devens' old friend murad visits deven unexpectedly with an offer for him to interview a great urdu poet nur sahjahanabadi who lives in chandni chowk, old delhi for his magazine. deven is fond of urdu poetry. he accepts the offer. at first, he thinks that he is getting a chance to meet a great urdu poet but after reaching his house he notices the unbearable condition of nur's house. when he meets nur, he refuses to give an interview by saying that urdu is now at its last stage and soon this beautiful language will not exist. but he shows some trust in deven. but deven gets annoyed by the condition of nur's house and drops the idea of interviewing nur. murad again convinces him to interview nur with the help of tape recorder so that it can be further used for audio learning by urdu scholars. deven, who is a poor lecturer, asks for money from the college for a tape recorder. he goes to a shop to buy, where the shopkeeper, jain, offers him a second hand tape recorder. at first deven refuses to purchase it but later jain convinces him that it is a machine with good quality and his own nephew chiku will help them to operate it while recording the interview. unwillingly, deven agrees to purchase it. nur's first wife promises deven that she can arrange a room for deven if he gives her some money. deven arranged the money for the payment to her by the college authority with the help of his colleague-cum-friend siddiqui.