Sharadiya Bhopal 2014

It is Navratri time in Bhopal. Time for Dandias, time for Mata rani, time for devotion and fasting. The hidden motifs of that promotion, that land deal or business deal, that college admission or campus placement - everything can wait, let us get down to devotion of ten days first. Surely "Mata rani" will take note, she knows all desires of every heart, right ?

For the Bengali community of the city though, it’s "that" time of the year - Durga Pujo.

So what is different, apart from the spelling ? The Bengali community, most of whom are second generation Bengali whose father had migrated into the city of Bhopal, try to follow the traditions of Bengal as closely as possible.To start with, the Pujo starts from the sixth day - the Shashthi. The preparations for the Puja are made complete on this day. Preparations on Sasthi consists of three aspects Kalparambha, Bodhan, Adhivas and Amantran.

Games of Bhopal

A quarter of a century back, passing through the graveyard behind old Saifia College to take a shortcut to Bhopal Talkies square, we students always noticed the huge stone slab on a grave with meticulously carved lines of the board game solah-gota, the local variant of Chinese chequers. Often we wondered what kind of people had the courage to play games in a graveyard (and time to carve stones for the purpose instead of just using chalk or charcoal). Looking back, it seems that there could not have been a better place to indulge in one of the favourite pastimes of the Bhopalis under the cool shade of the huge tamarind and custard apple trees; away from the din of the streets and constant nagging by wives and children. Nobody disturbed them in the graveyard; those resting there permanently the least.

This was the lonely place where a lecturer, also taking a shortcut, once accidentally came face to face with a college bully whom he had admonished in the classroom earlier for boorish behaviour. The lecturer, his heart in his mouth, thought he too would soon be resting in peace at the spot. To his surprised relief however, the bully folded his hands and tendered a sincere apology. Bully he might have been, he did not have the moral courage to apologise in public.

This graveyard was not the only place where the game was played with utmost seriousness. Nor was this the only board game played by the people. By the end of the 1960s, women in Bhopal had given up playing the ancient game of Chopad or Chausar. It is a matter of research as to what took people away from the game royal. Radio and cinema had arrived much earlier without making a dent at the popularity of the game and TV did not arrive until 1982. Moreover, other board games like Nau-gota, Solah-gota (played with nine and 16 pieces respectively), Changay-ashtay (another board game), chess and carrom continued to be popular. Why then only Chausar vanished?

Returning to our subject, when these local board games were the cheapest and most popular sources of entertainment for the poor and the middle classes, it was not uncommon to hear women calling their adolescent girls, “Manhoos, tu phir Bua ki ladki ke saath changay-ashtay khelnay chali gayee. Hum razai main doray daalnay ke liye pareshan ho rahe hain. Tujhay kya fikr.”

These games even inspired poetry. Take for example this couplet with game terminology:

“Ek hi waar me kar diya dushman ka safaya,

Changay main jugadda, pe main mari, ashtay baqaya!”.

What one needed to play these games were a companion, a chalk or charcoal piece to draw the board, a few tamarind seeds (called ‘chiyen’) broken in two halves, and pieces made of anything under the sun like broken bangles, small stones or kernels of palm-date and Jamun. Then flowed terms like ‘goat khulna’, kachhi goat, pakki goat, toad hona, laal hona, sookhi maat, geeli maat, cheenta-cheenta baithna and the like. Even mini-tournaments were held and contestants, like today’s hi-tech sports coaches, used palms as computers to draw sketches for various moves.

‘Naqshay banana’ they called it.

The games were played on roadside patiyas all over the town and of course in homes. Children happily spent their summer vacations playing these games. But some of the places where these games continued uninterrupted almost round the clock were Fire Brigade (the fire-fighters returned to restart from where they had left after dousing fire in some part of the town!), tonga stands, taxi stands, the boundary wall of Kamala Park, Yadgar-e-Shahjahani Park, the other small parks, the graveyards of course, under the tamarind tree beside the Upper Lake, in ‘deorhis’ (the entrance passages of old houses), Yacht Club, filtration plant and the government offices where only the employees played.

Television and televised cricket then devoured these innocent pastimes of innocent people.

-Late Nasir Kamal

The Legacy Lives On

A legacy of the famous Begums of Bhopal may help usher in social reforms by sparing Shia families the exorbitant expense of weddings. The All India Shia Muslim Personal Law Board today announced it planned to issue a directive to community members to ensure that all Shia weddings take place in local mosques. Board chief Maulana Mirza Mohammad Athar said the directive was part of its national policy. If the directive becomes reality, it will reduce the cost of marriages by almost half. Most marriages are now held in expensive marriage halls and hotels where the bride’s family has to bear the cost of decoration, furniture, electricity and the feast, as well as pay the Qazi’s fee. So far, Bhopal was the sole exception, solemnising marriages inside mosques. The tradition of the nikah taking place in mosques in Bhopal dates back well over 100 years to the time three begums — Qudasiya, Shahjahan and Sultanjahan, all Sunnis — introduced sweeping reforms in Muslim society under their rule.

Even now, during the peak marriage season in winter, spring and autumn, dozens of nikahs are held inside Taj-ul-Masjid, Moti Masjid and other well-known mosques in the Madhya Pradesh capital. The nikahs are generally held before sunset and cost little. On most occasions, the guests are served laddoos or given a small box of sweets or dry fruits. Maulana Athar said the board planned to announce the “mosque-only nikahs” for the Shia community at its October 25 meeting in New Delhi. “We hope this will be passed in the meeting,” a cleric on the Shia board said. The Maulana told The Telegraph that mosques were regarded as “Khuda ki ghar (house of God)” and, therefore, marriages held there would have a different kind of sanctity. “There are countries in the world where mosques are major centres of marriage,” the Maulana said. “Modern-day marriages are extravagant. They impose a huge financial burden on the parents of the brides and grooms. We must stop this.” He added: “Let us admit that Muslims are engaged in a competitive show of pomp and wealth over marriages along with other communities. But Muslim marriages are supposed to be simpler and quieter.”

Families can still choose to have a reception for their guests, but it will no longer be obligatory if the nikahs are solemnised in mosques. Privately, many Shia and Sunni leaders in Lucknow and Bhopal said they were happy that community leaders were trying to accelerate social reforms even if it meant taking a leaf out of old customs and traditions.

(Picture above: Moti Masjid Bhopal)

Kochi To Bhopal

The old joke about Malayalis is that when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, he met a Malayali tea seller. The Sunday Express only had to go as far as Raisen district in Madhya Pradesh to find four villages, where the natives of Kerala set foot in 1955 as part of a Central government scheme. 

