Saba Ali Khan – Return Of Lady Custodian

Not many know that Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi -- grandson of the last Nawab of Bhopal, Hamidullah Khan -- had done two things in his life that cannot be denied place in the history of Bhopal and its Muslim people. 

The Bhopal-born Nawab of Pataudi had donated a piece of land in the City of Lakes for a mosque later named after his mother. And he recommended that his elder daughter, Saba Ali Khan, succeed him in Awqaf-e-Shahi -- the princely waqf properties he was managing in the name of God for charity. Pataudi donated the land for a mosque in 2003. Five years later, he recommended Saba's name as naib-muttawalli or deputy patron. Pataudi, associated more with glamour than matters of faith, had donated the land named after Sajida Sultan, Bhopal's last begum. Earlier, the city had several mosques but none had been built or sponsored by a male regent. The Taj-ul-Masjid, Moti Masjid and Jama Masjid in the former princely state -- ruled by three generations of begums for a century from 1829 -- were all built by women rulers.

'It had remained one of the biggest ironies of nawabi rule in Bhopal, spread over 240 years, that none of the male regents built a mosque,' said Arif Aziz, author of several books on mosques in the Madhya Pradesh capital.

Some say, Pataudi got the nickname Tiger because he had killed a tiger at the age of 16 in the forests of Madhya Pradesh. 'Tiger may not have directly built Masjid Sajida Sultan but his contribution had been immense,' Aziz said. The current market price of the land, which forms part of Pataudi's personal fortune, is said to be around Rs.7 crore. Spread over 19,600 square feet and overlooking the serene Bada Talab (big lake), the mosque has a separate enclosure for women that can accommodate around 150. In 2008, when the mosque came up, Pataudi and daughter Saba visited the city and Tiger recommended her as deputy patron of the dozens of shrines, orphanages and religious trusts that are part of the princely waqf properties of Bhopal. Pataudi had given a signed letter in Urdu to authorities. It said: 'I have been fulfilling my duties as mutawalli of Awqaf-e-Shahi, Bhopal. However, I feel the time has come to share my burden. I, therefore, propose my elder daughter Saba as asnaib mutawalli (deputy patron). As per the merger agreement between State of Bhopal and the state government, Saba may be appointed as my deputy so that she acquaints herself with the functioning of waqf during my lifetime.' 

Keeping in mind the religious sensitivity, he had preferred Saba as his deputy. His other two children, Saif Ali Khan and Soha, belong to film industry. Once Saba becomes mutawalli, she will become the first woman head of the Awqaf-e-Shahi - since the end of princely rule - to govern religious properties worth over Rs.300 crore, including Bhopal's picturesque Jama Masjid. The mantle of maintaining huge properties of the erstwhile royal family extending from Bhopal to Saudi Arabia, now falls on Pataudi's daughter Saba Ali Khan, whom he had begun grooming for the task three years ago. The properties that are now under the royal trust include religious structures, grand mosques and adjoining lands, charitable institutions, vast agricultural properties, graveyards, the famous Raisen dargah and the 'rubaats' for Haj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, that are run by the Auqaf-e-Shahi (the royal Waqf). However, the role of handling these properties is more of a socio-religious mantle rather than being an owner.  These properties are apart from the few personal properties left with the family. With her head covered, Saba, dressed in salwar-kamiz, was taken around by Pataudi himself to have a look at the properties whose affairs she had to manage.  "Pataudi was the mutawalli of Auqaf-e-Shahi and now Saba would take over", said Rashid Ul Hasan Khan 'Afaq', who was his personal secretary for almost ten years. Says litterateur Professor Afaq Ahmad, "It is natural that after Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, his daughter, Saba, would become the mutawalli (custodian). There shouldn't be any hitch in that", he said. "With his clout, he could have played even a greater role in Bhopal. Now his daughter has an important responsibility on her", said Afaq Ahmad. Apart from Waqf land, the family owns private properties also but the status of several properties is unclear. It is believed that as Saba is not associated with Bollywood and thus away from glamour, she was chosen for the role. This hardly raised any eyebrows in Bhopal, as Begums had ruled the erstwhile princely state for over a century.  The properties are estimated to be worth hundreds of crores but as they are Waqf properties, her role would more be supervisory. The Waqf properties can't be put for any other use except for which they have been endowed.  "There are shops on Waqf land from which the income is nominal. Besides, many properties are under encroachment, which she in her new role would have to deal with", says a Waqf official, on conditions of anonymity. "Regarding personal properties, some of them are either under litigation and a few have reportedly been sold as well", he added. 

