupied a room in Taj Hotel, Jama Masjid, Delhi and celebrated Christmas and New Year with the same enthusiasm as Id and Bakr Id. However one New Year ’s Eve he was missing, but he did turn up at Kothi No. 8 in the Civil Lines, the next day to usher in Naya Saal, with a rose in the buttonhole of his favourite gray suit.
After a couple of drinks the colourful man, who looked like a thinner version of Clark Gable, warmed up and revealed that a friend had taken him on a romantic rendezvous to Basai Darapur, beyond Rajouri Garden, which is now better known for the ESI Hospital there than for the Nawab who once owned the place and the surrounding areas.
The history
His bagh was famous in the 19th Century as also the haveli he owned. When the Nawab lost his lands, which were acquired by the local government, a band of gypsies settled down there. They had fallen on bad times and people started exploiting them for their pretty girls. A clandestine flesh trade flourished for some time until the police got wind of it and the gypsies went away to another Basai, which was in Agra, close to the Taj.
Khan Sahib knew the history of both Basais. He remembered that when Basai Darapur temporarily became a gypsy-land people stated arriving while the evening was still young. They came in tongas, cars, rickhaws and some even on bicycles. The girls peeped at the visitors from behind half-closed doors and their vigil was rewarded when a host of customers descended on them.
Basai in Agra disclosed Khan Sahib is perhaps the oldest village of dancing girls. As the sun sets over the Taj, the long night of love begins at Basai to the beat of the tabla and the jingle of ankle bells.
Among the girls of the village who gained great notoriety was Hasina, just as pretty as her name. Here is the tale of Hasina as told by Khan Sahib in 1970. He died in 1991 but for the past 17 years one always remembers him at Yuletide, like the Ghost of New Years’ Past.
The bandit queen
“Hasina, the bandit queen of the Badlands is no more, she met her end fighting the UP Police, along with her lover, Khilawan Singh. After three broken marriages she found love at last in the arms of Khilawan, her trusted lieutenant. And she was expecting to be a mother.
But fate willed it otherwise, for both she and the child in her womb died in a hail of bullets near Thiriyaghat on the UP-MP border.
“The wayward beauty who at one time led a 25-member gang, met her end after a spirited fight that began before sunrise. At dawn she lay dead, a lovely specimen of womanhood. Her beauty dazzled the villagers and she took full advantage of it. But it was crime that somehow appealed to her, for ever since she was a child she used to move about in the company of dacoits. Had she survived for a few more years, Hasina would have overshadowed the exploits of the dreaded Putli. But even otherwise her notoriety has become a byword for any village woman.”
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