  

February 10,1955. Gopalan sat huddled 

on the platform at Kochi Harbour Station, waiting for the train to New Delhi to pull in. As the 22-year-old waited, he held on to a clutch of marachini kambu (tapioca). An unexpected call of destiny in the form of a newspaper advertisement had intertwined his life with the tapioca he held on to—uprooted from his home in Thonnakal, about 24 km from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and about to be transplanted in a village called Intkheri, 90 km from Bhopal. 

  

Fifty-three years later, Gopalan doesn’t remember what he did with that bunch of tapioca but as he talks about “Jawaharlal Nehru’s plan” that brought 200 families from Kerala and relocated them in Intkheri and three other villages, he realises his memory hasn’t failed him through these difficult years. “How can we forget? It wasn’t easy. About 19 families went back soon after and others left over the years. Now there are about 100 families left in these four villages,” says Gopalan (now Gopalan ‘Patel’), laying out yellowing pieces of official documents and newspaper reports that put together a curious story—of human grit, of migration and a beautiful chronicle of social 

transformation that brought a piece of Kerala to the heart of Madhya Pradesh. 

  

Intkheri, the biggest Malayali settlement in the region, announces itself much after you turn right from National Highway-86, along a dirt track with spiky boulders for a road. When it rains, the spikes jut out menacingly and the nearby Chamarsal river, a tributary of the Narmada, threatens to breach its embankment and cut off Intkhedi and its sister villages. It’s almost as if the rains conspire to make this part of an India that is forced to move at a different pace. The other villages—Imilia, Uradmao and Majoos Kalan—fall in a line, separated by rows of soyabean fields and joined by a history that goes back 53 years. 

  

In 1955, a number of landless families—mainly Ezhavas and Nairs (two of the biggest Hindu communities of Kerala) and Christians—were brought from Travancore-Cochin state (before it became Kerala) and given land in then Bhopal state under a Central Mechanised Farming project. The biggest lure for these poor families from places like Kuttanad, Aluva and Trissur in Kerala was the 12 acres that each of them would get in four villages—Intkheri, Imilia, Urudmao and Majoos Kalan—in Raisen district. They also got, among other things, a pair of bulls, a plough, seeds for sowing and an igloo-shaped, tin-roof barrack, the money for which they had to pay in easy installments. According to the initial terms of agreement, the selected people would be employed on daily wages to work on the farm for two years, during which they would be trained to sow and harvest wheat and soyabean and they in turn would teach the native tribals paddy cultivation. The land would be transferred to them at the end of the 10th year after they paid the prescribed premium. 

But things didn’t quite work according to plan. After the reorganisation of states on November 1, 1956, Bhopal state became part of a greater Madhya Pradesh and the project wound up in 1957—eight years ahead of schedule. According to the settlers, the pending installments were calculated as dues and thrust on them. 

  

O.N. Shrivastava, former Governor of Nagaland and Manipur and an IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, says the project was probably stopped because the new state had an entirely different set of administrators and several old projects were stopped. The farming project at Intkhedi probably ended that way, he says. 

  

“That came as a shock. We were suddenly branded as debtors and could no longer avail of loans. We struggled for years on this alien land and all those people who were supposed to implement the project vanished. We have worked on paddy fields back home but wheat was entirely new. So each time we tried, we failed,” says Gopalan, whose family owns 14 acres in Intkheri. 

All this while, the debts kept mounting and a lot of settlers went back to Kerala, putting up their land for distress sales. In 1970, after several requests to ministers and officials of the state government went unheeded, Gopalan and others wrote to then prime minister Indira Gandhi. That worked. In 1984, the Centre waived their loans—close to Rs 5 lakh—and the Malayalis won their first battle. 

  

But while they were battling loans and writing memorandums, Intkheri and the other three villages witnessed a quiet social transformation. When the first set of 71 Malayali families came on May 1, 1955, the locals—mostly Gond tribals and other OBCs like Naees and Kushwahas—resisted. “We would run away from them. We didn’t know where they had come from. They looked different, spoke a strange tongue and ate huge mounds of rice. Our parents were convinced they were barbarians. But that was then. Now the joke is that we wear lungis and they wear pyjamas. We look like each other now,” says Hari Ram Kushwaha, the sarpanch of Intkheri, which has a population of 1,150 and 50 per cent of them are Malayalis.

  

THE physical divisions blurred over time but what was tougher to overcome were mental blocks—like that of caste and religion. These villages had very few upper caste but untouchability was well entrenched among the locals. “Those days, there were only two wells in Intkheri,” says Karthikeyan, the secretary of the village panchayat. “The locals wouldn’t let us draw water from their wells. And if we touched any of their mud pots, they would fling it on the ground and break it. But now we are invited to their weddings and we all sit and eat together. Since we are all agriculturists, we share the same concerns,” says Karthikeyan, who came to the village as a child. “I was 14 when these people came. We would call them ‘Madrasis’. I don’t quite like the word but…” So what does he like calling them? “Malayali,” says Kushwaha, taming the syllables and pronouncing the word like very few non-Malayalis can. “I can also speak a few lines: Ninde pere enda (What’s your name?), nee evede pova (where are you going?),” Kushwaha grinned.

  

And so gradually, the Malayali families got the primary school in the village upgraded to a higher secondary school, set up two churches, first a Pentecostal and then a Catholic church, a primary health centre, even a Chotanikkara Bhagawati temple based on the original one near Ernakulam in Kerala and a Sri Narayana Guru temple dedicated to a great social reformer in Kerala—everything except what we were by now half-expecting to find: that card-carrying union leader. 

  

“Oh, no unions here. Some of our families were loyal to the Communists. But since Nehru got us here, they switched sides to back the Congress,” says Karthikeyan.

  

E.V. Joy, a grocer opposite the Catholic church, then gives us a crash course in local politics. “In the last assembly election, a Congressman won from our constituency, Bhojpur. We are part of the Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency and Thakur Rampal Singh of the BJP is our MP,” he says. And then, the stunner: “Your newspaper’s founder, Ramnath Goenka, was an MP from Vidisha. I know because I read the papers.” Have to hand it to the Malayali. 

  

BUT the most visible change was literacy. When the Malayalis of Aluva and Kuttanad carefully packed their sparse belongings, they also made sure they brought with them a fierce obsession for education. Like 75-year-old Mariakutty, who says her only aim in life when she came as a 22-year-old was to make sure her four children went to school. “When I came here, I was shocked. The school wasn’t good enough and I would cry all day. I felt trapped but held on, somehow.” Now as Mariakutty’s granddaughter waits for her admission card from a Raisen college, she is relieved. “My husband died about nine years ago and now all I want is to see these kids educated,” she says. It is hard to say if her eyes are moist with tears or glazed with age. 