'For the people of Bhopal, he was nawab, but our relationship remained as players. He was a very friendly and jovial person. Along with Indian cricket, it is also a big loss to the people of Bhopal,' Aslam Sher Khan, former hockey Olympian, said. 

Photograph courtesy DNA:  This photograph was taken during a sports meet in 1966, organised by the Maulana Azad College of Technology, Bhopal. (The college is now called Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, or Manit, Bhopal.) Pataudi graced the sports event as the guest of honour. He accompanied his mother Begum Bhopal, who was invited as the chief guest at the sports meet. Ajit Jogi was secretary of the students' council in academic year 1965-66 of MACT, and Umesh Chandra Malviya (right), was president. This photograph is from Malviya's collection.

Stink Of Tiger Mafia

Update -: Blood In Koh-e-fiza

A right to information campaigner who had raised questions on several tiger deaths across Madhya Pradesh was shot dead as she got into her car moments after stepping out of home this morning.

Police said the 35-year-old was shot by an unidentified assailant as she sat in her Santro in the Koh-e-Fiza locality of the Madhya Pradesh capital.

“Shahla Masood was shot dead around 11am when she was sitting in her car,” senior superintendent of police Adarsh Katiyar said.

The SSP said a massive hunt had been launched to nab the assailant though the motive behind the murder wasn’t clear yet.

Ajay Dubey, a close associate of the slain RTI campaigner, said Shahla had “raised questions regarding several tiger deaths” across the state. “People involved in the racket may be responsible,” he added.

A former model, event manager and later a full-time RTI activist, Shahla was feared by many politicians and bureaucrats.

Dubey demanded a CBI probe into the murder. “We have no faith in the state government, so the matter should be investigated by the CBI.”

The killing of Shahla has again raised questions on the ability of governments to protect whistleblowers or rights activists.

In April this year, Niyamat Ansari, an RTI activist from Latehar, Jharkhand, was killed for exposing embezzlement of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act funds.

“The fact that a lady can be murdered like this in broad daylight outside her own house shows that there is no security worth its name in Bhopal,” leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Ajay Singh told PTI.

State police chief S.K. Raut visited Shahla’s residence, where a police force was deployed.

“I am sure…we will solve the murder soon,” PTI quoted IG Shailendra Shrivastava as saying.

Shahla’s body has been sent for post-mortem. Police have seized the car and locked her room.

Sources said the Bhopal-based activist had stayed up the whole of last night and watched the dramatic scenes of Hazare’s arrest this morning.

They said before leaving home, Shahla had updated her Facebook account, urging people to support Hazare’s movement.

Her last status update on Facebook read “Gandhi: ‘the purpose of civil resistance is provocation.’ Anna has succeeded in provoking the government and the opposition. Hope he wins us freedom from corruption. Meet at 2pm Boat Club Bhopal.”

A PTI report said Shahla’s aunt Rubab Zaidi came down to see why her niece hadn’t driven off even 15 minutes after stepping out of home. When she reached the car, Zaidi saw Shahla slumped inside. She then called Shahla’s father.

The activist was single and her only sister lives in America.

http://goo.gl/pt3Ok

RIP NASIR KAMAL

Nasir Kamal, the best pen available on Bhopal's unique culture and the best example of the old Bhopali 'tehzeeb' is no more. The senior journalist from Bhopal expired at Mumbai on Wednesday 3rd August 2011. He was suffering from fever during his visit to Mumbai.

