The world of the washermen. The Oxford dictionary describes a dhobi as “a person whose occupation is washing clothes” and a ghat as “a flight of steps leading down to a river”. Yet here, the river is four Metro stations away. Located in the commercial heart of...
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More than just news. Iyam Akashvani. Samprati Vartaha Shruyantam. These are the first words you will hear every morning and evening if you tune in to Akashvani’s, or All India Radio’s (AIR’s), Sanskrit news. The announcement in Sanskrit goes, “This is Akashvani. You are now listening to...
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The mint of history. In a fashion, India’s dense history of invasion, destruction, reconstruction, colonization, re-colonization is immortalised in its coins. This occurred to The Delhi Walla one Sunday morning in Daryaganj’s weekly book bazaar as I stopped by Vijay Kumar’s collection of old coins. Spread out...
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Finding lost time. Here you get old hand-wound Swiss watches for cheap. Javed Husain Khan’s roadside ‘counter’ stands under a babool tree, at the border of central Delhi’s Nizamuddin Basti and Nizamuddin West. Keeping the watches on the wooden top, the soft-spoken Mr Khan says, “These are...
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Delhi’s most beautiful forest. You don’t have to fly to Copenhagen or Cancun to save the planet. The other day The Delhi Walla joined Pradip Krishen, author of Trees of Delhi, for an excursion in Mangarbani valley. It is a 100-hectare jungle, mostly consisting of Dhau trees,...
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The desi way to mend broken bodies. Good morning and…Brrrinng! Nas char gayi. Neck cramp is painful. Drive towards Indian Spinal Injuries Center at Vasant Kunj, south Delhi. Don’t stop there. Keep going straight to Mahipalpur, the urban village towards Indira Gandhi International Airport. Keep driving. Can...
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A mystery best left unsolved. There are many buts about this place. It is thick with woods and grass, but the padding is too thin to screen off the traffic noise (Mathura Road is next door). It is opposite the touristy Purana Qila, but rarely a tourist...
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The home of the eunuchs. Beautifully maintained, surprisingly serene, and almost always empty, this is a sufi spiritual retreat for hijras, or eunuchs, who beg for money by flaunting their ambiguous sexuality, and yet are fiercely guarded about their private lives. Situated on the scenic bazaar street...
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The other world. It’s a mystery why guidebooks have been indifferent to the (deadly) charms of one of the oldest British cemeteries in Delhi. Guarded by a cross-shaped gateway, Nicholson Cemetery has a sloping, grassy landscape dotted with intricately carved light-brown graves. Neem, khajoor and tamarind trees...
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The newspaper readers’ club In these iPad times of 24X7 news channels and streaming video sites, when the death of the newspaper is considered a certainty, a small bookless library in Daryaganj is doing well with its reading room full of those supposedly dying entities. “We have...
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