  

Like Mariakutty, the Keralites in Intkheri and the other three villages ensured that every child in their homes went to school—fueled by an intense aspiration to make life better for their children. Some even sent their kids to English-medium schools in Raisen (35 km away) and Bhopal because the school in Intkheri wasn’t “good enough”. A few families sold their land to afford their children’s education and some relocated with their kids to Bhopal. 

  

“We started sending our children to school after seeing the Malayalis. But we still wouldn’t send our girls outside these villages,” says sarpanch Kushwaha. 

  

This paid off: Intkheri has a literacy rate of 100 per cent while nearby villages with no Malayalis like Kosni and Bhartipur have a rate of about 20 per cent. 

  

But at the government high school in Intkheri, it’s hard to find Malayali children. “You won’t find too many of them here because they all stay in hostels in Raisen, Sultanpur or Bhopal. Malayalis want English-medium schools for their children,” says Usha Mohan, a 37-year-old teacher from Imlia village who teaches in the Intkheri school. “As kids, we walked all the way from Imilia to study here. Aise mushkil paristithi mein padayi karoge, tabhi jakar apan zindagi mein kuch ban payenge (if you want to make a mark, you will have to struggle to study),” she says. I cringe but don’t tell her my child goes to a premier school in a fancy yellow bus but still complains about being taken to school. And then a stumper: “Acha, yeh batao, yeh sab likhne se apan ko kya milega,” she asks. “Hmm…” we smile foolishly. 

  

Apan is an MP slang for ‘us’ and Mohan, a second generation Malayali here, speaks the regional dialect with ease but surprisingly, with a pronounced Malayalam accent. So do all the second and third generation Malayalis here. Like Mariakutty’s 15-year-old granddaughter Roma Jacob says, “The local girls make fun of our accent. But I think they speak funny Hindi.” 

  

“It’s probably because when we came here, we lived in clusters, away from the locals,” says Karthikeyan. Now though the Malayalis and the locals get along well, Intkheri, Imilia and the other villages have their Malayali colonies. “The Malayalis have maintained their identity all along. There have been no cross-marriages so far. Even the Ezhavas, Nairs and Christians don’t marry each other,” says Father Philip, the priest at the Catholic church in Intkheri. 

  

Food habits have changed over time but rice is still the staple, at least among the older lot. “We have to eat rice, even if it is once a day,” says 55-year-old Shanta Nair who came here as a two-year-old with her father. “For Onam and Vishu (Kerala’s two main festivals), we get jaggery chips and nentra payam (a plantain variety popular in Kerala) from Bhopal and invite our relatives in Bhopal and surrounding areas,” she says, running her fingers through her knee-length damp hair. The smell hits me every time she does that: it’s that familiar mix of coconut oil and water, just the way Malayalis like it. “And why shouldn’t it be? We are Malayalis, aren’t we,” she asks. But Shanta and the others barely visit Kerala. “I did go 25 years ago. I felt completely cut off—barely knew anyone. I don’t think I will go again,” she says. 

  

That’s the story of Intkheri and the other three villages—a story that began when Gopalan Patel, Shanta’s father and many others set out in search of a new home. But 53 years later, they still haven’t found their home: is it that faraway, surreal land called Kerala they left long ago, or in Bhopal and Raisen where several families have since migrated to, or here in Intkheri and Imilia, where an entire generation has grown up? 

  

“Home is definitely here in Imilia. This is where we toiled, where we own land, this is what we will leave behind for our children. But sometimes, when I see my grandchildren walk miles to get to their school, when I think of whether, if I were to fall ill, I will survive the trip to the hospital in Sultanpur, I sometimes wonder if my husband did the right thing by choosing to come here,” says Shankariamma, teacher Usha Mohan’s mother. 

  

“Please do write about all this: that we have no roads, no good health centre…,” says her neighbour Chellamma. “Yeh sab likhne se apan ko kuch faida hoga,” she asks. 

  

Thankfully, Chellamma doesn’t insist on an answer.

Photographs: Liz Mathew
Article: Uma Vishnu

Ticket To Bollywood

In his book "In The Afternoon Of Time" Haribansh Rai Bachhcan recalls that on completion of wedding of Amitabh Bacchan and Jaya Bhaduri, Hari Bansh Rai Bachchan embraced Tarun Bhaduri (Jaya's father) and congratulated him on getting a son-in-law like Amit, expecting him to say the same in respect of Jaya. But he said, ‘My family is utterly ruined.’ Did Jaya recall it during  Abhishek Aishwarya marriage? Meanwhile the association with Bombay Film Industry continues.


Before Mukesh Tiwari, Ashutosh Rana and Shawar Ali headed to Bollywood in the 90s to try their luck as actors, it were Jaya Bachchan, villain-turned-comic Sharad Saxena, Raza Murad and Zeenat Aman through the 70s and 80s who kept the Madhya Pradesh connection with the tinsel town alive. The famed duo of Saleem-Javed has its roots in Indore and Bhopal respectively. In fact Saleem Khan's all three sons-Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail were born in Indore though they relocated to the then Bombay at an early age. And an entire generation grew up on the stories of Ashok and Kishore Kumar's roots in Khandwa, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosale's in Indore, Raj Kapoor's in-laws in Rewa and Premnath's ownership of Empire Talkies in Jabalpur. Sagar-based Vitthal Bhai Patel's lyrics for Rishi Kapoor-Dimple starrer 'Bobby' are the stuff of local lore. And who can forget Saif Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan's Bhopal link.

But these are faces seen on celluloid or voices heard on the background track. What about the invisible or unheard men and women who bring the entire production of a movie together, direct it from behind the camera and write its story, scripts and dialogues? Erstwhile Madhya Pradesh that included Chhattisgarh had some notable exports to Bollywood in these fields as well. Now, Rumi Jafry keeps that proud track record going. "God Tussi Great Ho' starring Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra released in August might have had a mixed record at the box office. It might have even been dismissed by the critics as a crude Indian take on the hit Hollywood movie 'Bruce Almighty' starring comedy superstar Jim Carey and Morgan Freeman. But it doesn't take away the fact that Jafry has established himself as a top writer-director in Bollywood. Jafry left his modest government quarter accommodation in Tulsi Nagar of Bhopal almost two decades back and has worked his way up the hard way even as part of his family continues to live in its modest home near the lower lake in the walled city.

Directing a star-studded cast that includes Big B and Salman Khan apart from Priyanka Chopra signals his arrival as a serious player near the top of the pile in the cut-throat world of Bollywood. Starting out as story, screenplay and dialogue writer, he was firmly entrenched in the David Dhawan camp, doing a dozen projects with the most successful purveyor of tamasha movies throughout the 90s. Jafry says, "It's been a mixture of hard work and luck. I am grateful for everything that I have today."