Kamaal, 55, is survived by his wife and two sons. He had recently joined Times of India at Bhopal. Sources said that he was suffering from a fever for the last few days. Kamaal had worked for MP Chronicle, National Mail, Free Press Journal and The Hindustan Times. He was famous for his columns “Then and Now” and “Time Machine”. A thorough gentleman, Mr Nasir Kamal had lofty values ​​of the quality of journalism and journalistic writing. He lived like a monk. His journalistic career and dedication will continue to inspire new generations. 

His last journey will start from Safia Masjid, Ahmedabad Palace at 1:30 PM today. He will be cremated at Bada Bag crematorium.

Many of his articles were published in this blog with his kind permission. Wanted to talk to him about guest blogging, but sadly that was not to happen. Bhopale expresses profound grief over Nasir Kamal’s death and hope that Almighty will give him a place in paradise since Kamal has died in the pious month of Ramazan.

Bhopal Remembers Chawanni

As the humble chawanni receives a nostalgia-soaked send-off from many Indians following the Reserve Bank’s refusal to give it any more quarter, some are ready to put up a last stand for the little guy-turned overnight hero.

A BJP activist from Indore has moved court alleging the 25-paisa coin’s withdrawal from June 30 is illegal, while many others are dismayed at the silence of politicians and civil society on what they see as a “momentous decision with major financial implications”.

One hitch is already being encountered in Madhya Pradesh’s post offices, which are charging 50 paise for the 25-paisa stamps that carry Jawaharlal Nehru’s picture and are used mainly to send medical literature and newspapers by book-post.

Paan shops and small groceries have been rounding off the bills, as are petrol pumps for those two-wheeler riders who buy in small amounts. Neighbourhood photocopiers have raised the rate from 75 paise to a full rupee, the bara aana now having died with its lifeblood, the chawanni.

If all this sounds like small change, Bhopal-based industrialist and former head of a chamber of commerce, Rajendra Kothari, disagrees. He estimates that consumers in Madhya Pradesh would be losing Rs 700 crore a year because the 25-paisa coin has been abolished as legal tender.

His charge against finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, under whose watch the decision came, is that “no thought was given” to the fact that levies like service tax and value-added tax are calculated “in rupees and paise”.

“So, customers are being forced to pay extra for no fault of theirs,” Kothari said.

Bhopal civil judge Varsha Sharma has issued a notice to the RBI after BJP activist Anil Bhargava sought a stay on the chawanni’s withdrawal.

“Even some medicines are priced in rupees and paise. If the government doesn’t want the chawanni, why can it not announce that anything cheaper than 50 paise will not be charged and that anything over 50 paise will cost a whole rupee? It will at least even out customers’ expenses,” Bhargava said.

They will not admit it but at bottom, the reactions of Bhargava and Kothari may have less to do with economic arguments and more with sentimental affection for the underdog and nostalgia for a time when it counted for something.

Since last week, many ordinary Indians and celebrities have flooded social networking sites with laments for the quarter, recalling its role as their “tiffin allowance” at school, good enough to buy an ice-cream or chocolate bar —or at least a lozenge or toffee, if the writers are younger. Older Calcuttans will remember that the lowest tram fare was 25 paise even 30 years ago.

For all that, the use of the coins, introduced in 1950, had already gone down because of inflation and very few people seemed to have any to return to the banks on June 29 (unless they were holding on to them as keepsakes).

By RASHEED KIDWAI

Raheela Masood - Letters From Pakistan

I came to Bhopal in 1942 to stay with my brother Jamil Ansari, a journalist. He was the Reuters representative in Bhopal. But he was given many other jobs by Nawab Hamidullah Khan whose favourite he was. I was admitted in Cambridge School, Bhopal which was then the best school with an English principal and an excellent south Indian faculty.

Nawab Sahab’s family members and the children of the gentry studied in Cambridge School. It was a five-minute walk from my brother’s residence. The house we lived in was called Firoza Kothi. It was situated between two important roads – one going to the airport; the other going past the lake towards Ahmedabad, the area where the ministers had their residences and the Nawab, his palace.

Firoza Kothi had a view of the famous Bhopal Lake  and an ancient graveyard.  One could see the scenic view of Shimla Hills. What really interested me was the traffic that went past Firoza Kothi in the evening. I sat in the verandah overlooking the road. Bhopal being a hilly city with ups and downs favoured jeeps rather than cars.

