[Reader-list] Bhaisoon Wali Gali. Zakir Nagar. (Independent Research posting)

[ambarien qadar]

Bhaisoon wali Gali. (The lane of Buffaloes)17.02.03

Gali number 7. Zakir Nagar 

Yo! Net. Inaugurated on 14.02.03 with two banners, two heavy yellow lights, and sounds (feet, voices and laughter) of young boys and men in the gali. 

Only two houses away from mine ( 119/ 7). Number 576/ 7.

The Net with a difference @ 10/ hr..

Kahkashan also lives in the same Gali.

Sameen (her daughter) thought this was the first of its kind in Zakir Nagar : private cabins- the computer and you.

Sameen hates someone peeping at her screen.

Both of us decided to go together. 

Hired a system There was also a system of getting registered with the address and name before sitting on a system. This "organization" made her feel as if she was in an airport or a cyberden in Vasant Kunj.

Mails kept on bouncing back. There was a knock at our cabin door. The owner was gazing fixedly at our screen before we could minimize it and complain.

Ten minutes later there was another knock.. 

The owner’s neck popped over the cabin door. He said, " I’d be too happy if your mails are sent". We replied, " So would we be". He vanished behind the cabin door.

One week later there was a white poster at Yo! Net: NET IN DISORDER.

The banners are still there. One at the entrance, the other between two electric poles across the gali. There are no heavy yellow lights. The gali is also more still at nights.

Naheed is Kahkashan’s friend. She lives fives houses away.

Next to the Jama Masjid. (the main mosque in Zakir Nagar).

23.03.03. Sunday. 10 a.m.

Sitting in her verandah I could hear the following sounds: 

Kabadi wallai..kabadi. Aaloo lo piyaz lo
sabziwallai
kulfiwallai ki ghanti....the phone ring...washing machine timer..shifting of some furniture in the neighbouring house
 cycle and a motorcycle..

Naheed arranged a local anti war rally. The route included Noor Nagar, Batla House, Joga Bai and Zakir Nagar- colonies settled as extensions of one main road but expanding endlessly into lanes, bylanes and newer main roads.

 

19.03.03.Wednesday.8.30 p.m.

Naheed’s mother lives across the main road. Kahkashan reached there with her friends and Sameen. Naheed was upset. Kahkashan was late. The jaloos had already passed.

On the main road Naheed and Kahkashaan ran into an argument as to why she got late: was it the cricket on TV because of which she did not hear the rising slogans or was it the aazaan (prayer call) kahkashan pointed to the joggers she was wearing for the occasion. 

Naheed said that atleast Bush got her out on the streets.

To this kahkashan replied, " usne to bahut logon ko sadak pe nikala hai" 

(I had recorded this event on tape. While making diary entries I was listening to it again. Because of the quality of my recorder and my position within the crowd on the main road, the conversation lost to other sounds)

A dog’s bark.

A cycle horn that sounded like a whining baby. More horns.

Cars whirring past. Motorcycles. 

Feet. Voices.

22.03.03. Saturday. 11a.m.

Kahkashan and Naheed at Trimurti Bhavan to participate in the anti war rally.

Demonstrated. Tried breaking the barracks. The cops made them sit in a lorry saying that they were being taken to the U.S. embassy where they could sit on a dharna. They landed in a thana.

After being released they had coffee and patties.

Naheed had been badly hurt. 

Returned home.

22.03.03. Saturday. 7p.m.

Went for an interview with Kahkashan.

She was busy cleaning her face. Has just returned from the rally.

Her 12 year old son, Amaam, asked me to record a song he wanted to sing from the film Kaante.

"
.collar ko thora sa upar chara ke

cigarette ke dhuan ke challa bana ke
.."

He sang the whole song. Kept confirming if I was recording it.

Sameen, Amaan and their brother Akif listened to the whole song. They were looking at each other and grinning.

Smell of buffaloes in the room (a peculiarly pungent mix of dung, mud and the stagnant water of the Yamuna canal where they go to bathe every morning and evening)

Kahkashan’s verandah almost runs into the gali. 

It was packed with popping heads of the buffaloes going to Fakhruddin’s dairy on the main road.

Traffic on the main road had come to a halt. Two men with lathis across the gali’s entrance supervised the movement of the buffaloes.

Kahkashan said that Gali no.7 was the most "respectable" gali in Zakir Nagar. She came here 22 years ago. Before that, she used to stay in Batla House. From the window of her room she could see the batla house pulia, the bus stand and the Jamia University. Between Zakir Nagar and Batla House, the main road had keekar and babul trees on either sides. The Jogabai pulia had a Kuan. That was used as a garbage dump. From her terrace in Zakir Nagar, she could see the Yamuna canal.

The gali now: innumerable houses and electricity poles almost heaving under the weight of the uncountable Katias (the local electricity connection wires taken from the main lines). 

Its end has vanished. All one can see of it at the other end (away from the Zakir Nagar main road) is a curve blocked by a four story building of the Tender Hearts School and a web of wires hanging from an electricity pole. 

At the far end of the curve is a music shop from where Sameen gets songs of her choice recorded onto blank tapes. She calls them her "personal albums."

She puts down her signature on every jacket.