My wanderlust is taking me far and wide. I love to travel, and places fascinate me. Buildings, roads, the culture of the people, their heritage, their history and how their culture and language has evolved, keeps me occupied for hours at a stretch. In my journey I have observed a few things which speak a bit about the place, its history and development. The food, the basic culture and the people who lived there. I wish to share a few tid bits, starting with Delhi.
The lanes and bylanes of Delhi keep me engrossed for hours, and no amount of people, or crowd can deter me from visiting Chandni Chowk once in a while. I love to walk in those bylanes and see the huge havelis with gigantic doors. I imagine the days of yore when this place was full of history and a lot of events were happening. The havelis and the people living there, the pardanashins and the cultural life, the music, the food, keep me fascinated. I love the sight of those doors and my imagination goes wild thinking about the people who inhabit those houses and also about their ancestors who must have been part of history. Visiting Jama Masjid area near the Karim's restaurant is another interesting journey, as just a little away from that place is Matia Mahal where Shah Jehan stayed for some time when the Red Fort was being built. I can visualise the Badshah with all his finery going in procession down the Chandni Chowk. The State Bank of India building in Chandni Chowk is a heritage building. It is located very close to Begum Samru's palace, which is now where Bhagirath palace or the "Electric goods" wholesale market is located. Begum Samru was the Indian wife of a mercenary soldier of French descent. She ruled over the principality of Sardhana near Meerut.
Chandni Chowk has an amazing variety of food to offer. There is the famous Parathewali gali which offers different types of stuffed parathas. The one which interests me most is the one stuffed with papad!! There is a person selling kheer right opposite the paratha wala shops. quite a treat!! There is a famous Jalebi wala at the corner of Dariba-the jewellery market. The jalebis there are the slightly thicker variety oozing with sugar syrup, and not the crisp thin ones now offerred in New Delhi. The dahi bhallas at the corner of the Central Bank building also cannot be missed. Ghantewala halwai too is located here. It was in existence since before the 1857 War of Independence. Meghraj halwai famous for Karachi halwa is located near Fatehpuri Mosque at the other end of Chandni Chowk. The chaat of Sitaram Bazaar is another great food joint. Kamala Kaul who married Jawaharlal Nehru, our first Prime Minister was from Sitaram bazaar and this was the place where the wedding took place.
Kinari Bazaar in Chandni Chowk as the name suggests is a market selling all kinds of borders, and laces and embelishments for traditional Indian clothes. Chawdi bazaar, as the name explains was a broad road, on which are located all the shops which are famous for printing all kinds of cards, the most popular one being Wedding Invitation cards. The Mahajano ki gali is the lane where gold and silver ingots are stored and traded everyday.
One interesting feature of Chandni Chowk is that there is a Jain charitable hospital for birds located next to a temple of Gauri Shankar, and close by is the Gurudwara Shishganj. At the end of the road is the famous Fatehpuri Mosque. The famous Kotwali, where Nadir Shah sat in 1739, and watched the destruction of Delhi is also close to the Gurudwara. Nadir Shah had come from Persia (Iran) and took away The Mughal Emperors famous Peacock throne. The tomb of Razia Sultan, the first woman ruler of Delhi, and the daughter of Iltutmush, who built the Qutab Minar in the 10th century, is also close by.
Mirza Ghalib the famous poet was a resident of Ballimaran of this area. Zauq was another great poet who lived here. Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor was also a poet, and he patronised Urdu shayari.
The old world charm and culture is fast disappearing, yet there are these pockets where one can go and delve into the past. "Khandahar bata rahein hai ki imaarat buland thi" (From the ruins one can make out that the building was once exquisite).
New Delhi is another story, another century, another world. Built by Lutyens and Baker on Raisina hills, it was constructed by the British empire. It's bungalows, it's wide tree lined roads, it's broad vistas, greenery and lawns speak of open culture. Very different from the closed doors and high walls and narrow lanes of Old Delhi. The different roads of New Delhi are lined with different trees. The Ashok Road is lined with jamun trees. As legend goes, Jawaharlal Nehru our 1st Prime Minister was very fond of children. For this reason he was fondly called Chacha Nehru and his birthday,14th November, is celebrated as 'Children's Day". While travelling from his home in Teen Murti Marg to Parliament House he would watch children play on the wide pavements of the road. One day he observed that there were no children there. On enquiry he was told that the jamun trees had been sub- contracted for picking and selling the fruit and the contractors didn't allow any intruders. Nehru was quick in ordering that the trees were never to be given on contract, and anyone could eat the fruit and play in the area. This rule applies to this day.
One moves out of the older portion of New Delhi to areas which were inhabited and built to give place to all the refugees or displaced persons who came to India from Pakistan after partition in 1947. Incidentally, my grandfather Rai Sahab G T Meshram was the Estate Officer of Delhi, Shimla, Calcutta and Bombay at that time. The Kingsway Camp was built to give shelter to these displaced people. Then the new colonies of Lajpat Nagar, Model Town, Tilak Nagar, Malviya Nagar, came up. People were given small plots of land to start afresh. The Punjabi culture thus entered Delhi. The laid back, slow paced, cultural life of Old Delhi changed to the fast paced life of people who had to be on the move to earn a living and had no time to simply stand and stare at the world go by. There was cut throat competition for survival.
New Delhi being the capital of the country, all the offices of the Government, the ministries and all the paraphernalia associated with it is located here. The city is inhabited by multitudes of office goers commonly called "babu". This in turn gave rise to the term "babugiri" and also to the babu culture. Office goers in Delhi are almost all government servants, whose jobs are permanent. There is neither incentive for a job done well, nor stringent punishment for a job not done. One can continue forever, without taking any decision in life. One can simply keep pushing files from one desk to another. Pushing up files also sometimes needs some incentive, which is called "pahiya"-or the wheel to make the movement faster. Here enters the world of under the table gratification. All the tehzeeb, adab, and culture of Delhi of yore vanished. What one can see in Delhi now, is a multitude of people, each one trying to go ahead of the other. The only breathing place now is the Raj Path, which has managed to remain a splendid reminder of wide roads, greenery on the sides, an open sky from where one cannot see the stars as the entire surrounding area is now filled with lights.
Delhi was once a garden city, and the greenery was amazing. It was made up of nearly 300 villages. One can still find a few nice traffic islands in the New Delhi area, which are maintained by some Corporate Houses or Banks which allow a semblance of beauty and colourful flower bedecked islands, in this metropolis, fast turning into a concrete jungle. The roads all have pavements and there is a feeling of space in this area.
Delhi they say is the heart of India. "Dilwalon ki Dilli".
It's a lovely place, therefore so many different rulers ruled from Delhi. Prithvi Raj Chauhan, The Slave dynasty, Allaudin Khilji, The Lodi's, The Tughlaq's, the Sayyids, The Mughals, The British all found it the best place to rule from.
I love my Delhi, therefore began this journey,both of my life and of this travelogue from here.
1 comment:
Just one info. The original inhabitants of Mughal Delhi were almost all driven out or killed by the British after the 1857 Uprising.The rich Muslim traders and noblemen suddenly became homeless and went begging outside the walls of Delhi and their homes were seized by the Hindus who had sided with the British.
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