JP Chouksey, a noted film critic and himself a film writer and producer, most remarkably of Naseeruddin Shah-starrer `Shayad' and `Katl' Starring Sanjeev Kumar, says,"While Rumi has achieved commercial success as a director, his forte remains dialogue. His best perhaps came in Chalte Chalte, the Aziz Mirza film for which he wrote dialogues." The only other serious name from Madhya Pradesh currently in Bollywood as far as film direction goes is Sudhir Mishra, who spent his formative years in the university town of Sagar. While Jafry's and Mishra's vocations might be same, they inhabit different worlds altogether. Mishra is a critically-acclaimed director known for his alternative and arthouse cinema like 'Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin'. His latest venture was 'Khoya Khoya Chand' starring Soha Ali Khan. Mishra is the grandson of former chief minister, the late DP Mishra. It is a little known fact that DP Mishra was himself a serious player in the business and once owned his own production house Dhuandhar Productions.

Around the same time as Mishra's in the 60s, Chhattisgarh also had some serious players venturing out in Bombay. One of the most notable among them was Kishore Sahu, a producer-director and an actor most remembered for his performance as the cussed, jealous husband of Wahida Rehman in Dev Anand's immortal mega-hit `Guide'. However, the State's Bollywood connection dates much further back. In 1949, Gopikrishna Vijayvargiya, a native of Guna who later settled down in Indore, made a black and white movie `Preet Ka Geet' starring the vamp of yesteryear, 'Shashikala'.
The State's commercial hub Indore, in fact, has been an assembly line of movie producers. Even Lata Mangeshkar, the most phenomenal female voice ever in Bollywood, has produced a few films, the most successful being `Lekin' directed by noted writer, lyricist and director Gulzaar as also 'Jait Re Ja', directed by Dr. Jabbar Patel. Painter MF Hussain, who hails from Indore, has also tried his hand at movie production and direction with Madhuri Dixit starrer `Gajgamini' in the 90s that was nevertheless panned by critics and bombed at the box office.

The Nasaria family of Indore had produced a movie `Majboor Mashooq' during the silent era. The Williamson camera of 1917 make that was used to shoot the film is still preserved in working order by the family in Indore. Likewise, Chouksey points out, even the then ruling family of Indore, the Holkars, one of whose descendents is actor Vijayendra Ghatage, had tried their hand at movie finance as far back as 1922. The erstwhile Maharaja's sister was married to Indore businessman Boliya Sarcar, who produced Jehan Ara starring Meena Kumari and Pradeep Kumar and directed by Jaan Nisar Akhtar, father of Javed Akhtar. At the peak of Indore's connections with Bombay, there were many business and industrial families from the city financing movie projects. However, the trend declined once corporate finance became the order of the day around a decade years back.
Gwalior's connection to Bollywood may be limited but no less significant. Lyricist Javed Akhtar spent some of his childhood years in Gwalior before completing his graduation in Bhopal. One of the most stunning beauties to have appeared in a Bollywood film was Vanmala, the daughter of a high-ranking official in the erstwhile Gwalior state. Starring in Sohrab Modi's Sikandar, she also produced Marathi movie Shamchi Aai which won the first President's gold medal. However, she gave it all up to tend to her ailing parents and after their death, shifted to Vrindavan to take care of the diseased and the elderly.

From the days when such formidable lyricists as Kavi Pradeep, Sadanand Kirkire, Rahat Indori and Nida Fazli made their invaluable contribution to traditional movie-making, the movie business has seen directors exploring different themes. As a result, the likes of Mir Ranjan Negi, the hockey goalie from the doomed 1982 Asiad, have been able to provide technical inputs for superhits like Shah Rukh Khan starrer 'Chak De India' last year. As the business of infotainment expands with films at the top, the State could well see more of its names pop up on the marquee.
Earlier refrence to Bombay Film Industry.

Pic No 1 - Amitabh Bachchan at the wedding. 

Pic No 2 - Her classmate Mr. Javed Saeed Khan son of famous Bhopal poet and lawer Janab Akhtar Saeed Khan.

Pic No 3 - St Joseph's Convent she is sitting first row extreme right.

Pic No 4 - Jaya with her friends at Bhopal 

Pic No.5 - Her autographs to a classmate at SJC.

Received with thanks from Mr. Javed Chishti

Hungry Bhopali

At about 7am, though even 8 or 9 will do, head to the Jama Masjid. On the east side of the masjid, just off Itwara Road, is Kalyan Singh’s Swad Bhandar (0755-2731495). You will find it easily because of the crowd of people eating his famous, fresh and hot Bhopali poha with Sev and Jalebis. This is a breakfast you will find all over the city, in both old and new quarters. Walk down to Itwara Chowk and get yourself a cup of authentic Bhopali Sulemani chai (Rs 2) from Jamal Bhai’s chai ki dukaan. Served from a huge samovar, this tea is uniquely sweet and salty, with generous amounts of cream. At the same place, you can try toast with pure thick cream. Better still slowly savour a regal breakfast of delicious mutton biryani from famous briyan shop next to the Jamal Bhai with Bakre ka paya. Very few other cities in world will offer you Biryani for breakfast!

By lunchtime, make your way to one of three restaurants in Bhopal that offer Bhopali food on their menus. Two of these are in Koh-e-Fiza. The first is at the Noor-us-Sabah Palace(4223333, 4239996). The open-air restaurant here offers beautiful views of Bada Talab and retains a few Nawabi specialties from the menus that once dominated its kitchens. Try Bhopali chicken korma (Rs 255), a rich and spicy chicken gravy and khada masala ka gosht (Rs 255), a dish of mutton cooked with whole spices that included star anise. The former royal khansama Ustad Saeed Khan, who used to cook for HH Hamidullah Khan and still cooks authentic Nawabi food to order (c/o Imran, 09893036807), proudly talks about how Bhopal uniquely prizes and uses star anise and about Bhopal’s rotis, which have to be so thin that “kauwa kaan par baandhen, uda le jaye aur pata na chale”. Saeed Khan regularly cooks murgh mussallum, biryani and murgh rezala among other Bhopali dishes at the Noor-us-Sabah and also cooks on occasion at the Jehanuma Palace (2661100). Lunch at the Shahnama Restaurant at Jehanuma Palace could include delicious Bhopali mutton korma (Rs 260) and murgh rezala (Rs 270) as per recipes handed down from the days of the nawabs. One of the most precious of these is the Bhopali filfora (Rs 275), a most unique dish made of turkey breast, marinated and slow cooked. They make a very good Bater (quail) mussallum (Rs 225) at the Jehanuma too. The other place in Koh-e-Fiza, Filfora is also the only place where you can find delicious shahi piece (Rs 15) readymade, without having to order in advance. The superb dessert of fried bread soaked in custard and flavored with cardamom is among the best. Also try the excellent phirni here (Rs 15). Their boti (Rs 55) and shami kebabs (Rs 45) are succulent and soft, and their kormas spicy. They serve excellent biryani (Rs 55) complete with traditional burani (Rs 30). The menu is replete with Nawabi dishes like khada masala ka gosht, roghan josh (Rs 70 each), kaccha kebab (Rs 40) and murgh rezala (Rs 70). The service tends to be bad and slow, please take it as part of Bhopali tradition

