44. OUT OF BOUNDS AT HOME

My dad would give dastak or what you call knocks twice only, on the door and we all knew that dad had arrived from outside. Even as he would enter, he would say salaam alaikum wa rahmathullahi wa barakathuh. He would not enter any of the places without prior dastak that is knocking as a prior permission or notice of his arrival.

 On all occasions of his visit to our spaces, we were likely to abide by the minimum code of conduct, and expected norms of etiquette  We would not run here and there and never to him without his permission. We would not run to him, cling and hug him or climb on him, smothering and kissing him, as you would have witnessed elsewhere in most other families. This was strictly out of bound and considered disorderliness and unruliness.

 Music was forbidden in Islam, as it sponsored infatuation, addiction and dependence. Anything that encouraged addiction and dependence was very highly discouraged in Islam.   It was an eloquent evidence of an elegant wickedness. Nevertheless, the Moghals had patronized music in all its forms and they more than celebrated it and greatly enjoyed it. The elucidation that they rendered to the Islamic doctrine prohibiting wine and music was not good and adequate. The peers had their own propensity, is not that true?

 The great Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjehan had their durbars decorated with renowned musicians like Bhaiju Bawara, Tansen, Ramdas, Tanrang, Swami Haridoss, Sadarang,  and Adarang to list a few. Love of music, enjoying wine woman and dance was a mode of their luxury loving life. It was in their lifeblood. Almost all had patronized poetry and literature music and dance art and architecture.

Apart from their religious scholarship, my granddad and my dad took to Persian and Urdu poetry. They had their own collections of their verses accentuated with ishq and ashq in their own style. I had thus inherited an infatuation for literature and particularly poetry and music from my dad.