Saturday, August 18

Explorations 4 - Matka Pir

Route Plan: Get off at the Pragati Maidan Station walk towards the Zoo. A sign indicates the dargah on the left side of the road. You can see matkas along the wall facing the road.

Of course, the first two times I came here for the biryani. Then I started asking around about the huge number of upturned matkas on the trees in that compound.

This is no ordinary dargah. If you ask for something and your wish comes true you cannot get away with a simple tying of thread or presenting a chaddar. Here devotees have to return with jaggery, sugar, channa and milk if their wish has been fulfilled.

The story is that the pir Hazrat Sheikh Abu Bakr Tulshi Haideri Kalandari Rahmatullah (wow is that how they said it evrytime in those days when they annlounced him?????) refused to go to court of Giasuddin Balban. So the king sent matkas with balls of iron and mud in them. The pir of course turned the iron pellets into channa and the mud into jaggery.

Another story tells us that it was the pir who drew a line on the ground with a stick to indicate to the Yamuna that she could not flow beyond this since she was flooding her banks and destroying homes each year. I think the river has taken it very seriously and reduced itself to a stream. Or is it that the followers of the pir stole this magical stick and kept redrawing the line reducing the flow of the river?

Come here in the evenings to enjoy the light breeze from the Yamuna . And pick up biryanis and kababs on your way back home.

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