For evening snack in the tiny chowk adjacent to the Jama Masjid try barfi rasmalai dona at Surendra Jain’s stall. He places crushed ice in a pattal bowl, pours sweet and thick rabri over it, topped with syrup and finished with a sprinkling of rose water. Try Fariyali Khichdi, a khichdi of cooked sabudana with a peanut or two, curry leaves, kothmir and chillies, topped with thin wafers, a good sprinkling of sev and spicy batata chips. Now it is time for what Bhopal was waiting for all day. Make your way to Chatori Gali in Ibrahimpura, a short walk from the Jama Masjid, by 7pm so you can be there when the lid of the nahari pot is opened and swoon in ecstasy. The entrance to Chatori Gali is marked by crowds hanging around the Jhilli Miyan Ke Bade Ke Bun Kabab. He takes the tenderest bade ka kebab, made from meat that has been pounded hour upon painstaking hour, stuffs it into a tiny bun and serves it with chutney and onions (Rs 3). Once you’ve had it you’ll agree that the world henceforth is divided into those who’ve eaten bun kebab and those who haven’t. Then get to Hotel Gazala, a few steps ahead in Chatori Gali, announced by thick stacks of kulcha tandoori. Mohammad Sarwar’s (09893191733) will give you rotis and a thick and peppery stew full of soft meat that brings tears of gratitude. Look at the unspeaking crowds in the gali around you engrossed in enjoying this most perfect dinner.

Still Hungry? Food Check List
OLD BHOPAL
- Hotel Gazala (09893191733), Chatori Gali, Ibrahimpura after 7pm for the fabulous nalli nihari (Rs 20), bhuna korma (Rs 10), special stew (Rs 20), nargisi kofta (Rs 15), bater (quail, Rs 50 apiece) and aloo-sabzi-dal-anda.
- Hotel Jameel, Ibrahimpura after 7pm for kebabs and fried chicken
- Manohar Dairy and Restaurant (2740465) Hamidia Road for Chaat, Dosa, Sweets and other Paneer based items
- Taste of Hyderabad (2533431) Jishan Complex, Emami Gate fluctuates in quality makes excellent khumani ka meetha, phirni, biryani and Bhopali mutton korma on a good day.
- Haji Lassiwala, Itwara Chowk - falooda is the world’s best.
- Ibrahimpura - Varki samosa at only a couple of stalls after 4pm - it is a layered samosa stuffed with spicy mutton keema
- Arif Bhai Bhajiye - Shabban Chouraha!
- Shahjahanabad Ka Badam Milk - only in winters.
- Laxmi Talkise Ki Namak Wali Chai.

NEW BHOPAL
- The mutton chaamp (Rs 80), keema kaleji (Rs 70) and bhuna gosht (Rs 80) at Hakeem Hotel (5252181), New Market, TT Nagar
- The Vegetarian menu at Bapu ki Kutia at Roshanpura T. T. Nagar
- The famous Cycle Soup Walla of No. 10 market in Arera Colony (now Sagar Ratna): Veg cheese soup, Triple Decker Cheese Sandwich, Veg Biryani made with Soya Koftas.
- 6 no. Stop Hawkers corner – Samose, Kachori, Chat
- Milan Sweets, M.P. Nagar, Zone I – Samose, Kachori, Chat
- Brajwasi New Market - Pani Puri
- Chole Kulche at 10 No Market thela

(Please contribute your tips. Let us make this a complete food guide of Bhopal)

Shikar in Bhopal

Shikar (n. hunting; game; v.i. & t. hunt (animal) as sport. shikaree, shakari, shakary, n. (big game) hunter.) in Bhopal was not a sport nor a pastime but a way of life. Endowed with every form of wildlife in its lush jungles stretching across several rivers, Bhopal had an abundant supply of wild animals ranging fare of crocodiles, sambar, nilgai and all varieties of deer that inhabited the thick forests. Bhopal also possessed savannah-type land where wild bucks, chinkaras (small buck), grouse, partridge and wild geese were found in abundance. It was thus a well-known haven for all kinds of hunters. Over the centuries, shikar had for Bhopal’s nobility developed into a highly skilled pursuit. At the top, was the royal family for whom the hunting of tigers was a traditional pursuit. Every scion of the family needed to prove his manhood by hunting big game and even the Begums – notably Sikandar Begum – went tiger hunting. In Bhopal, the tiger hunt was reserved for the royal family; the gentry were allowed to shoot less regal game.

Nawab Nasrullah Khan was an expert hunter and was one of the few hunters in India who had achieved the distinction of becoming ‘nausherwan’ – a hunter who bags nine tigers in a 24-hours span. Nawab Hamidullah tried to emulate his elder brother’s record but only managed eight tigers in 24 hours, allowing his daughter, Abida Sultan, to bag the ninth after the 24-hour gong had sounded. Once Princess Abida was driving Sultan Jahan Begum from Bhopal to Chiklod when they suddenly came across a tiger walking on the road. Princess Abida was stopped from shooting the tiger by their family doctor who was accompanying them, as Begum Sultan Jahan was with them and it was too dangerous. On reaching Chiklod, Sultan Jahan said aloud to her son Hamidullah, “Mian today, your daughter ducked the challenge of shooting a tiger. She will have to pay the usual penalty of sacrificing a bakra (goat) to make for her lack of courage. We don’t expect this kind of cowardice from our family members”! The seventy-year old matriarch who was not herself a shikari, expected mere fourteen-year old girl to shoot a tiger when there was no one else in the car remotely familiar with shikar. Such were the expectations of the family matriarchs, even from the girls of the family.

Edward, Prince of Wales (later to become King Edward VIII and then Duke of Windsor) visited Bhopal from 2^nd till 5^th February 1922. The Prince went to Kachnaria to shoot big game, particularly tigers for which Bhopal was famous. Gandhi was waging his anti-British struggle and had called on the Indian people to boycott the Prince of Wales visit. Gandhi’s influence had not penetrated in to the princely states. However, the carefully planned tiger shoots suffered a rude shock when the chief guest failed to even sight a tiger, while some of his staff (like Dickie Mountbatten) shot more than one each. The famous shikari, Nawab Nasrullah Khan, explained away his embarrassment by insisting that it was the spell cast by Mr Gandhi that had led to the disappearance of all the tigers! Since his appeal to boycott the Prince’s visit had been ignored by the people of Bhopal, Mr Gandhi had made the tigers to comply! But the most extraordinary event followed soon, Prince went missing for more than twelve hours from his tent that night. 

