Writing to the Djinns of Delhi
Walking among the ruins of ancient forts, with old men sitting in circles, incense burning in the middle and walls cluttered with letters to the djinns. No, this isn’t something out of Scheherazade’s One Thousand and One Nights. It is very real and in the heart of New Delhi.
When I first moved to Delhi I had heard a lot of stories about the forts and gardens and the meandering old town roads. In my first year there I visited a lot of these places and was fascinated by the history it holds. One place will always haunt my memories of the city, both literally and figuratively.
The Feroz Shah Kotla fort in old Delhi is full of magic and folklore. The fort built by Sultan Feroz Shah Tughlaq in the fourteenth century stands beside the Feroz Shah Kotla cricket stadium. The Jami Masjid mosque inside the fort is full of devotees who offer prayers and ask for their wish fulfillment. With hordes of people thronging the place on Thursdays, the beliefs surrounding the ruined forts is potent. There are walls and walls of the entire expanse of the place adorned with innumerable letters. Letters to djinns.
The first and only time I went there made me question a lot of things. There were dark, dingy caves running near the mosque with small chambers inside where people sit and meditate to call upon the djinns who are believed to dwell inside. Looking in you would feel a sense of foreboding, which was multiplied by the shrieks and wails of women coming from the inside. A woman named Seema was loitering some distance away from the caves and beckoned me, asking if I was here for the first time. Yes, I was. I asked her what was going on and she told me those women screaming inside were supposedly possessed by the djinns who make your wishes come true.
“My sister was not getting a suitable match for her and my parents were worried sick. After someone advised us, we brought her here and wrote a letter to the mighty djinns. Within a month her wedding was fixed and now she is very happy,” she informed me in a conspiratorially low voice.
There is an age-old ritual that runs in the place, that all your grievances will be redressed if you write a letter to the djinns who are believed to be the supreme rulers of the place and are considered all powerful. A person wishing to find remedies to his or her problems need only write them down on a piece of paper addressed to the djinns of the place and paste it on the walls of the fort. After that, the person is supposed to visit the place for seven consecutive Thursdays and offer milk, sweets and fruits to the djinns for their wishes to be fulfilled.
The people who visit this place are as set in their beliefs as the old bricks of the fort. There are scores of staunch followers who blindly believe in this practice. However, there are many sceptics as well. Walking around the place you may also notice people distributing food. There is usually a long line that waits patiently for the food being distributed. I spotted at least four men who had brought bags full of food and were distributing it to the visitors. I spoke to a person who was distributing a rice dish among a line of nearly 15, which kept adding up steadily. Manoj made shoe laces and told me he had been coming here for a while. Food is mainly distributed to those who had come from very far away just to have their wishes granted by the djinns. Those people whose wishes are fulfilled are the ones who generally distribute food. Hindus distribute sweet rice and other sweet dishes while the Muslims usually distribute biryani.
It was a Thursday so the place was full, and while the major fraction of the crowd were busy tying their desperate letters on the wall or venturing into the dark caves to witness a possession, a lot many were just there to do a good deed or like myself, to observe.
“Once you step inside the premises of the fort, you should not speak ill of the djinns because they are everywhere, in every nook and corner of the place and they can hear you,” said Sheeraz, who was sitting in a circle with old men and incense burning. When I asked him why they burn so much incense around the place, he told me it was done to attract the djinns so they come out of the caves.
The belief that the people hold about the apparent presence of djinns largely depend upon the social class that the people belong to. Those who belong to the uneducated or partially educated lower strata of the social chain are the ones who generally believe in the rituals of writing letters or maafinama that goes on inside the chambers. The other category of visitors usually come for the sheer adventure and dose of entertainment that the place offers. Most of these people come to the grounds for picnicking.
The place shuts down after sunset everyday and no visitors are allowed after that. If you feel brave enough some night, try walking past the fort on the main Bahadur Shah Zafar road. Maybe you will spot a djinn.
