The vanished nuances of the walled city
Painter M F Husains room at Naaz Hotel, behind the Jama Masjid, provided a birds-eye view of the whole area right up to the Red Fort and no wonder provided a lot of inspiration for his paintings.
A new book brings alive the life and poetry of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar as author Aslam Parvez weaves together the strands of the political, the personal, the cultural and the literary aspects of a bygone era.
Publisher Hay House describes "The Life and Poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar" as an absorbing, authentic and exemplary chronicle – studded with rare nuggets of information and enthralling anecdotes – of one of the most tragic figures of history who was witness to the end of a glorious dynasty.
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First published in Urdu in 1986, this book brings alive the life and poetry of Zafar (1775 to 1862), who presided over a crucial period in Indian history when the country was subjugated and became a colony of the fast-expanding British Empire.
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This work is as much about the 1857 Rebellion as it is about Zafar, the reluctant leader of the rebels. The pages also evoke the captivating ambience of a period when formidable poets such as Mirza Ghalib, Sheikh Muhammad Ibrahim Zauq and Momin Khan Momin, apart from Zafar himself, came up with one creative gem after another.
The author also provides a vivid picture of Delhi during the last days of its cultural and literary splendour as the Mughal capital and as a custodian of Urdu literature and poetry.
Finally, he recounts, in a touching manner, how Zafar spent his last days in Rangoon (where he had been exiled by the British) – a lonely and forgotten individual – far away from his beloved Delhi and from the trappings of empire.
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