Shared by Hasham Siddiqui, Pakistan: Only for those who are interested in history.
The word “Phuddu Khata” has an interesting origin which goes back to the era of Nizam Usman (the last Nizam of the Princely State of Hyderabad, the largest state in the British Indian Empire).
For the people of Hyderabad (Deccan), Nizam Usman is a god. The greatest philanthropist, greatest Muslim leader of the subcontinent ever, a human with unmatched values, etc.
Describing his kindness, we are told he had 303 wives and 1,760 children –and he treated them equally.
Any day one of his wives delivered a baby, a loud gunfire informed the city of the arrival of the newborn. On some days people heard multiple cannon fires signifying more than one delivery since he had 303 wives.
Since he treated every wife equally it was imperative that each wife be assigned her nuptial appointment with Nizam. For this purpose. a special department headed by a senior bureaucrat was created which handled the appointments.
Appointments were entered in a register specifying the name, date, duration, etc. and strictly followed with honesty.
Every wife almost had to wait a year for her turn.
Since it was the ultimate desire of every wife to make her child the possible heir to Nizam, it was inevitable that corruption would set in. Women secretly started bribing that officer for prioritising their appointments in the register.
That register was officially called ‘Phuddu Khaata’, for obvious reasons.😊😊
