Delhiwale: A fakir in the graveyard

Simply clad, Muhammad Anwar wears a beaded necklace and three finger rings.

The elderly fakir has always felt a sense of peace living year after year alongside a graveyard.

Muhammad Anwar left his home in Kolkata many years ago and now lives alongside a graveyard in central Delhi. (HT Photo)

“I like being by myself, I like tanhai (solitude),” declares Muhammed Anwar—although he does have a bunch of cats and a couple of dogs for company. The isolated composure of this Central Delhi graveyard “provides me with sukoon (calm), and makes me feel close to the creator.”

The 70-year-old left his home in Kolkata as a young man and never returned.

Did he ever think of his parents?

“They must have died. And my brothers must have their own families to look after.”

Come nighttime, Mr Anwar sleeps in a bed laid on the stone floor of an adjacent ruin where he’s slept for some 30 years. During the day he’ll often sit for hours amid the tombs in quiet contemplation. And oftentimes he simply venture out of the graveyard, like office people leaving their apartments for the day, and walking along the road, often visiting the city’s many Sufi shrines.

Simply clad, he wears a beaded necklace and three finger rings: One of them obtained from a skeleton accidentally unearthed by construction labourers.

The graveyard lies next to one of Delhi’ most-visited monuments (Humayun’s Tomb) and also close to a busy rail station. Yet it manages to remain serene as Mr Anwar now completes his breakfast of roti with chai.

The remainder of the day might find him sitting quietly among the tombs, or perhaps a stroll on the Mathura Road. In the end, he always returns to his graveyard.