Lanes of South Delhi. And so many of them acting as windows to the grandeur they contained within themselves at different points in time.
Window. Khirki.
A quaint village tucked within South Delhi, Khirki has in recent times, owing to its proximity of location, also emerged as a resident neighborhood of choice for a lot of folks. Situated right across that stretch of shopping malls in Saket, there is a lane which leads in towards Khirki Village, and opens itself upon a structure which resembles a mosque. In quite an unusual manner actually, because with the natural undergrowth of greenery around it, it feels as if it has a natural moat surrounding it, making it look more like a mini fortress at the first look.
It was getting dark, along with the impending possibility of a downpour, going by the manner of an overcast sky and the sound of distant drumrolls. Going up the stairs of the mosque, I really couldn’t manage much courage to walk into the mosque. The sense of smell becomes very acute when one fasts, so one can well imagine my condition at being encountered with a whiff of the choicest cocktail of all manners of animal piss right at the entrance. (A recent trip to the neighborhood baker did tell me how well qualified I was these days to take over the job of any of those sniffer dogs that bomb squads have as part of their posse). Visibility wasn’t very good, since the mosque was a covered structure mostly, and because I could hear all manners of chirping, squeaking, squealing animal sounds, I thought best to keep my visit to explore the place further for a brightly lit sunny day trip. I was supposed to break my fast in a few minutes, not become the unwitting victim for ending someone’s possible starvation spree.
Right beside the erstwhile Marriott Hotel (now ITC) at Saket, the mosque has been one which I used to visit quite often around the time I used to travel to Gurgaon for work. Those were the times before the highway opened up, so it was the MG Road, and driving from my part of town I used to cross Saket too, which made the mosque a pretty natural place for me to stop by specially for Maghreb prayers on the way back into town. I just rushed into the mosque as the drizzle started getting heavier after whatever I experienced at Khirki Village.
I got a few minutes late in navigating my way through the rain and traffic to reach the mosque, so while the main Iftar proceedings in the courtyard were over, I was guided by some kids to an upper level where some men were having Iftar. Post prayers, I looked around for someone I could speak with to get more information about the mosque. I had after all noticed a tomb in the center of the inner prayer hall since the first time I visited the mosque. Turned out that this mosque is believed to have been around since the time the Tughlaq dynasty built the Khirki Mosque across the road. Over rounds of chai, the mosque elders shared stories of how they and the earlier generations of their families had been engaged in ensuring that the mosque stayed intact. Something which had become critical in the recent past, as the mosque had reached the possibility of a threat to its existence after the plan for the adjoining shopping malls was passed by the DDA. The mosque still continues to stay in its place, has in fact grown and undergone renovations for expansion. All of this while housing a madarsa for kids, around 120 of which have the mosque as their home and center of learning.
I had a tough time saying no to the persistent offers from the elders of the mosque to join them for dinner.