A tomb, a film and a missing tableau

Remember the Aurangzeb Road that’s now being called Dr APJ Abdul Kalaam Road. Bisecting this road is yet another road named after a former ruler of Delhi – Tughlaq. Nestled between Arjun and Neem trees is Tughlaq Road in Lutyen’s Delhi and it was here that the media rushed to catch four senior judges of the Supreme Court on January 12th in what the justices themselves described as an extraordinary event in the history of the institution. Their concern was about many ‘less than desirable things’ that apparently had happened in the last few months in highest court of the land. But then the new year began with a whole lot of things that were less than desirable for Dilliwalahs. Sealing of commercial premises began all over again and we had the Aam Aadmi Party and BJP accusing each other of deceit and treachery while the Congress party advised both of these parties to seek relief from guess where – Supreme Court!

Let down, the Dilliwalahs sought relief in movies and they went in hordes to watch that magnum opus on another Delhi ruler – Alauddin Khilji. It’s another matter that the makers of the film decided to play the gender card and called the movie Padmavat instead of naming it after Khilji – whose story it actually turned out to be. Had they called it Khiljivat there would have been little or no protests at all but then that would have been a bad marketing strategy and the elections in Gujarat would have been a little less interesting. Well, Dilliwalahs being the way they are – they are taking a renewed interest in the tomb of Khilji and folks are reportedly clicking their selfies next to Khilji’s tomb that’s in the precincts of the Qutub, much to the envy of the guards of the famous Minar.

January is also the month of Republic Day parade in Delhi and among the highlights of the parade are the tableaux. This year, while there was a tableau depicting Mann Ki Baat (how could they miss that!) – what disheartened Dilliwalahs was the absence of a tableau from Delhi. To borrow the expression from the Judge – another thing that was ‘less than desirable’! Or is it that there is nothing left to showcase about this polluted, smog-filled metropolis anymore. Perhaps the politicians would like us to believe so. Ghalib, Zafar and Nizamuddin Auliya among others would not have anticipated that Delhi would feel so orphaned ever (there ain’t a verse that depicts Dilli in such misery).

StateOfDelhi Suggests: Dilliwalahs go catch Mughal-E-Azam if you missed it the last time they had staged it in Delhi. On from 1st February till the 11th – the show is all yours to soak in at the Jawaharlal Indoor Stadium. It will be a good antidote having suffered the infatuation of Alauddin Khilji on a Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s canvass. And no one is protesting!