Sualeheen believes there is a secret corridor under the streets of Bulbuli Khana leading directly to Razia Sultan’s tomb. Sualeheen remembers buying a balcony ticket for ₹ 5 at the Shiela cinema hall in Paharganj. The Hema Malini-starrer Razia Sultan was directed by Kamal Amrohi, the man who immortalized courtesans in the classic Pakeezah. Mohammed Sualeheen, who fashions handmade leather pouches, cufflinks and pendants for export, regularly watches the serial with his family, but prefers the 1983 movie that was based on Bulbuli Khana’s most famous resident. But, he says, women from the area never visit the tomb, possibly because only men are allowed to offer prayers at the mosque.Īround it, the sweatshop-like establishments of skilled artisans are very often on the same street as their homes. The mosque’s imam, who supplements his income by giving lessons in the Quran to children, says there is no ban on the entry of women. The mosque is nothing more than a recessed arch built on the western wall of the monument. Is this true? A few months ago, I had come across a middle-aged British woman in the complex, her eyes closed. She says she watches Razia Sultan on TV every night, but no, she has never been to the tomb that is just 100m from her home.

Her father runs a “visa-passport consultancy', her mother is a housewife, and her brother works at a car tyre dealership. She prefers to stay at home, she adds nonchalantly.

“I dropped out after X (class),' says 20-year-old Ilma, parting only with her first name. A young woman, dressed in salwar kameez, appears at the head of the staircase. In the 1980s, the original single-storey constructions here were replaced by multi-unit apartment buildings. The cramped neighbourhood surrounding it offers a glimpse of life in this Muslim-dominated locality of skilled artisans, one where some say women step out only for weddings or shopping, certainly not to explore the complex that is considered to be the last home of an empress. In Old Delhi, apartment blocks lay siege to Razia Sultan’s tomb, like an encroaching army.

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