In search of a tawaif’s tale (Dilli love)

This is not a frilly, mushy love letter
to a city whose allure lies in defying all labels and holding the mystery key to a man’s heart, though none has ever been able to lay an absolute claim on it,
make it; his own.
My first impression of Dilli is that of an  ageless ‘tawaif’
whose charm, chaos and charisma can effortlessly incite a visitor to indulge in voyeurism.
The city; an interesting tapestry of time; woven haphazardly.
The sprawling concrete habitat has the sloganeering youth, the policymaking bureaucracy, the migrant labour, the affluent and not so affluent –
officers, clerks, artists, judges, doctors, traders, ministers, eunuchs all jostling for space, wishing to call it ‘home.’

While the metro rail track crisscrosses the landmass of the tawaif’s body,
there are tabla beats accentuating the qawwali,
smell of paranthas and kebabs wafting through the lanes and bylanes,
the grandeur of Indo Persian architecture vying for footfall alongside the cold corridors of bureaucratic power.
The real and surreal blend in the midnight hour
when history rewrites itself with the fluttering tiranga and ‘tryst with destiny.’
The faint hum of Ghalib’s ghazals leave behind a residue of unrequited love and regret across the halls and charbaghs,
the veiled faces of once beautiful begums fade away with the morning mist,
the tawaif heaves a sigh as the sky is tinged with the rays of the morning sun.
A steady stream of cars, buses, autos, with their grey fumes script the itinerary of another day of heat and dust.

Glossary 

Tawaif ~ cultured female entertainer and    courtesan during Mughal era known for their mastery of classical music and dance.

Qawwali ~a style of Sufi devotional music

ghazal ~ In Middle Eastern and Indian literature a lyrics poem with a fixed number of verses and a repeated rhyme scheme

Charbagh ~ four gardens in Persian and also refers to a walled garden divided in four equal quadrants

Parantha ~ a popular South Asian flat bread

Kebab ~ a type of meat preparation

Tiranga ~ The tricolour/ Indian Flag

Mallika Bhaumik was a nominee for the Pushcart Prize for Poetry in the year 2019. She is the author of three poetry books. Her latest book When time is a magic jar was published by Red River Press in February 2025, and has received encouraging reviews from Cha: An Asian Literary Journal & Scroll.in among others. She lives and writes from Kolkata, India.