Last night, I sat working till late. Very late. At about 4:00 as I went off to make coffee, all of a sudden, thoughts about Bahadurshah Zafar just dropped into my head. That's the only way I can describe it. Usually we say that a thought popped out of the head. But the feeling that this thing dropped "into" my head was just too distinct. No confusion there. I walked back reinforced with the coffee and decided to read the Wikipedia page on Bahadurshah. I also heard his immortal ghazal "लगता नही है दिल मेरा उजड़े दयार में". Out of the long and detailed Wiki page, only two sentences stayed in my head. In fact, only two words out of those. The sentence was -
Bahadur Shah died in exile on 7 November 1862. He was buried near the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, at the site that later became known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah.
And the two words that I refer to were SHWEDAGON PAGODA. There was just something in the way the words sounded. At least I imagined it that way.
All this took five minutes and then I was back to work. Before I realized, it was past 6 and the newpaper boy's footsteps made me get up. As I opened the Pune DNA, my eyes fell on THIS piece. Right at the top of the first page.
Bahadur Shah died in exile on 7 November 1862. He was buried near the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, at the site that later became known as Bahadur Shah Zafar Dargah.
And the two words that I refer to were SHWEDAGON PAGODA. There was just something in the way the words sounded. At least I imagined it that way.
All this took five minutes and then I was back to work. Before I realized, it was past 6 and the newpaper boy's footsteps made me get up. As I opened the Pune DNA, my eyes fell on THIS piece. Right at the top of the first page.
