Khwaja Mir Dard – and his Tomb

shamaa ki maanind ham is bazm men
chashm-nam aaye the daaman-tar chale
Like a candle to this gathering
I came with wet eyes, and left with a damp hem
Khwaja Mir Dard( 1721-1785) along with Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Sauda is considered one of the three major poets of the Delhi School .

Mir Taqi Mir, perhaps the greatest of all the Urdu piets, acknowledged by Mirza Ghalib was a poet of love and pathos. Mirza Sauda is remembered for his satire and panegyric.
Khwaja Mir Dard a Sufi saint of the Naqshbandi Majdudi silsiala was a mystic poet. His greatness lay in translating his mysticism into verse.

Tujhi ko jo yaan jalwa farma na dekha,
Baraabar hai duniya ko dekha na dekha.
I went in search of his mazaar and though many people were unaware of its whereabouts finally an old man told me it was next to Zakir Hussain College.
The entrance to the Khwaja Mir Dard Basti, an urban slum ( adjacent to Zakir Hussain College) which has been named in the poet’s honour, also houses the tomb.
One can enter it either from here or walk a little further and enter the basti from near a petrol pump after the College. Neither of the roads is very clean.

I saw cows tied up there, young boys playing cards and since it was a few days before Id uz Zuha many goats.
After walking for ten minutes and some false starts because there is a mosque named after him too I reached his mazaar
Its a rundown green circular building .
The entrance was shut probably to keep out goats but was opened on my request

It is made of bricks with a tin roof . Its an extremely rundown, shabby, uncared for and depressing building.
There are 13 graves inside with the poet’s grave on the left corner. The headstone is worn out and i had a tough time being able to decipher his name.

Chaman mein subah yeh kahti thi ho kar chashm-e-tar shabnam,
Bahaar-e-baagh to yun hi rahi, lekin kidhar shabanam.
In one corner there was a forlorn diya stand.

The peeling paint, the dirty dusty graves bear mute testimony to our beglect of our icons.
KHafaa ho ke ai ‘Dard’ mar to chalaa tuu
kahaan tak Gam apnaa chhupaataa rahegaa
This is the tomb of someone who is considered the greatest mystic poet of Urdu.
Maybe his pen name Dard ( sorrow/pain) was prophetic. Because i certainly was very pained.

The Dargah Committee definitely needs to pull up its act.