Delhiwale: This way to Dilli Gate Qabristan | Latest News Delhi

One morning, a funeral procession in Old Delhi halts the rush-hour flow of autos in front of Delite Cinema. The mourners are carrying a janaza towards the direction of Dilli Gate Qabristan.

The graveyard behind the newspaper offices on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg happens to be the final address of thousands of Purani Dilli’s Muslim dwellers. It is as dense with graves as Meena Bazar is with machinery stores. Located slightly outside the Walled City’s vanished walls, the qabristan contains some of contemporary Old Delhi’s most distinguished gentry. Urdu poet Mushir Jhinjhianvi, who lived in a house overlooking Chitli Qabar Chowk, lies buried somewhere amid this sprawl. So does the great Persian scholar Yunus Jaffery of Ganj Mir Khan. So does the legendary cook Kallu Nihariwale, who lived near Unchi Masjid in Turkman Gate, but ran his famous stall at Chatta Lal Mian. The inscription on the gravestone of Haji Mian Fayyazuddin, an esteemed Old Delhi shakhsiyat (personality) who died in the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, describes him as a longtime secretary of this same graveyard. His brother, poet Aamir Dehlavi, who always played old Hindi film songs on his radio during his post-lunch siesta, lies next to him.

The graveyard has a walled “house” for “still birth babies”. This afternoon, a man approaches the enclosure, cradling a tiny bundle of shining white sheet. A grave-digger unlocks the yard. The metal gate opens with a creaking sound. No graves within, just plain raw earth.

Nearby, a painted board informs that “anybody wanting to add plaster to their relative’s grave may meet the graveyard’s secretary saheb anytime between 9.30 am and 11am.” Indeed, unlike many other graveyards, the graves here are remarkably well-maintained. Almost every gravestone is marked with the name of its occupant, along with the name of the Old Delhi lane in which he or she lived. There’s Nasreen Begum of Chandni Mahal, Rabia Begum of Katra Sheikh Chand, Hajjan Allahrakkhi of Gali Wazir Beg, Mohammed Aslam of Gali Elaichi Wali, Farida Begum of Phatak Teliyan, Khurshid Begum of Gali Bhistiyan Wali, Marium Qureshi of Rehmatullah Hotel, Muhammed Tavi of Gali Gudariya, Waheedan Begum of Gali Meer Madari, Shazia of Chatta Lal Miyan, Hashmati Begum of Katra Qazi, Justice Sardar Ali of Kucha Chelan… all these people would walk along Purani Dilli gallis and kuchas. “As you are now, so once were we”—the graves collectively seem to tell us the living.

Steps ahead, amid a cluster of graves, a smelly cat is busy raiding a bowl of milk.