Like other Muslims I went to the mosque every Friday. Like Hindus I had drawn castemarks on my forehead. I worshipped in temples of idolatry and had ages ago abandoned Islam. However, the most likely cause of Aarzoo’s anger was my growing popularity. He saw the crown worn by the Sultan-ul-Shoara (King of Poets) slipping off his head and being placed on mine. Envy slays friendships quicker than the sword. Aarzoo’s hostility cost me many patrons and made life more difficult for me. As I had no regular income, I owed money to Banias, vegetable-sellers, milkmen and the like.

But as I’ve written earlier why should Meer mourn his own fate when loud cries of lamentation rise from every quarter of the city extending from the marble palaces of the exalted Red Fort to the humblest hovel in Paharganj! The accursed Nadir Shah had left behind him in Delhi thousands of widows to beat their breasts over their dead husbands and forced thousands of orphans to go begging in the streets. Of the bandobast the less said the better. We had one king, Mohammed Shah, and three rulers: Chief Minister Nawab Safdar Jang on one side, the Paymaster-General Nawab Imadul Mulk, and Nawab Intizammuddaulah on the other. The Emperor’s writ did not run even in his own harem; it was his Hindu wife who had once been a dancing girl and her adviser, Nawab Javed Khan, who issued orders on his behalf. Javed Khan was a khwaja sara (eunuch) in charge of the royal harem, and despite his shortcoming was reputed to be the paramour of the Hindu empress. Why should Meer complain? Javed may have been deprived of his manhood in one way but he proved his manliness by ignoring my detractors and spreading the umbrella of his bounty over my head. I was assured of at least one meal a day and a change of clothes when those I had on were tattered.

For a while fortune favoured Nawab Safdar Jang. When Mohammed Shah died he put the emperor’s twenty-one-year-old son, Ahmed Shah, on the Mughal throne. Ahmed Shah preferred the company of nubile damsels and his wine-cup more than the business of State which he left to his mother and her confidant, Javed Khan.