Delhiwale: In a fakeer’s mind

Javed Ali, a self-proclaimed fakeer at a Delhi Sufi shrine, shares his views on love, friendship, happiness, and life’s challenges in a candid interview.

Wearing a green topi, he describes himself as a darvesh, a fakeer. Seated one night in a remote corner of the Sufi shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in central Delhi, Javed Ali agrees to become a part of our Proust Questionnaire series, in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences.

Wearing a green topi, he describes himself as a darvesh, a fakeer. Seated one night in a remote corner of the Sufi shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in central Delhi, Javed Ali agrees to become a part of our Proust Questionnaire. (HT)

The principal aspect of your personality.

My ability to love everyone.

Your favourite qualities in a person.

The ability to never be angry.

What do you appreciate the most in your friends?

All my friendships ended the day I became a fakeer. My only dost is God. I appreciate everything about the God.

Your idea of happiness.

When I’m with a person who is talking to me sweetly.

Your idea of misery?

I no longer feel grief.

If not yourself, who would you be?

I used to be a thekedar. Then I fell ill, had a surgery in my stomach. It didn’t help. I became so weak that I could no longer work… My family asked me to come back home—I’m from a village in UP’s Hamirpur. I have a wife there, and three sons, and two daughters… but I became a fakeer.

Where would you like to live?

Here in Delhi. At night, I sleep on the footpath.

Your heroes in real life.

I never received love in my childhood. My mother died when I was very young. My father was a hot-tempered man.

What do you hate the most?

Dirty water, I mean alcohol.

The natural talent you’d like to be gifted with.

Each time I need anything, I pray to God, and God gives me a solution to address that need.

How do you wish to die?

Khushboo wali maut. I want to leave this world while the air around me is perfumed with a nice scent. I always carry a small bottle of ittar with me.

What is your present state of mind?

I’m seeing a tree in my mind’s eye. It is telling me that I should not go by the shape and number of its leaves, and that I should try its fruit, which, it tells me, is very sweet.

Your motto in life.

I always pray for everyone to be happy.