It was not so much the badshah’s drinking or womanizing that had made my father angry with him as what he dad done to our Guru. ‘What is it to us how much he drinks and whose mother he fucks,’ he used to say, ‘but perish the man who raises his hand against our Guru.’ Most of us untouchables of Rikabganj had attached ourselves to the lotus feet of the Guru and begun to call ourselves the Sikhs of Nanak. No one had seen Nanak or the Gurus who came after him to save us. The badshah who had just died had killed our fifth Guru Arjun and put his son Hargobind in jail. So there was no reason for us to beat our breasts on this badshah’s death.

If there was a death in our family we did not light lamps at Diwali or squirt coloured water at Holi for at least one year. But the Mussalmans have strange csutoms. Three full moons after the death of the Badshah a fellow came from the city kotwali and began to beat his drum in front of the mosque. When everyone had collected he shouted: ‘All you people listen to the order of the new badshah.’ Then he gave his name which was as long as the road from Rikabganj to Paharganj—His Majesty Abul Muzaffar Shahabuddin Mohammed Sahib-i-Qiran Sani, Shadow of God on Earth, King of Kings, Monarch of the Universe, Emperor of Hindustan. He told us that we were to light our homes and pray for his long life.

We untouchables had no oil to light our homes and we had no temples to go and say our prayers in. So we decided to see how others lit their homes and prayed for the new badshah’s long life.

My mother gave me a clean shirt to wear. Everyone wore their best clothes. The sweepers and cobblers of Rikabganj formed a party. The men in front danced to the beat of the drum; women followed, singing as they went along. I took hold of Uncle Reloo’s hand. He was more fun to be with than Bapu. Aunt Bimbo was happy. ‘You stick to your chacha and don’t let him drink or get into mischief,’ she said.

We drank lots of sherbet, which was served free outside nawabs’ mansions and we ate lots of sweetmeats which were also given free by rich tradesmen. My Bapu did not give me any money but I got a handful of coins in the scramble when a nawab showered them from his elephant.