The Delhi of Tom (actually Thomas) Alter was not associated with the posh areas but with the Walled City in whose “lost causes and forsaken beliefs” ambiance he seemed to find mental sustenance. One found him savouring shammi kababs at Flora restaurant, run by the younger brother of Naaz Hotel’s proprietor. The hotel was behind the Jama Masjid, where it still is, though Flora was in Urdu Bazar. A permanent guest at Naaz was the painter M.F. Husain. Like him Alter also had a great interest in Urdu Bazar where he could get rare books on the Delhi of Mir Taqi Mir, Sheikh Ibrahim Zauq and Ghalib.
The Jama Masjid was quite different from Rajpur, on the base of Dehra Dun, where he grew up, Mussoorie, where he was born and got married to the girl of his choice, Carol, at St Paul’s Church, near Char Dukan, and Landour Cantonment, perched high up on a hill. It was at Landour that Tom formed a lasting friendship with Ruskin Bond, Victor Bannerjee, Benjamin Geelani, Bill Atkin and Ganesh Saili. It was in Jagadri, that he cycled with friends to the small cinema houses that thrived on Rajesh Khanna films like Aradhana, Anand and the other heart-wrencher Amar Prem, with its lilting song to cheer up depressed heroine Sharmila Tagore, “Kuch toh log kahenge/Logon ka kaam hai kehna”. The magic of Rajesh Khanna induced him to join filmdom but he didn’t like to be stereotyped as the typical Colonial Sahib. It was theatre that began to attract him and that was what started his tryst with Old Delhi. It was here in Matia Mahal that Alter could visit Haveli Sadr Sadur, where Ghalib used to recite his ghazals under the patronage of the powerful minister of Bahadur Shah Zafar. The owner of nearby Mughal-e-Azam restaurant disclosed that he found Alter standing near the pedestal on which the shama or lamp was kept while the poet rendered his kalaam.
Alter was later to act in the famous play “Lal Qile Ka Aakhri Mushaira”, inspired by Mirza Farhat Ullah Beg’s imaginary mushaira, “Dilli Ki Aakhri Shama”, that featured the poets of the Mughal court, including the Emperor himself, and dramatised as late as 1910, some 48 years after the death of Zafar.
Alter’s flawless Urdu pronunciation (zabaan goya) was acquired from his missionary father, the Rev James Alter, who used to recite the Bible in Urdu for those of his ashramities in Rajpur who could not read it in English. Many years after leaving Macchliwalan, one happened to visit Kalimullah Sahib’s mazaar opposite the Red Fort and found Alter sitting as the cynosure of curious eyes, dressed in white kurta-pyjama, listening to the Thursday qawwali with rapt attention. Many thought he was a Pathan or a Turk because of his white skin and classical features. Basso Bi, the widow of qawwal Chunnu Mian, whispered that any girl of the area would fall for him and sighed that she was no longer young to weave a romantic web around him.
Literary pursuits
The Alters, like the Stokes of Himachal Pradesh, were American. Now Vidya Stokes, once a close friend of the iconic Chief Minister Y.S. Parmar, is the surviving matriarch. The Alters stayed on in the Uttar Pradesh hills with some contact with the Stokes, who also started off as missionaries but later opted for apple cultivation that was to make HP the premier apple producing State, while the Alters branched off into literary pursuits following the example set by father James, for Tom and his cousin Stephen Alter, the novelist.
Tom Alter’s love for Purani Dilli made him visualise it as it was during the last years of the Mughal Empire, when Nawab Buddhan was the model for dandies wanting to flaunt stylish sherwanis at musharias and also during get-togethers where purdah women were present. One man who could have rivalled Tom’s impeccable Urdu and old-world manners had he been alive 150 years later, was William Fraser, blue-eyed like him and a lover of Mir Dard, Sauda, Tischna and Ghalib, whom he had helped in getting a pension from the Company Sarkar.
One memory of Tom Alter that abides is his “Chai-pe-charcha” during the 2014 general elections, exquisitely holding a mud kulhar with steaming tea and expounding on a host of subjects. One cannot vouch for it but heard that he wished to recite Zafar’s ghazal “Lagta nahin hai ji mera ujre dayar mein” at the Sardgah or vacant tomb of the last king in Mehrauli during Phool Walon-ki Sair. He had suggested that the Sair should also include a visit to Mirza Jahangir’s tomb, for it was that prince’s return from exile that had given birth to the flower sellers’ festival. He even named his only daughter Afshaan (all aglow). Such was his love for Urdu and Delhi tehzeeb.