Nawab Nasrullah along with his trusted shikari Najibullah Khan were guarding the tent during night, when mysteriously the Prince disappeared. At breakfast, there was still no sign of the Prince, investigations indicating that the Prince must have been kidnapped soon after dinner. Nawab Nasrullah, choking with shame and desperation, sat cursing the ‘old villain’ Gandhi, while Najibullah Khan threatened to commit suicide! 

However, the Prince soon returned to his tent, safe and sound. It transpired that, unhappy at being the only member of his party who failed even to sight a tiger, the Prince decided that his hosts had been overcautious for his safety and had deliberately avoided taking him where his life might have been exposed to danger by encountering a tiger. He had, therefore, decided to make his own solo attempt and slipped out of camp unnoticed. The Prince then having lost his bearings in the dark, roamed around in the jungles eagerly looking forward to bagging his tiger on foot, alas without success! Only after daybreak, was the Prince able to find his way back to camp. The Prince returned to Bhopal and was given a royal send-off. In order to maintain Bhopal’s honor as a tiger shooting paradise, it was announced in the press that the Prince had bagged three tigers (report in the London Times of 7^th February 1922).

Many magnificent shikargahs of Bhopal have been lost for ever, while some have been converted to reserve forests, continuing the legend of Bhopal big games. The shooting of course, has long acquired the happily changed meaning, with the cameras replacing the guns. Another legacy that continues from the glory days of Bhopal shikar is the open military jeeps that were extensively used for shikar during the nawab era. Nawab Hamidullah had ordered twenty-six jeeps to Ford, London. These were transported to Bombay by ship. After being driven by road to Bhopal, they were modified by the Bhopali mechanics to suit the India conditions, giving birth to the tradition of Bhopali modified open military jeeps. The jeeps are still a rage among many Bombay film stars, Indian politicians and the Bhopalis. These modified jeeps can still be seen on Bhopal roads, by the side of the latest luxury cars and winning the race of turning heads hands down.

Cultural Landscape Of Bhopal

By 1923, 200 years after Dost Mohammad Khan had founded the state, Bhopal presented a picture of settled, well governed, fair and tolerant society. Over the years, Bhopal had also developed its special culture, influenced by a century of women’s rule and their deliberate emphasis on simple living and caring governance. Bhopal’s dress was singular; the fashion set by the ruling family themselves. The men wore a safa (turban) for a headdress as it was considered improper to go around bare headed. These safas were four to six meters long and tied in the Rajputana style. Traditionally each major household selected a particular color and distinct style in tying its turban. Sultan Jahan selected turquoise as the color of her household and at ceremonial occasions her entourage consisted of men dressed in white sherwanis and turquoise safas. With the passage of time the common folk in the street soon took to the Turkish cap, especially after Sultan Jahan returned from Turkey. 

Up to the time of Bhopal’s merger with the Indian union, Bhopali Muslims wore the soft, dark red Turkish cap with a black tassel (in contrast with the hard, bright red Turkish cap worn in Egypt or Bahawalpur). For formal occasions, men wore sherwanis with white cotton pyjamas that were neither too tightly fitted (like the choori-dar pyjama of United Provinces) nor too loose (like the flabby, Allahabad style pyjama). Only women in the home wore the shalwar prevalent today in Pakistan. The Hindu community wore the dhoti at home, but wore pyjamas with Jodhpur-style coats outside and on formal occasions. As a headdress they too wore safas but not the Turkish cap. Instead they wore the white, boat-like Nehru cap. The Bhopali women also adopted a distinctive dress, which was graceful, and elegant. It consisted of a Turkish-style kurta that flared in a circle flowing down from a tight fitting waist. The kurta was made of the finest cloth, often bordered with golden and silver linings. In addition, Bhopali women carried a dopatta that measured 4.5 meters elegantly carried across the body and over the shoulder. These dresses were sewn by special seamstresses and dyed to matching and dyed to matching and contrasting colors with the pyjamas. Unlike the men, women wore tight calf-hugging pyjamas made from rich colored material.

In the field of literature, Bhopal’s special culture produced its own accent in spoken Urdu and Hindustani and a lexicon of words that are typically Bhopali and barely understood in other parts of India. Bhopal produced its erudite scholars, poets and religious philosophers, but typical of Bhopal was the tradition of non-Muslims writing Urdu and Farsi prose and poetry. Shahzad Masih, the Bourbon, was a poet who wrote under the nom de plume of Fitrat. 

There were also settlers of Portuguese extraction who composed in Urdu poetry so that Bhopal’s Urdu and Farsi literati included somewhat incongruous names of Hakeem Ilyas De Silva, Thomas Batista and a lady named Flora Sakis.

Bhopal’s cultural scene was also dominated by sport. 

Shikar, especially big game, was abundantly available in Bhopal and was a pastime for most people who could afford to maintain a gun. Apart from shikar, Bhopal was famous for polo – Hamidullah having an outstanding nine-goal handicap - and for field hockey, which, somehow, caught the imagination of the common man. Bhopal became famous as a home of hockey with the legendary Bhopal Wanderers winning every major tournament in India. By 1923, a yacht club was built and sailing became a fascinating sport for the gentry while the townsfolk sat crouched around the lakeside, placing bets on the boats racing in the regattas.

Naya Daur at Bhopal

Director B. R. Chopra’s son Ravi Chopra has converted Naya Daur to a colour film, the Bhopali remembers with nostalgia the era when about 10,000 people from Bhopal thronged the Budhni ghat (near Bhopal) to see Dilip Kumar and Vayajayantimala shooting. This film was essentially about the struggle of a tongawallah (horse cart driver) against the motorized vehicles being launched. The hero saves the day by making a new road, helped by Vayajayantimala to the tunes of “Saathi Haath Badana”, on which he races his tonga to reach the destination before the motorized vehicle. The songs from the films like “Ude Jab Jab Zulfen Teri”, “Yeh desh hai veer jabano ka” and “Maang Ke Saath Tumhara” has been a legend since release in 1957.

