The area near the foothills of Banjara Hills is called First Lancer. Its latest claim to fame is the dazzling debut by Muhammad Siraj, a young cricketer, who is now playing for the country and his take-home money is pegged at a few crore rupees. While nothing seems to be right with the run-down neighbourhood that is framed by a massive sewerage canal and Banjara Hills on one side and the arterial inner ring road on another side; it is the massive playground called Eidgah Maidan that is the calling card of the area. Morning and evening, young men and boys from a radius of a few km troop into the area to have a go at the ball. It was here that Muhammad Siraj, the son of an autorickshaw driver, honed his talent. There are dozens of others who fancy their chance.
While Muhammad Siraj is a speedster on the cricket ground, the area is known for another man of speed. The Sufi mystic Syed Ahmed who got the honorofic of Baad e Paa. According to folklore, Syed Ahmed was summoned by his spiritual master Nizamuddin Aulia in the night; he rode the wind to meet his master and returned equally quickly. And he got the title Baad e Paa (Baad in Arabic is wind and Paa foot). On one side of the Eidgah Maidan is the dargah of Syed Ahmed Baad e Paa where people come for getting their wish fulfilled.
While the mystical feat appears like a fanciful tale, an equally surprising story is about how the dargah became famous. “Among the many spiritual followers of Nizamuddin Aulia was Burhanuddin Gharib. When Burhanuddin was asked to go to Deccan after the death of his brother sometime in 1309 AD, he was accompanied by Syed Ahmed. While Burhanuddin stayed back in Daulatabad and later Khuldabad; Syed Ahmed moved further south and settled down near a sloping valley in a village called Malkapur which was frequented by shepherds and cattle rearers,” informs Nizamuddin Ahmed, the current caretaker of the Dargah.
Then, Syed Ahmed disappears from history. His grave was discovered and resurrected a few hundred years later during the time of Nizam Nasir Ud Dowlah by a grateful shepherd called Balan Chowdhury. The apocryphal story is about Balan Chowdhury losing his herd of goats near the hillock. “The despondent goatherd then sat down in an open ground where he found a grave. He vowed at the grave that he will build a dargah if his goats were found. He dozed off and in a dream saw the goats on the other side. True to his word, Balan Chowdhury built the Dargah and story about the Nizamuddin Aulia’s pupil was discovered,” says Nizamuddin Ahmed. The Nizam Nasir Ud Dowlah used to visit the shrine. Tradition has it that the the large stone on the western side is where Syed Ahmed reportedly used to pray.
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The history of the area changed once again when the Nizam’s army was reorganised and the First Lancer was formed with 300 mounted soldiers in 1874.
A parade ground for the soldiers, residential quarters and other facilities were created in the area and the dargah again flitted into the background as the area began to be called First Lancer instead of Malkapur.
Some 177 soldiers from the First Lancer were part of the Imperial Service Troops who saw action in foreign lands. The First Lancer was eventually merged to create the Golconda Brigade. A few houses built by the Nizam’s Government still survive in the area as does a school with a quaint sloping roof unlike any seen in the region.
Sufi soldiers: Many Sufis who came to Deccan were soldiers and not just men of spirituality. When Aurangzeb marched to Deccan to conquer Bijapur and Golconda, he was accompanied by hundreds of Sufi warriors. Though no trace exists of many of these Sufis, dozens of them became revered figures during their lifetime.
