This was a very polite gentleman in Delhi’s Paharganj where Sheikh Ibrahim Zauq the Mughal poet laureate was buried.

Dilli see where Zauq sleeps
Tho I should thank God for smaller mercies. A public lavatory was made on his grave. Thanks to efforts of Firoz Bakht at least that was removed & a memorial built in its place. It’s called yaadgar e Zauq as no one knows where original grave was.

We traversed narrow, filthy lanes to reach the mazar which was locked. We were helped by a very kind gentleman from Dargah Qadam sharif . We could not have reached here on our own.

Laayi  Hayat aaye qaza le chali chale

na apni khushi aaye na apni khushi chale

(Written on the walls)

behatar to hai yahi ke na duniya se dil lage

par kya karen jo kam na bedillagi chale

ho umr-e-khizr bhi to kahenge bavaqt-e-marg

hum kya rahe yahan abhi aaye abhi chale

duniya ne kis ka rah-e-fana mein diya hai sath

tum bhi chale chalo yun hi jab tak chali chale

nazan na ho khirad pe jo hona hai wo hi ho

danish teri na kuch meri danishvari chale

kam honge is bisat pe hum jaise badqimar

jo chal hum chale wo nihayat buri chale

ja ki hava-e-shauq mein hain is chaman se ‘zauq’

apni bala se bad-e-saba kaheen chale

Dekho idhar ai Mahlaqa
Mera kabootar doosra
Jaldi batao kya huwa
Jhat bholepan se yeh kaha
Sarkar who tau udd jaaye
Bola ke hai kyunkar udda
Aisa tau ho sakta naa tha
Hat doosri mutthi jot hi
Kuchh muskura kar khol di
Yun udd gaya Aali Janab
Yeh saadgi uff re gazab!
Shahzaade ka dil aa gaya
Phir jaante ho kya huwa!

The story goes that one day, when Prince Salim was taking a round of the royal gardens with a pair of Shirazi pigeons, a beautiful flower distracted him and he wanted to pluck it. He saw a young Mehrunnisa standing nearby and gave her the pigeons to hold. She let one go. When Jahangir asked her how she could let it go she said, like this and let the other one fly away too.

I don’t know authentic the story is but it’s the stuff of which legends are made.

Anyone who has visited any monument around the country will have seen the pigeons flying all over. Most of our monuments have earthen pots full of water for them to drink from.

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In Delhi you will find pigeons being fed at busy intersections and they make a charming sight. Those affected by the nuisance of bird droppings are likely to disagree with me but for all purposes, our cities and pigeons have a relationship that cannot be broken.

It goes back centuries.

Once upon a time they were used for serious sport and spectacle. In many parts of old cities in the subcontinent, they still are. There are fights over pigeons if they suspect someone of stealing their birds by deceit. Loss of pigeons to other coops is a loss of prestige for the owner.

Kabootarbaazi or pigeon gaming is an age-old Indian tradition. According to Maheshwar Dayal in Aalam Mein Intikhab Dilli, keeping pigeons goes back to the Mahabharat when these birds were kept in the palaces and entertained the royalty. Ladies would sit in their jharokhas (balconies) and watch them.

But it was the Muslim kings who took this pastime to another level, that of sport. Since there was no opposition from the clergy this sport was adopted even by the common man.

Firoz Shah Tughlaq had built a hospital for sick pigeons in his Kotla. Timur took away many pigeons from Firozabad Kotla as part of his spoils.

The art reached its zenith under Jahangir who equated kabootarbaazi with ishqbaazi and brought renowned experts in the sport to Delhi.

Mahv e parvaaz hai yeh dil aur main
Jaan chidakta hun is kabootar par
Kashif Husain Ghair

This heart is engrossed in flying, in love
I can sacrifice my life for this dove

Many poets used the pigeon as imagery for the heart.
It was also used as a signal.

The Mughal Emperor’s entourage leaving the Palace would be announced by releasing a coloured pigeon so that all could be informed of his advent.

Bahadur Shah Zafar had in his employ a man called Syed Waris Ali, who had trained 200 pigeons to fly in rows behind the Emperor when he came out of his palace seated on his favorite elephant Maula Baksh on the way to the Eidgaah for prayers. The pigeons would provide shade for the Emperor.

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What’s more, these pigeons were trained to fly in such a way that their droppings didn’t fall on the Emperor or his elephant. I can just visualise the magnificence by recalling the modern day air parades of jets flying in formation.

After Ahmed Shah Abdali sacked Delhi many kabootarbaaz went to Awadh.

Wajid Ali Shah had 24,000 pigeons in his palace including a pair of ‘ReshamPara’, bought at the exorbitant price of Rs 25,000 even in those times!

He had to leave them behind when he was exiled to Calcutta and by all accounts missed them sorely.

The art of kabootarbaazi

The pigeon fanciers are called Ustads and the experts are called Khalifas.

Kabootarbaazi the sport involves teaching the pigeons to fly from their own houses and return home with pigeons from some other flocks. The pigeons are taught to respond to their master’s voice.

In Bareilly, our mohalla has many kabootarbaaz and come evening you can hear many sounds of ‘aa aa aa’ with masters calling their pigeons home. It’s a sound that cannot be described – it has to be heard and seen when every rooftop is filled with the fanciers and you can see flocks all over the sky.

His master’s voice

Owners would lovingly spend much time with their kabootars and adorn their feet with jewellery ranging from bangles to ghungroos.

The pigeons in turn would reciprocate and always come home.

