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Musharraf pulls off a coup in Old Delhi hearts

Basharat Peer in NewDelhi.

Yards away from the police cordon all around the Naherwali Haveli and the adjacent Daryaganj market, hundreds of anxious eyeballs were fixed on Turkman Gate, Daryaganj's gateway to central Delhi.

Kids, men and women waited with a crowd of reporters for the motorcade of President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, who was visiting his ancestral home at the Naherwali Haveli in Daryaganj, Old Delhi.

The sirens of the police cars preceding Musharraf's black limousine broke the deafening silence that had engulfed the otherwise noisy area.

The limousine turned into Kucha Saadullah Khan, the bylane leading to the president's birthplace. Waiting at the haveli gate, apart from local MLA Shoaib Iqbal and MP Vijay Goel, was Anaro, the octogenarian who was a sweeper in Musharraf's household. She had donned a salwar-kameez specially made for the occasion.

Exchanging greetings with his hosts, Musharraf hugged Anaro, who was a witness to his early childhood.

"He called me 'Maa' and hugged me. I said you were a kid when I had seen you," she exclaimed.

Musharraf has left her overwhelmed. He gave her $200, and Begum Sehba gifted her a suit.

Of the present inhabitants of the haveli, only Raj Kumar Jain of the Jain family, which lives in a part that still retains some of the original architecture, was allowed to meet Musharraf. Jain gifted Musharraf a silver plaque with a partial map of the haveli inscribed on it.

Shoaib Iqbal, who organised the welcome, had a book on the architecture of havelis in Delhi, and another one on mushairas, as gifts for the president.

And Musharraf did feel nostalgic. "He was asking about the huge gate of the haveli. Unfortunately, not much of it exist now," Shoaib Iqbal told rediff.com

Musharraf and Begum Sehba sat in a small tent that the organisers had erected in the courtyard and sipped 'Sharbat-e-Khas', a popular beverage of Old Delhi.

He, however, did not enter any of the rooms. But he could see the pictures of the rooms in a document on the haveli that the Delhi Institute of Heritage Research and Management had specially prepared for gifting him.

Prof Makhan Lal, director of the DIHRM, and Shoaib Iqbal showed Musharraf around. The DIHRM also held a small picture exhibition of various havelis and forts in the courtyard.

That Musharraf was happy with the visit could be interpreted from what Prof Makhan Lal said. "He was smiling most of the time, while Begum Sehba was quiet."

But in the crowd that poured into the haveli after Musharraf left, there were a few sad faces as well -- the inhabitants of the haveli who could not meet him. They were kept away for reasons of security.

"Our whole family was expecting to meet him. We were disappointed," one of the Jain brothers told rediff.com

A sadder look was seen on the faces of Rippu Daman, 19, and her 11-year-old brother Zenny, the orphans whose house was demolished by the local authorities, as it was considered a security risk to the president.

But the cops had to face the toughest time. As soon as Musharraf's motorcade left, the waiting crowd burst out of control. It was sheer chaos. Policemen even resorted to the use of their canes, but the wave was too strong.

After some minutes, as the police top brass left, the barricades were removed and a sea of curious humanity flowed over the Naherwali Haveli.

There was a question on every lip. What did he do, whom did he talk to, what did he say? Musharraf had pulled off a coup in Old Delhi hearts.

Naherwali Haveli will soon disappear from public memory. But it was a homecoming Old Delhi will never forget.

EARLIER REPORT:
Musharraf relives his childhood in Daryaganj

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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