I’d love to see the jeeps laden with ladies with colourful dresses going to the palace. Most of these women had scanty education, but not one could excel them in choosing the best colours for their elegant Bhopali dresses.

I admired these ladies when the famous Obaidullah Khan hockey tournament took place. Some women really enjoyed the game but most came to socialize and to display their dresses and jewellery.

Bhopal Talkies was another favourite venue where there was a very small royal box and one had to reserve seats well in advance. The ladies had their accommodation but it was too noisy with bawling children and regular fights amongst occupants. They knew the choicest abuses and flung them generously at each other. The men complained about the noise and a sound proof screen was installed to prevent the shouts and screams from disturbing the men.

One major event for the women of Bhopal was the Meena Bazaar where once again one had the chance of admiring the dresses of these women who looked so elegant and sophisticated but were uneducated.
Of course, one has to discuss the Bias separately. They were either ladies related to the royal family or were from old prestigious Bhopali families. They were very cultured and somewhat educated. Some gathered around the Nawab, some were devotees of the very cultured Her Highness (Hamidullah Khan’s first wife) and the younger Bias favoured the company of Badi Bia, the very interesting and gifted heir apparent of Bhopal.

So much for the social life of Bhopali women -- all I can say about the men is that they were mostly landowners and loved their shikars. There were the outsiders like my family who intermingled with Bhopalis but retained their own culture. Our dress, food and language were different.

I have to talk about the city of mosques, the wonderful landscapes and of course, the Bhopal lake. When I came to Bhopal I fell in love with its natural beauty. It was lush green with ups and downs. The rainy season added beauty to the city. Heavy downpours lasting for days gave us many holidays from school. Shimla Hills was beautiful with trees and other greenery. There were very few houses on Idgah Hills but the rocks were covered with custard apple trees which we loved to raid.

The weather became so cool during the monsoon that relatives from all over India came to stay with us. The Bhopal Lake was always full. Yatching was a favourite sport. In the midst of the lake was a Yatch Club, we’d love to go to enjoy fries and pakodas.

After passing the High School examination I went to College in Lucknow and spent only holidays in Bhopal. The Nawab gave me the Lucrative Obaidullah Khan Scholarship. I went to England and married a Pakistani and had to leave my country.

I prospered in Pakistan and earned the reputation of a good literature teacher. In the famous Karachi Grammar School I taught some famous people such as Benazir Bhutto and her brother Murtaza. Benazir and her brother were very close to me because they were my neighbours as well.

I had some differences with my husband and once again after a long gap I came to stay in Bhopal with my sister who was the principal of our old school. Cambridge School had become the haunt of children who were ill-mannered and uncouth. The standard of education had fallen drastically.

During my long absence Bhopal had undergone an unfortunate transformation. Of course, being the capital of Madhya Pradesh the population had increased, new houses had been built, trees had been pulled down, rocks had been shattered. Idgah Hills had no custard apple trees. Ugly houses had sprung up.
Ahmedabad was a ruin. The palace had been turned into a college. No Bias frequented Ahmedabad in their colourful dresses. The generous monsoon was a thing of the past. The lake was dwindling. The so-called progress had deprived Bhopal of all its beauty.

Pandit Nehru’s “miniature Kashmir” was now a crowded, ugly city. I was there when the Union Carbide Tragedy took place adding to the misery of Bhopal and Bhopalis.

I believe some outsiders want to change the name of Bhopal to Bhojpal. The Begums of Bhopal are still remembered and admired but even history does not remember Raja Bhoj. We knew his name because of the proverb “Kahan Raja Bhoj, aur kahan Gangu Teli”. If Bhopal is to be called Bhojpal we should call Delhi Hastinapur.  After destroying Bhopal’s natural beauty people wish to distort its history as well.

----

Raheela Masood is an 80-year-old retired teacher of literature and Greek and Roman classics, now at Karachi, Pakistan. She has received a lifetime award for being a great teacher to among others late Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Her greatest desire is to visit Bhopal once more just to say goodbye. She is trying her best to get a visa and spend a few days with friends and relatives. 