They would be fed ghee and malai. Some even fed their flying pigeons opium and other intoxicating substances to induce ‘masti’.

Kabootars such as Girahbaaz could fly for hours and they never forgot either their coops or their food.
The pigeon coops were called ‘kaabuk’ and they were built on the roofs of the houses with great care and love. Pigeons became such an integral part of their owner’s lives that the loss of one pigeon would send them into despair and they would go to great lengths to recover them.

Some of that wistful love for the bird and the sport is evident each time I visit Old Delhi in the evenings I can see the pigeons being called home.

The joining of one’s flock in another is loss of prestige and a challenge, to bring them back.

Udte udte kabhi masoom kabootar koi
Aapki chat pe utar aaye to shak karta hun
Ahmad Kamal Parwazi

If an innocent pigeon while flying in the sky
comes to rest on your roof I feel envy

(published Catch News http://www.catchnews.com/culture-news/when-pigeons-were-king-the-art-and-sport-of-kabootarbaazi-1449484221.html)

Sufiyana Dilli ka safar mere saath.

I have driven past the Khooni Darwaza many a times as its very close to Firoz Shah Kotla,a favourite haunt of mine but few days ago I decided to explore it.
Not many know that this gate was built by Sher Shah Suri for his city Shergarh (Purana Qila area) and was named Kabuli Darwaza because caravans to Afghanistan passed through this the northern gate of Sher Shah’s city according to  Maulvi Zafar Hasan in his famous book.
So at least till 1919 when Monuments of Delhi was published it was called Kabuli Darwaza or Lal Darwaza because of the red stone used.

The facade of the gate is imposing amd measures 53’5″ in width and has a height of 50’9″ from base to top of the parapet. Its been built of Delhi quartzite.
This gate is now fenced in with its own patch of wilderness and wild grass and very few who pass by it know of its gory past.

The reputation of this gate was already bloody to start with since it is said that Emperor Jahangir had the two sons of Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, a minister in his father Akbar’s court, killed and hung on this gate. Khan e Khana had supported the claims of Jahangir’s son Khusrau, who was also Akbar’s favourite against Jahangir and so paid the price later.
It is said that Aurangzeb also displayed Dara Shikoh’s head here after he had him killed in the War of Succession.

The name Khooni Darwaza alludes to the cruel and unprovoked act of Major Hudson on 22nd September 1857, when he was taking the sons of the Mughal Emperor, (who had surrendered to him in Humayun’s tomb) to the Red Fort. Mirza Mughal* who had been the initial leader of the Mughal troops against the British and Mirza Khizr Sultan and grandson Mirza Abu Bakr, were being taken in a bullock cart.
As the procession went towards Red Fort they were joined by citizens of Delhi who had white cloth tied on their heads- kafan baandh kar niklay hain.
Near the Kabuli Darwaza, Hodson panicked, fearing an attack against himself and his men, 100 in number. Hudson panicked that rescue of the princes may overturn the tide against the British who had subdued the “mutiny” after much bloodshed and effort. He shot the princes in cold blood.
“Hudson latter recalled, “I was surrounded on all side by Ghazis as far as my eyes could see.” According to Archaeological Survey of India’s, board on the site/gate, it says Hudson, made them remove their “upper” garments) and using his service “sword” he “hacked”/cut the heads of all three sons, and entered the carriage and “slaughtered all men, women and children.” Others assert that Hodson ordered the three to get down at the spot, stripped them naked and shot them dead at point blank range.” (Source Wikipedia)
It is said that after killing the prince, Hodson personally stripped their bodies of jewellery, this being the signet rings, turquoise arm-bands and bejewelled swords worn by the three princes. He pocketed these valuables as trophies of war, although they had been obtained by killing disarmed prisoners of war under dubious circumstances. He took the naked bodies of the princes, to the Chandni Chowk where they were left to rot in the sun in front of the kotwali for days.
Hodson was later censured for this by the British authorities but by then it was too late and the barbaric deed was done.

The Gate is kept locked after a student of Maulana Azad Medical College was raped here in 2002.
And it has this board kept inside for some reason

It is built on 3 levels with staircases leading to the top. The different floor levels of the gate are marked by windows framed in red sandstone each furnished with a balcony carried on heavy quartzite corbels.

“Heavy kangura battlements rubble built and dressed with grey stone,crown the parapet of the gate and thevstring course immediately below them,being broken over the central arch by three damaghah intended for the vertical discharge of projectiles or boiling oul.” (Zafar Hasan)

It is today lying totally abandoned and i saw one man sitting in the cold with a small bonfire going

From afar it seems so innocuous and innocent but even during the Hindu Muslim riot of 1947 many refugees were killed while they were proceeding towards Purana Qila for shelter through this gate.

Bahadurshah Zafar with this two sons – Ten year old Mirza Mughal (standing at right side of the image) and Mirza Fakhru (at left side of the image)
*In May 1857, sepoys of the British Indian army rebelled against their British officers and streamed into Delhi. A few days later, Mirza Mughal and some of his half-brothers petitioned their father to be appointed in charge of the rebel troops. Their plea was initially refused but later granted, and Mirza Mughal was designated commander-in-chief. Mirza Mughal had no training or experience for his new office; however, he energetically sought to organize the troops, make arrangements for their billeting and provisioning, and bring a semblance of order to the edgy city. He was later replaced by Bakht Khan as commander in chief.

Location: On Bahadur Shah Marg in front of Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. Nearest place is Pragati Maidan