If only Ravi Chopra had looked around, he could have found a new story for his colored “Naya Daur” in Bhopal. The quintessentially Bhopal mini buses are being replaced by all new swanky Star Buses christened the “City Bus” run by a body called the “Bhopal City Link Ltd”. The City Buses are ultra-modern buses with modern low floors, ample leg space, wide glass windows, 44 seat 2x2 theater type seating and 40 standees, anti skid Vinyl Flooring, CFL lighting uses fully computerized Electronic Ticketing Machines for issuing daily passenger tickets. The buses are soon to be connected using a GPS based system that would display the next scheduled bus timings on boards mounted at the bus stops. Competing with these state of art buses, the local mini buses first resorted to violence attacking the new city buses. That did not bother the city bus operators much, and now one can see many mini buses sporting advertisements to compete with the new city buses. In a loosing battle for space the mini buses will soon be moved out of city to the city suburbs. Unlike the “Naya Daur” the city planners have planned a new road corridor for the city buses exclusively. Bhopalis however will miss the trademark "Lo bada lo" and "Chale Chalo" of the mini bus.

Moharram At Bhopal

Muslims of every sect are solemnly observing Moharram, which reminisces of the great sacrifice of Shaheed-e-Azam Hazrat Imam Hussain. The rituals will culminate on Tuesday. Like every year a grand rally would be taken out on the 10th day of the month which will include Alams, Tazias and Sawaris. Main attractions would be large Tazias of Mangalwara and Budhwara. It would be for the first time that Tazias and Alams would be immersed in the Lower Lake instead of Karbala Ghat on the banks of Upper Lake. However, for completing religious rituals Tazias would be first taken to Karbala.

The Tazias (replica shrine of Imam Hussain) are being taken out in Bhopal from the era of Begums. At those times both ruler and ruled, Hindus and Muslims paid their respect and tributes to the martyrs of Karbala. part from its religious importance, month of Moharram has its own significance for Bhopali culture. The famous Gutkha of Bhopal came into existence during this mourning month. Raja of Islam Nagar Vijay Ram also had a Tazia prepared. Besides making Tazias and holding Majlis several other acts of philanthropy are undertaken. They include offering water and Sharbat, feeding poor and have-nots and distributing alms. Mahmood Sikandar, who is great devotee of Imam Hussain has been taking out his Tazia for the last 50 years. He told that in Bhopal Tazias are made of Bamboo sticks and papers of various kinds. 

That is why Tazias are lightweight and can be lifted and carried by a few persons. They are eco-friendly as they degrade in water sometime after the submersion. Tazias were mostly submerged in the Upper Lake on the banks of Karbala. But many people lay them to rest in the soil. The biggest and oldest Tazia of Bhopal is that of Mangalwara eunuchs. The Tazia of courtesan Nanhi Bai, which had silver coating, was also a major attraction. But when Nanhi Bai moved to Bombay (Now Mumbai) she took her Tazia away with her. During the battle with Marathas of Gwalior and Nagpur between 1808 to 1812, the condition of people became so bad that they had to eat stones of Tamarind (Imli) and roasted leaves. That battle had started in the month of Moharram and ended in the same month many years later and Bhopal emerged victorious. Though the battle was over but the people of Bhopal did not stop taking Gutkha. Instead they made certain modifications to make the Gutkha tasty. Now Gutkha was prepared with cut beetle nuts and other ingredients. The famous Zari Batua (pouch) also came into existence to keep and carry Gutkha. In Olden times, special Gutkha was prepared for Moharram.

Another very interesting episode is associated with Moharram in Bhopal. In the era of Nawab Sultan Jahan Begum, two of his emirs Tabba Mian and Abba Mian, both brothers, got her permission to divert the route of Moharram procession and Tazias through near their house so that they could have maximum glimpses of it. This was vehemently opposed by the masses. That year the situation became so tense that Tabba Main and Abba Mian could not move out of their houses to watch Tazia procession. The next year Tabba mian added several stories to his house so that he could watch Tazias from there. At that time the palace-like building became the tallest one in the city. The palace still lies in dilapidated condition near Peer Gate.

Bhopal - The early days

After the initial days of 640 AD, when Raja Bhoj built his great dams, Bhopal was lost to the jungles of central India. This was a small village on the banks of the river Banganga. An old fort, lying in ruins, lying quietly by the side of the important road connecting Delhi to Deccan plateau. The area was criss crossed by several rivers and was situated in the Vindhya mountains. The local populace, dominated by bhils and gonds, was dominated by a succession of warlords. These were the local chieftains (known as the Gond-raja) or Rajput chiefs or Muslim commanders who briefly governed the region, mainly on behalf of the more powerful overlords and emperors operating from Delhi, Agra, Rajputana or Bundelkhand.

An eventful journey of this ruined and decayed region began around 1707, which saw this village of about 20 families grow to become one of India's leading princely states with a 19-gun salute. After Hyderabad, it was the most important Muslim state of the British India, till the merger agreement was signed with the government of India.

To trace the fascinating story of rise of Bhopal, we will have to start from Tirah, a village in the tribal area on the border between today's Pakistan and Afganistan.

Karchob

After the failure of the the 1857 freedom movement, many skilled artisans from Uttar Pradesh migrated to Bhopal, in search of relative calm, from the turmoils of an avenging British army. These artisans were skilled in the mughal arts of jardosi, ari, jari etc. The ladies of Bhopal were being promoted to learn crafts by the then Begum of Bhopal, Sultan Jahan Begum.

The Bhopalis lapped up this craft from the migrated artisans and adpoted it to some local culture. The famous guthka of Bhopal used to be carried in small pouches, called the batua. These artisans started decorating these batuas with there newly learned craft. Overtime a unique Bhopali craft was genereated from the traditional Jardosi. In this, the wires of silver were used to string togather pearls (moti). These hand made silk art works using jari, and different stars was called the Karchob and is widely used till date in Bhopal. Due to efforts of many NGOs working in the field of promoting local handicrafts, this art form has started to make re-appearence in marriage dresses, formal party wares, wall hangings and jackets. The Bhopali Batuas with work of Karchob can also be seen at many shops specially at the railway station, bus stand and state art and craft meuseums

Tazias of Bhopal

The Tazias (replica shrine of Imam Hussain) are being taken out in Bhopal from the era of Begums. At those times both ruler and ruled, Hindus and Muslims paid their respect and tributes to the martyrs of Karbala. part from its religious importance, month of Moharram has its own significance for Bhopali culture. The famous Gutkha of Bhopal came into existence during this mourning month. Raja of Islam Nagar Vijay Ram also had a Tazia prepared. Besides making Tazias and holding Majlis several other acts of philanthropy are undertaken. They include offering water and Sharbat, feeding poor and have-nots and distributing alms. Mahmood Sikandar, who is great devotee of Imam Hussain has been taking out his Tazia for the last 50 years. He told that in Bhopal Tazias are made of Bamboo sticks and papers of various kinds.

