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 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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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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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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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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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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