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BOOKS
AUTHORSPEAK
LAXMI DHAUL
Miracle At Ajmer
Writer
AND biochemistry major Laxmi Dhaul chose a propitious time to release
The Sufi Saint of Ajmer (Apsara), a photographic travel guide that includes
personal experiences of prayers answered and "miracles" witnessed
at the Dargah Sharif of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. Miracles are exactly
what people are hoping for during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to
the historic tomb whose traditional caretakers or khadims have been offering
prayers for the success of the Indo-Pakistani summit. Dhaul, 46, for one,
is convinced that "faith" can make the impossible possible.
 During
her first visit to the teeming, colourful desert town at whose Mayo College
her three children would eventually study, Dhaul was impressed initially
by the quirky, then by the conventional and only last by the shrine's
spirituality. "The Degs (cauldrons)," says Dhaul, eyes gleaming,
"cook up to 100 kg of sweet rice." Then, "At the Urs I
was carried through a sea of humanity, pushed into the sanctum sanctorum
and out again through the Jannati Darwaza, with little effort on my part."
Trivia specialists note: The Urs, which commemorates the death anniversary
of the Khwaja in 1256 a.d., commences on the evening of the "25th
Jamadi-uth-thani, the sixth month of the Islamic calendar". Finally,
"the wishes i asked for materialised." So in 1998, during the
786th Urs and despite several none-too-promising meetings with publishers,
Dhaul decided to detail her story in print. The journey, with Ajmer-based
photographer Sanjay Singh Badnor in tow, included considerable literary
excavation. And for old times sake there are black and white photos of
the Looting of the Deg-a practice now discontinued, in which men covered
in protective cloth jumped into the cauldrons of steaming hot rice.
Dhaul's next project, scripting a tv serial
on Sufism, seems the natural progression from the Dargah. She's also contemplating
a book on the 12 Jyotirlings-Shiva temples across India. Religious fervour?
Not quite. She just wants an excuse to travel.
—Sonia Faleiro
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