That is why Tazias are lightweight and can be lifted and carried by a few persons. They are eco-friendly as they degrade in water sometime after the submersion. Tazias were mostly submerged in the Upper Lake on the banks of Karbala. But many people lay them to rest in the soil. The biggest and oldest Tazia of Bhopal is that of Mangalwara eunuchs. The Tazia of courtesan Nanhi Bai, which had silver coating, was also a major attraction. But when Nanhi Bai moved to Bombay (Now Mumbai) she took her Tazia away with her. During the battle with Marathas of Gwalior and Nagpur between 1808 to 1812, the condition of people became so bad that they had to eat stones of Tamarind (Imli) and roasted leaves. That battle had started in the month of Moharram and ended in the same month many years later and Bhopal emerged victorious. Though the battle was over but the people of Bhopal did not stop taking Gutkha. Instead they made certain modifications to make the Gutkha tasty. Now Gutkha was prepared with cut beetle nuts and other ingredients. The famous Zari Batua (pouch) also came into existence to keep and carry Gutkha. In Olden times, special Gutkha was prepared for Moharram.

Another very interesting episode is associated with Moharram in Bhopal. In the era of Nawab Sultan Jahan Begum, two of his emirs Tabba Mian and Abba Mian, both brothers, got her permission to divert the route of Moharram procession and Tazias through near their house so that they could have maximum glimpses of it. This was vehemently opposed by the masses. That year the situation became so tense that Tabba Main and Abba Mian could not move out of their houses to watch Tazia procession. The next year Tabba mian added several stories to his house so that he could watch Tazias from there. At that time the palace-like building became the tallest one in the city. The palace still lies in dilapidated condition near Peer Gate.

Patiyabaazi of Bhopal

People sitting at roadside tea stalls are an intellectually stimulating sight in Bhopal. But patiabazi, as the Bhopalis refer to the evening get-together, is waning in the walled city. In the days of nawabi rule, patias were the hotspots of discussion of topics as varied as politics, hockey and culture. 

Patia is slang for the rectangular slab of stone (4x2ft) placed in front of tea shops. 

During the day, shopkeepers used the patia to display products and seat customers; at night it served as a meeting place. People like late President Dr Shanker Dayal Sharma, former MP K.N. Pradhan and hockey player Aslam Sher Khan would gather at Najja Dada ka patia to discuss politics. "These patias were intellectual diet for Bhopal’s residents," says an old Bhopali. "After dinner, people spent hours discussing the freedom movement and Bhopal's welfare. Sometimes the patias turned into mushairas, where poets recited their poems." 

The debates were so lively that the erstwhile nawabs used to post his men at the patias to know the current hot topic. The nawab had an intelligence officer posted at Najja Dada ka patia to know if there was any conspiracy against him. Patia of Ibhrahimpura was a famous one for discussions on politics and hockey while Maktaba Sharkia patia was known for talks on art, culture and literature. "Hockey players even discussed the team members and the next day’s strategy," says Riaz Sheriff, a resident of Bhopal. 

The patia culture was so famous that novelist Koser Chandpuri wrote an article titled Bhopal ke Patiey, which was published by the journal of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It has a bit of filmi glamour as well: Riaz Sheriff says the term ‘Surma Bhopali’, popularised by comedian Jagdeep, evolved from a discussion at a patia. 

This tradition of batolebaji is still continued in the old city area. A true bhopali will do a ratjaga (sleepless night) without a blink for a good session of Patiya. Specially in summers, Bhopalis will go to sleep at 3 o'clock in the morning, till which time they would sit in front of closed shops and talk and talk and talk. You can see all street and roads awake till 3 am. Men, women, girls, boys all are sitting and talking. Even the chaats, pakauda and ice cream sellers do a brisk business. Bhopali family like to visit film in night show and it is not unusual to purchase vegetables at 11 pm. 

Do not assume that this is a feature for the males, the ladies are equally active in these ratjagas and patiyas.

Passionately Lazy

At Bhopal you will come across strangely named places. There are places like the do (2) number, the teen (3) number, the cheh (6) number, the sade cheh (6 1/2) number till barah (12) number (as on date) - and believe it or not - these are all thriving markets or/and residential colonies . The big and beautiful bungalows of the administrative services and of some politicians is located at something called 1100 quarters. One might wonder why these strange names. It is nothing but the Bhopali heritage of being lazy. We are passionate of our laziness, and preserve it as our heritage. Out of laziness no body for a long time bothered to name the places and hence people (bus conductors - the trend setters of Bhopal) started calling these places by the serial number 2, 3, 4 etc.

Coming back to our heritage of being lazies, Bhopal was the founding venue of the legendary lazies’ Club, the Daairat-ul-Kuhala, which began somewhere in the late 1920s. This club was Bhopal's response to the global strife of the world being in “too much of a hurry”. In response this mid-century home to the Urdu ghazal, under the proud president Jigar Moradabadi, elevated laziness to an art form. The entry fees to this club was a pillow, and the status of the members was ranked by there vertical position in the club, viz lying down, sprawled, seated or standing. The standing members were to pay for the drinks, and this they did gladly. Once Jigar Moradabadi was even kidnapped by a local goon - and was let go only after a private recital.

In this era of finding twenty-four hour days too short, what can one say to that? As Gulzaar saab has said so beautifully - Dil dhoondta hai phir wohi fursat ke raat din… baithe rahe tasavvur-e-jaanaan kiye hue

Ijtima at Bhopal

Alami Tablighi Ijtima held every year for three days at Bhopal is one of the world's largest religious congregations. The event concluded on Monday the 20th November with offering prayers by more than 12 lakh Muslims. Previously this event used to be held at Taj-Ul-Masjid in Bhopal, but has been shifted out of city five years back, to a place called Ghasipura near Bhopal.
Almost every Bhopali of my generation remembers the fair that came to be associated with this Ijtima. The foreign delegates used to bring clothes which were sold in this fair at very attractive prize. Those were the days of pre-liberalization, pre-television. These clothes were probably discards of these foreign delegates. There are many rumors which claim that people who bought these clothes found foreign currency in the pockets! The hype and hoopla surrounding these clothes was such that most part of the city did not even know that the fair was actually just a by-product of a much bigger event, the actual Ijtima, which is reported to be the second biggest non-political gathering of Muslims after the Hajj!
Many Bhopalis used to avoid buying anything new during these days, for the fear of being labeled as bought from Ijtima. The taunt went "Kyun Ijtima se liya"? Many went to the extent of hiding the things purchased from Ijtima till well after the event was over. The charm and nostalgia associated with Ijtima started dwindling with free availability of high quality clothing and advent of television. The death blow was shifting the Ijtima site out of Bhopal, obviously for administrative reasons.