In her whodunnit The Englishman’s Cameo, Madhulika Liddle summons the past with ease.
* Amrita Dutta accompanies her as she goes about recreating 17th-century Shahjahanabad

“That is where the murder would have occurred.” We are at the Hayat Baksh Bagh inside the Red Fort, now a shrunken memory of the beautiful imperial garden it once was. Eyes follow author Madhulika Liddle’s finger beyond the fringe of the garden to a spot about a hundred metres away. We hungrily imagined the thrust of the dagger, the muffled cry, the body soaked in blood. We are near the scene of the first murder in the 37-year-old author’s debut novel, The Englishman’s Cameo, a whodunnit set in 17th-century Shahjahanabad.

The delicious chill of a murder mystery settles on this October morning as she shows us around her novel’s landscape of intrigue. It’s a leap of imagination across centuries. The Red Fort is no longer the seat of power, its gardens are dry and hammams locked up, the Bazaar-e-Musaqqaf is quiet, lined with shops selling tawdry bric-a-brac. Not much of 17th century Dilli has survived. But Liddle summons the past with ease, gasping at the beauty of the Sawan-Bhadon pavilions as she imagines their niches aglow with golden flowers by the day and candles by the night. Or chuckles at the ribald parties thrown by noblemen at havelis in the city.

“The Lal Qila was a populous settlement in itself. Inside it were palaces, gardens, busy markets and the homes of the salatein, the many members of the royal family. And the noblemen were quite a promiscuous lot,” she says.

... contd.