Day 2: Zeyarat-eh-mukhlis…..
Its not easy to sleep in a Air
conditioned room specially when you are not habitual. But in delhi you can’t sleep in night without
AC. It too damn hot and when there is very little rain you don’t have any other
option. And when 3 good friends meet after 3 years you can be rest assure no
one can sleep. Somehow all the possible bullshit talks happen in night. I am
sure everyone who meet there friend after a long time will clearly understand
what I am trying to say. we had lights out at 11:00 pm but we
just couldn’t sleep till 3 am.
“tum saale mujhe sone nahi doge,mera
office hai kal” sardarji said while trying to sleep.
“koi nahi sardarji kal office mat jao”
chintu said laughing.
“saale naya manager aya hai sab log work
from home karenge toh who baal nochte baithega” he replied.
And we all busted in loud laugh at 2 am
in the morning.
The next morning initially we had just
planned for Akshardham temple. For that we had to hopped from red line to
yellow line and then into blue line towards Noida city center. The demography
of delhi just remains the same. Everywhere its just the same endless
structures, no scenery and very little to look outside the metro.
Until you reach the Akshardham temple
which can be seen clearly from atleast 2 km away from the station itself. And
it is huge and even huge is not the correct word to describe it. The security
check is un-parallel there. It wasn’t the first time I was visiting this place but
chintu was awestruck by its magnificence, planning and carving.
We took advantage of this opportunity
and pray to all the gods and it was really an inspiring experience. The last
time when we came I didn’t pay attention to small details like the minute
carvings depicting early life of lord swamynarayan. my attention was towards someone else the last
time I visited this place.
Thinking of her just brings a stupid
smile on my face like I have one right now. But it was different this time.
She
wasn’t but I am…..we meditated 20 mins and promptly moved out.
Without wasting any more time we decided
to move on from the place. And just then it struck me that I haven’t been to
hazrat Nizzamuddins Dargah.
“hazarat nizzamuddin ki dargah challe?” I asked chintu.
“chalo bhai… muhje bus apna time waste
nahi karne hai… I mean I want to fully utilize my time here” he added.
As we walked out of the temple we called
sunny to ask him the directions for dargah. He said “noida link road se direct
auot milega”
Thanks to my screwed up GPS mind it took
us around 45 mins to reach hazrat nizamudin.
The
Dargah is located a km or so inside from the main road we had to walk our way
into it. The narrow lane was filled to the neck with people but still we didn’t
mind. We just kept on… neither of us had been to this place before so we just
followed the crowd. Honestly it was the crowd that was taking us towards the
dargah. In some time we found ourselves in a sea of ziaraatin in lane which
just kept getting narrow and narrow. Where flower shops thong on both sides of
the lane the shop owner were shouting and literally pulling people in their
shops requesting them to remove there footwear and buy chadder and flowers from
them.
Even though it was hot and humid the
entire lane was filled with various scents and fragrance of iter and rose
flowers. We found an empty shop just randomly and removed our shoes infront of
it.
“As-salam-waleh-kum” the shop owner
greeted us. He was in complete white outfit and sat in the midst of rose petels.
“wahelh-kum-asalam” I greeted him back.
We washed our hands and asked him “miya
do zeyarat dijiye”
“sirf phool ya chadar bhi” he asked
“nahi chacha aaj sirf phool” I said
“miya 4 lagege… andar do dargah hai… ek
amir khusro ki dusri hazrat baba ki… toh 4 zeyarat lagenege” owner said.
Chintu and me looked at each other and
then he noded.
“thik hai chacha 4 dedijiye” chintu
said.
And we continued our journey towards the
dargah in a lane which kept getting narrower and narrower.
But once you enter the dargah compound
it’s a totally different place. You find people standing in queue to enter the
shrine and volunteers rigorously shaking big fans to provide coolness to the
visitors. One can literally feel the heaviness of prayers in the atmosphere.
First we visited Amir khusro shrine and what you feel inside there is
unexplainable. It is filled with prayers, wishes and thanks. But it wasn’t the
main shrine.
Then we headed towards the main shrine
of hazrat nizamudin. The place has a magical effect. It totally elevates you to
a new place. You know you don’t feel anything apart from the divine and
yourself. As we entered the shrine a lady gave his zeyarat to chintu and said
“andar chadha dena”.
Chintu was shocked and didn’t knew what
to say and so we just kept moving with the crowd. But once you enter the shrine
it you and the divine only.
That day I realise that there is no harm
in joining hands and bowing head in front of the divine. Once you enter the
dargah with your handkerchief tied around your forehead, no one is rich no one
is poor. Neither you are old nor you are young. All are one it dosnt matter if
you are a Christian, hindu or muslim. Once you seek help of the divine he never
differentiates. All he expects out of you is faith not necessarly in a
particular avatar of him, but in him generally.
We kissed the chadar lying over the
shrine and prayed and thanked the almighty.
Faith and belief can neither be created nor destroyed in one day. It an
intangible part of our personality.
Before leaving the place we sat for a
while listening the qawali.
I didn’t feel like leaving the place but
we have to. Sardarji had left his office and we were due to meet Adi as well.
“acha chacha baba ki meer rahi toh dubara
zarur ayenge” I said saying goodbye to the shop owner
Instead in return he replied “In-shah-allah”.
Trust me I was totally filled with
satisfaction and relief after visiting the place but the day wasn’t over yet….
