Ajmer becomes second home for Rehman

This is a secret Oscar winner A R Rahman did not reveal until a few days after his historic feat. The town of Ajmer, famous worldwide for the dargah of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, has become the second home of Rahman and family after Chennai. A strict follower of Khwaja Garib Nawaz, Rahman had been visiting the holy city at least twice a year for the past more than two decades. 

Rahman bought the bungalow in Ajmer's satellite area, Kundan Nagar, last November in his mother's name. Even some local residents spoke to Rahman, his mother and sister when they stayed there in November last year for a few days for registering the house, but they didn't recognise him.

It's only after Rahman's Oscar triumph that the people of the area came to know about the owner of the bungalow. Rahman, even otherwise, prefers to keep his identity a secret and prefers to sit with devotees on his visit to the dargah, says Pyare Mohan Tripathi, the district public relations officer.

"Rahman had come here five months back with two women. We came to know that he bought the bungalow, in the name of his mother, Kareema Begum,'' says C D Joshi, Rehman's neighbour. He says, "They stayed there for a couple of days and were busy visiting the dargah. One of the women spoke to me for a few minutes. It was then we came to know a south Indian family had come to live here. She was soft spoken and religious. We never expected she could be the sister of Rahman,'' said 60-year-old Sunita Goyal, a resident of Kundan Nagar.

The three-storeyed bungalow No 16 bought by Rahman has a big porch and a garden. It is surrounded by a 10-foot wall with a big iron gate. "People who live in this area are peace-loving and confined to themselves. Therefore, quite often people do not know who is living three doors away from them,'' says Laxmi Devi, who runs a laundry in the area. The colony is just 5 km from the dargah.

The bungalow originally belonged to S K Dalmiya, a resident of Aurangabad in Maharashtra. "Dalmiya met Rahman some time back and told him that he has a house at Ajmer. He even arranged the accommodation for Rahman and his family members when they visited Ajmer in November. Just after a day's stay, they decided to buy it,'' says Joshi.

The bungalow has two well-furnished bedrooms, a dining room and drawing room. The housekeeper Shanker says, "Rahman Saheb and his mother and sister have come here twice.'' He says he was engaged by Dalmiya to take care of the house. There are two chowkidars.
Courtesy: indiatimes.com