Moinuddin Chisti's shrine draws politicians and stars

President Asif Ali Zardari isn't the only famous visitor. South Asia's top politicians and Bollywood's biggest stars are among the thousands of pilgrims who travel every year to the small Indian town of Ajmer. The destination is a rather simple shrine complex at the end of a narrow, crowded lane of shops and houses, in the state of Rajasthan, about 350 kilometres south-west of New Delhi.
Moinuddin Chisti, one of the region's most famous Sufi saints, was buried there and the shrine has drawn both commoners and celebrities since the 13th century.
Devotion is expressed through prayers, offerings, simple rituals, poetry and music. It deviates from the more rigid tenets of other Islamic doctrines.
The most famous of India's Moghul emperors, Akbar, was as devoted a disciple of Chisti in the 16th century as are Bollywood royalty Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan today.
A white dome over the saint's grave draws thousands of pilgrims especially for the month-long anniversary of his death.
Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born chief of the ruling Indian National Congress party, sends a chador or velvet cloth to the shrine without fail each year.
The shrine draws Hindus and Christians in addition to Muslims, and is an enduring symbol of the all-embracing nature of Indian Sufi tradition.
Zardari is not the first Pakistani leader to visit the shrine. Former presidents Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf also visited Ajmer.
So did Zardari's late wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who visited three times. She was accompanied by Zardari on her last visit in 2005 when she was living in exile, shrine official Syed Iqbal Kaptan recalled.
Pilgrims pray for peace of mind and the fulfilment of their desires, Kaptan said. They offer flowers, velvet cloth, perfume and sandalwood.
The many strings and ribbons tied at pillars and crannies at the shrine have been left behind by men and women wanting children, good health, resolution of financial trouble or family disputes.
Given his troubles at home, Zardari may have a lot to wish for. If they are granted, he may have to return for a customary thanksgiving ritual and he would be in good company.
Bollywood evergreen star Amitabh Bachchan visited the shrine in July to untie a wish thread that he had tied 40 years ago. "The belief is that when the wish is fulfilled, you return to the shrine and untie a thread, any thread. It is not possible for you to remember which one you had tied, for there are millions of them," Bachchan had written in his blog then.