Strange things happened in Dilli that autumn. Dassehra passed without any Ram Lila or the burning of the effigies of Ravana and his brothers. The Hindus said the badshah had forbidden the celebration of Hindu festivals. The Muslims said that this was a lie and said they knew why Hundus were not celebrating their most important festival. A few days later came Diwali. Not a light in anyone’s house! Not a sound of a cracker! No fireworks! No one sending sweets to anyone! The whole world was like a dark, moonless night. You know how much darker the night looks when you expect millions of oil-lamps twinkling and there are none! So no Diwali for the Hindus. And the Mussalmans feeling as if ants were crawling up their bottoms! The mullahji of the sarai mosque asked Lakhi Rai very discreetly why he had not lit any lamps on Diwali night. ‘The death of a very near and dear one,’ he replied. All the Hindus seem to have lost someone near and dear to them,’ exclaimed the mullahji very sarcastically.’ I hope it is not because someone very near and very dear is going to die, yes?’

Lakhi Rai did not answer. The mullahji turned his temper on me. ‘And you, Jaitoo! Have you lost your mother’s mother that you did not light lamps at Diwali?’ I replied: ‘Mullahji, in poor men’s houses there is a death every day. We never have enough oil to light a lamp. If you gave me money, I would have lit up every home in Rikabganj.’ He mumbled in his beard, ‘You have learnt to talk big, haven’t you?’

Everyone in Dilli was talking about the miracle the Guru would perform. They said anyone who raised his hand against him or his companions would go blind. The Kotwal could not find anyone in Dilli to carry out the sentence of death and had to send for one Jalaluddin all the way from Samana in the Punjab. This Jalaluddin hated the Sikhs and their Gurus.