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Secrets

City Secret – Mangarbani, near Chattarpur

December 16, 2010
Mangarbani

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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City Secret – The Body Re-builder, Mahipalpur

November 9, 2010
The body re-builder

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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City Secret – DDA Park, Opposite Purana Quila

September 26, 2010
DDA Park

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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City Secret – Hijron ka Khanqah

March 13, 2010
City Secret – Hijron ka Khanqah

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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City Secret – Nicholson Cemetery, Kashmere Gate

February 25, 2010
City Secret – Nicholson Cemetery, Kashmere Gate

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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City Secret – Jain Svetambar Temple, Kinari Bazaar

February 13, 2010
City Secret – Jain Svetambar Temple, Kinari Bazaar

The luxury of the ascetics. Amid Delhi’s dense tangle of mosques, forts and tombs, it is easy to miss the city’s non-Islamic heritage. Let Jain Svetambar Temple not be one of them. The most beautiful Jain temple in the capital, it is lavishly decorated with intricate artwork...
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City Secret – Hardayal Municipal Public Library, Daryaganj

February 1, 2010
City Secret – Hardayal Municipal Public Library, Daryaganj

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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City Secret – Raja Bookstore, Paharganj

January 14, 2010
City Secret – Raja Bookstore, Paharganj

Almost like Paris. The setting of this café, or rather, a spot in the café, is very special. Perhaps you won’t find it anywhere else in Delhi. Fancy this — a table is placed against a bookshelf; you are having, say, jasmine tea; a qawwali or some...
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City Secret – Razia Sultana’s Tomb, Pahari Bhojla

January 10, 2010
City Secret – Razia Sultana’s Tomb, Pahari Bhojla

India’s first woman ruler is sleeping here. Razia Sultana’s tomb chamber in Old Delhi. No dome, no crowd here. This is no place for a queen. As the first woman ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, as well as of South Asia, Razia (d. 1240) rode elephants, fought...
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City Secret – Gole Park, Windsor Place

December 9, 2009
Gole Park

An urban shanghri-la. You can cross the entire Gole Park in Central Delhi’s Windsor Place in five minutes flat. It is a traffic roundabout. While there are the usual trees, flowers, grass and bird calls, there is no getting away from the city. You may clap a...
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