What misfortunes had visited my beloved city! Sikhs, Marathas, thieves, pickpockets, mendicants, rulers—all preyed on us. Happy was he who had no wealth; poverty was the only wealth. Seeing things in that light, I was the wealthiest of the wealthy and at the same time the poorest of the poor.

One day sauntering through the city I came to buildings recently destroyed. I had known the locality well but I could not recognize the houses because little was left of them. Nothing was known of their inmates. If I asked for someone by name, they replied: ‘He is not here any more.’ If I asked for their whereabouts, the reply was the same or ‘I know nothing about where they have gone.’ Entire rows of houses had been razed to the ground—as far as the eye could see it was one vast scene of desolation. The bazaars had gone and with them the swains who had frequented them. Where would I look for beauty now! Where had fled all my pleasure-loving companions of yesterday? Comely youths and aged men of wisdom—all had vanished. I recalled a verse composed by someone:

Once through this ruined city did I pass
I espied a lonely bird on a bough and asked
‘What knowest thou of this wilderness?’
It replied : ‘I can sum it up in two words:
‘Alas!Alas!’

In the wilderness that the Delhi despoiled by Nadir Shah became, I was left with hardly anyone I could turn to for help. In despair I sought the company of Sirajuddin Ali Khan ‘Aarzoo’, who before my coming, was Delhi’s most celebrated poet. At first he seemed well-disposed towards me and even helped me to find patrons. It was on his advice that I gave up writing in Farsee and instead concentrated on composing poetry in the language spoken by the common people, the kind who thronged the broad steps of Jamia Masjid. This brought me popular acclaim. Then suddenly and for no reason known to me Aarzoo turned against me. I thought perhaps my step-brother had written to him about my affair with the wife of my benefactor. Or maybe he thought that because my mother was Shia, I had leanings towards the Shiites (Aarzoo was a bigoted Sunni). But I was neither Shia nor Sunni, neither Muslim nor Hindu. About my faith I wrote:

I have gone beyond the temple and the mosque,
I have made my heart my sanctuary;
On this thorn-strewn path end
All my wanderings and my journey.