Short answers, pulled from the story.
Shah Alam II was born Ali Gohar on the 25th of June 1728. He spent his early years in the semi-captivity of the Salatin quarters within the Red Fort as the son of the deposed Emperor Jahandar Shah.
Ghulam Qadir, a former slave turned powerful vizier, ordered the blinding of Shah Alam II on the 10th of August 1788. The emperor was blinded using an Afghani knife in a calculated ritual of humiliation designed to strip the last symbol of Mughal authority of his divine right to rule.
The Battle of Buxar on the 22nd of October 1764 resulted in a decisive defeat for Shah Alam II and his allies against the British forces under Hector Munro. The subsequent Treaty of Allahabad of 1765 forced the emperor to grant the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha to the East India Company while receiving an annual tribute of 2.6 million rupees.
Shah Alam II returned to Delhi in January 1772 after the Maratha general Mahadaji Shinde captured the city and escorted the blind emperor from his exile. He became a client of the Maratha Confederacy and paid tribute to the Peshwa to ensure his safety.
Shah Alam II authored his own Diwan of poems under the pen-name Aftab and composed the Ajaib-ul-Qasas, one of the earliest and most prominent books of Urdu prose. These works were compiled and collected by Mirza Fakhir Makin to preserve the cultural legacy of the Mughal dynasty.