Tucked in the twisting lanes of Purani Dilli, the place each nook hides a forgotten story, stands the crumbling haveli of a legend — the ancestral home of actor Saira Banu. The haveli rests in quiet decay close to Ajmeri Gate, a couple of metres from Shradhanand Marg, previously GB Road.
The entrance to the haveli is worn however is a reminder of its as soon as regal and majestic arch that has now weathered with time. The unique blue partitions have light, the stone pillars are chipped. The entrance gate, painted yellow, is rusty however agency.
The sepia-toned partitions the place patterns carved in stone are reminders that the place was as soon as grand and delightful, the weathered jharokhas, the dilapidated balconies, and blue-toned picket darwazas (doorways) attempt to maintain alive a faint image of the past. The spacious courtyard, the intricate staircases and expansive terraces are a mirrored image the fading architectural splendour of a bygone period.
Imagination takes to the air as you stroll into the haveli that opens right into a courtyard maybe as soon as full of the sound of Saira Banu’s childhood giggles; her mom Naseem Banu’s youth and; the comfortable clink of her grandmother’s anklets, carrying the scent of attar and the mild sound of music in the air. Saira Banu’s grandmother was a outstanding tawaif of her occasions.
A narrative in each crack and nook of Saira Banu haveli
| Photo Credit:
Priya Prakash
Today, the haveli shelters two households who got here from Lahore throughout the Partition. The third technology of the migrant households stay now, above the grandeur that after entertained nawabs and colonial officers. Sitting on a plastic stool outdoors her room, Priya Kapoor, a widowed mom of two, recounts tales handed all the way down to her.
At current, 10 individuals, a canine, and two hens share the area, she says.“My mother-in-law, would speak of Saira Banu’s grandmother with much love and respect,” says Priya. “She was a woman of grace,” she says.
Chhamiya Bai, Saira Banu’s maternal grandmother, was recognized for her humility and kindness. The corridor on the first ground, the place she as soon as carried out mujra, stays untouched and underneath lock. Her daughter, Naseem Banu, spent her youth in the haveli until cinema known as her to Bombay, and he or she went on to change into one in every of Hindi cinema’s first feminine superstars
Priya says she grew up watching Saira Banu in Hindi movies and provides how particular it feels to stay in the home the place the actress spent the first 4 years of her life. Many would possibly query the security of a lady and her two daughters residing close to what was as soon as Delhi’s red-light district. But Priya insists in any other case. “It’s safer than people think. My daughter goes alone for daily tuitions in the evening and we’ve never faced any trouble,” she says.
A narrative in each crack and nook of Saira Banu’s haveli
| Photo Credit:
Priya Prakash
Few who stroll down the slim lanes of Ajmeri Gate in Purani Dilli know that behind one in every of its previous darwazas, there lived stars as soon as upon a time. But most aren’t conscious that the haveli intertwines the golden interval of Indian cinema and the tumultuous historical past of Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi). The solely indication of the haveli’s legacy is a board at the entrance, which reads, ‘This property belongs to Mrs Saira Banu Khan and Mr Rehan Ahmed.’ Rehan is Saira Banu’s nephew (her brother’s son) who lives in London.
It is type of poetic that the queen of hearts and her mom, as soon as the epitome of cinematic magnificence and magnificence, spent their essential childhood in a haveli which is at the least 150 years previous. It stands quietly as a remnant of cinematic and historic grandeur slowly withering from reminiscence. The haveli is no extraordinary relic from the past, however a residing piece of historical past that contributed to the evolving narrative of Old Delhi, with its tales, tragedies and triumphs.
A weathered door and a makeshift ladder from the years passed by
| Photo Credit:
Priya Prakash
