An Evening in Old Delhi

When I think “Old Delhi”, the first image that comes to my mind is the scene from the movie Delhi 6 where Abhishek Bachchhan sits on the roof of a home with Masakali, the cute white pigeon. Over the years, innumerable trips to the place have created an image of the place in my mind – the aroma of the street food, the generation of tenants who still deposit Rs 13/- per month in their landlord’s bank accounts every month, the many ‘fertility’ clinics who promise babies to childless couples and vigour to those with a low libido, the posters of the films in a couple of inconspicuous cinema halls which will never be screened in any multiplex, the low-seated rickshaws (made famous by a petite Sonali Bendre in ‘Sarfarosh’), etc. The internet enlightens me that Old Delhi was founded as Shahjahanabad by Mughal emperor Shahjahan in 1639 and it remained the capital of the Mughals until the end of the Mughal dynasty. It is referred to as the walled city - the old city was surrounded by a wall enclosing about 1,500 acres , with 14 gates ; some of these gates are Delhi gate, Nigambodh gate, Kashmiri gate, Mori gate, Kabuli gate, Lahori gate, Ajmeri gate, Turkman gate. The walls have now largely disappeared, but most of the gates are still present.

Chandni Chowk was established in 1650 and was built along with the Red Fort. Chandni Chowk , originally meaning "moonlit square" , was built by Shah Jahan, and designed by his favourite daughter Jahan Ara, the market was once divided by canals to reflect moonlight.

This part of Delhi is unique in many ways. With its crowded roads, congested lanes and shouting hawkers, the place exudes a charm of its own. I attempt to highlight a few hallmarks of this area.

Auchinleck Sanik Aramghah is a huge brick-coloured structure in the premises of the Old Delhi Railway Station and is named after Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck who spent much of his military career in India. Located in the premises of the Old Delhi Railway Station, this rest house is huge, majestic and imposing. Two old signboards also grabbed my attention - Young Men’s Tennis Club and National Club. Situated just opposite the Old Delhi Railway Station, these two structures dot the map of Old Delhi. Someday I might just get to know a few more details about these places; even ‘Google’ could not help me much when I tried to know more.

Just opposite the Old Delhi Railway Station is the Delhi Public Library, located in the S.P. Mukherjee Marg. The library was established in 1951 as a pilot project sponsored by the UNESCO and the Government of India. The library project dates back to 1944, when Shri Ramkrishna Dalmia donated most of the amount required to construct a library building at the request of Sir Claude Auchinleck. The library was officially opened on 27 October 1951, by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The operations were formally transferred from UNESCO to the Indian Government in 1955. The library provides training facilities to student librarians and social education workers.

A famous street of Old Delhi is Khari Baoli, which is known for its wholesale grocery and Asia's largest wholesale spice market selling all kinds of spices, nuts, herbs and food products like rice and tea. Operating since the 17th century, the market came up around the Fatehpuri Masjid, which was built in 1650 by Fatehpuri Begum, one of Shah Jahan's wives. During Shah Jahan's reign it came to be known as ‘Khari Baoli’ (from Baoli, meaning step well - wells or ponds in which the water may be reached by descending a set of steps, and Khari or Khara, meaning ‘salty’). It was constructed along with a fortified gateway on its western end popularly known as Lahori Gate (named so because a road through it led to the city of Lahore, now in Pakistan). However, today there is no trace of either the well or the gateway here, which now lie buried under the main road of the market. One has to be in Khari Baoli to see the mountains of spices and food items that line the narrow lanes.

The Dariba Kalan (which literally means the ‘street of the incomparable pearl’), is a 17th-century street in Chandni Chowk and is the home to Asia's largest jewellery market. It derives its name from the Persian Dur-e be-baha, which translates as ‘unparalleled pearl’. Long chains of gold in thousands of designs bedazzle me, as I squint my eyes in the blinding sunlight to look into the wrinkled face of the septuagenarian shopkeeper, his shrewd but gentle eyes assessing me with decades of experience to find out whether I am really a genuine customer or just a curious passer-by.

Kinari bazaar, located next to the famous Paranthe wali Gali , is a market that specializes in traditional dresses for marriages - lehanga, dupatta, salwar-kameez, kurtas, sherwanis, turbans, etc. You just bring a photo of any dress you require, and they will get it ready for you, at a respectable price .The market has a great variety and collection of borders (and that explains the name ‘kinari’ meaning border) and embellishments can be found here at very low price. And I suddenly realized from where my mid-high-end boutique owner gets her impeccable collection of borders from!!

The Nai Sarak, meaning new street, is the linking road, which connects the main Chandni Chowk Road to Chawri Bazaar and has a very big wholesale and retail market of mainly school and college textbooks. The street is called so because it is comparatively a new and broad road made by British after the war of 1857. The market has also few wholesale shops of saris and musical instruments.

Old Delhi gives me a surreal feel. Every denizen there has a story to tell; the eighty years old shopkeeper in Bhagirath Place from where we bought the lights for our new home in Guwahati, narrated the tale of his childhood love Mehzabin, who recited Ghalib and later died of tuberculosis. The walls of the many old buildings (most of which now stand dilapidated and ignored) speak of the days when royalty graced them. Someday, when life permits, I wish to explore this place to my heart’s content. Like a teenager, I am infatuated with Old Delhi, and I do not mind if this infatuation blossoms into love.

“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.”