The people of
Hyderabad have not forgotten Chanda. At least not this frail, wispy old man I
meet at the foot of the Maula Ali shrine. He volunteers to take me to Mah Laqa
Bai’s tomb. I call her by her formal court title Mah Laqa Bai, bestowed upon
the famous courtesan by the second Nizam of Hyderabad, but he calls her Chanda,
which is her nom de plume. Later, he would tell me that his name is Mustafa Sayeed
and that he was born near the shrine, and show me the graves of his parents
burie