You’re in 17th century shahjehanabad, standing in the midst of the bustling bazaar of Chandni chowk, walking from the fathepuri mosque towards the the Qila-e-Mubarak. Yamuna in its smaller form is flowing through a canal in between the path, glittering gold. You’ve come from a small town of Mogul Empire and haven’t seen anything like this ever before. There’s no internet too. Just stories, and your imagination. You don’t have a camera to capture all of this, you’re purely in the moment. Your senses are not diminishing as of that of the 21st century man, you’re seeing all of it, hearing it and the smell around is just pleasurable .This painting is being drown on a blank canvas, no preconceived notions. You’re are not able to believe what you’re seeing.
Walking slowly, starring at every small thing with broad eyes you arrive at the majestic Lahori Gate, which is touching the sky. All that red sandstone is so deep warm in colour as if it has just come out of a kiln. You want to stand and comprehend everything that you’ve seen till now but the royal guards surround the you and you’re compelled to move ahead. You see a long corridor ahead with high ceiling in form of intrados arches, coloured beautifully. Surrounding by echoes of music and chatters you figure out that this is a two-storey bazaar. There are hookahs, silk fabrics, carpets, gold, silver for sale from all over the world. You see people of different lands for the first time. The artists are busy in their workshops creating magic out of their hands. After taking all this in, you move ahead and hear a loud sound of drums beating and on asking you get to know that it’s the usual practice done to signify the entrance of a dignified person into the fort. You don’t exactly know who this dignified person is or what does dignified even mean. Confused about this concept of dignity as it’s your first interaction with it. Without caring for it, you move ahead and see the huge elephants of the royal army lined on one side along with the royal cavalry. On the other side is a huge crowd of people gathered. Some have come with their problems and some with a wish to have a sight of their Badshah. The court of Diwan-I-Am begins with the Badshah sitting above on a white marble pedestal, a floor above everyone, people bowing down, elephants on their knees paying respect to the Badshah and the wazir announcing the commencement. The scale at which all of this is happening stuns you to the core.
The conclusion has been reached, all of this cannot be real. Not at all. You heard that the badshah is the ‘Parchai of Allah’. You realise that all of this cannot be the creation of a human. You know it’s Allah at work. You bow down along with everyone and try hard to have a closer glimpse of your new found God. You now know that if there is paradise, then this is it……
At last the Badshah is successful.
One more person has found his God, who’s sitting a floor above……..
Leave a Reply