Published thanks to hard work of indiansinpakistan.

Games people played

By Nasir Kamal

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.

(In the photograph - Wazir Mohammad Khans mazar at Bada Baag)

Soorma Bhopali - The Real One

By Nasir Kamal

Jagdeep played Soorma Bhopali in film 'Sholay' (1975)

People keep asking about the real ‘Soorma Bhopali’ who inspired the ‘Sholay’ character. Well, his real name was Nahar Singh. A man, who once characterised the social milieu of Bhopal.



The late Nahar Singh, also addressed as ‘Mama’ and ‘Soorma Bhopali’, was a contemporary of writer-poet Javed Akhter (part of the Salim-Javed team that scripted Sholay) in Bhopal’s Saifia College. That was in mid-1960s. By that time, Soorma Bhopali was already known to most of old Bhopal. Javed was also known in the social and literary circles because of his parents – poet Jan Nisar Akhter and writer Safia.

Javed, who often slept in a room of Saifia College by pulling together two benches (refer his poem ‘Woh kamra yaad aata hai’), 
saw Nahar Singh from close quarters and enjoyed his sharp wit and his delightful company. But the reel character portrayed in Sholay a few years later had no resemblance with the real personality of Nahar Singh, except his sobriquet.

Nahar Singh was of medium height, dark hued, very witty and large-hearted person with a couldn’t-care-less attitude towards life. He invariably wore dark glasses and a golf cap. His sense of humour and his repartee made him popular; what made him earn respect and love was that he was always prepared to help friends facing any problem. Actually, he was always ready to intercede physically for friends and this perhaps earned him the sobriquet of ‘Soorma Bhopali’. No wonder, because he was named ‘Nahar’ (lion).

Nahar Singh - The Soorma Bhopali
(Picture cortesy

Nishant Thakur @regularNishant)

But he had a special love for his alma mater Saifia College. At that time, the college had a very strong hockey team that challenged the might of many a formidable team in various tournaments. ‘Mama’, who was a municipal employee, accompanied the team wherever it went as its unofficial cheerleader. He even picked up players from their homes on his way to railway station. He was always prepared to jump into the field whenever he felt umpires had done ‘injustice’ to the team or when the opposing team played rough. (When it came to a scrappy encounter, inflicting a bleeding injury on shins, knees and wrists through deft stick-work, which even the umpires could not see, was called ‘phool khila diya’ – made a flower bloom). Mama even shared the team’s accommodation and sometimes bore his travel expenses himself.

Former president of the Bhopal Hockey Association, Prof Rafat Mohammed Khan, himself a national player who represented Bhopal and Saifia College, has written that Nahar Singh’s many qualities included his deep spirituality. Whenever he saw lying on ground a wrapper of Ganesh Bidi (with a image of lord Ganesha printed on it), he would pick it up, direct a couple of profanities towards the irreverent smoker, and pocketed the wrapper to later dispose it off respectfully.

Khan wrote that once Saifia College was playing in Scindia Gold Cup at Gwalior. Olympian Inam-ur-Rehman was at his peak and unstoppable. The match was against a local team of Gwalior. It was an intense fight. Suddenly, someone from the stands shouted, “Pakistani hai! Maro!’ In a flash, an infuriated Nahar Singh was in front of the stand, shouting, “You are a Mahasabhayee (of Hindu Mahasabha)! No Hindu in my Bhopal can dare treat a Muslim player like this! Come on, come on! I can take you on! I am Soorma Bhopali!” and then he broke down.

Gwalior Superintendent of Police Kailash Saxena, who hailed from Bhopal, pacified Mama with great difficulty.

When Sholay was released, Nahar Singh went to the court, alleging he had been defamed. The case was settled out of court though it created quite a sensation in the town.

One night in 1979, he went to Bhadbhada check-post of BMC to drop a colleague on his scooter. While returning, a truck knocked down his scooter. Soorma Bhopali died and with him died a part of essential Bhopali character.