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City Neighbourhood – Kucha Faulad Khan, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

A street in the Walled City. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Kucha traditionally implies a lane of dwellers sharing the same occupation. Faulad means steel, or strong. So Old Delhi’s Kucha Faulad Khan neighbourhood can be explained as a strong man’s street. As for Faulad Khan the man, let’s pester the street’s shopkeepers. The genial Mahesh administers Asia General Store. “Faulad Khan...,” he murmurs, deep in thought. He remains thoughtful for some more moments, and then smiles, shrugging. “Well, it has always been called by this name.” Mahesh doesn’t live in Faulad Khan but his shop has been here for 75 years. It was set up by his father, the late Nand Lal, who used to run a vegetable stall on the

City Neighbourhood – Tiraha Bairam Khan, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

A Walled City intersection. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Tiraha Bairam Khan is a tiraha, a three-way avenue. One crowded passage goes to Chitli Qabar, one goes to Kucha Chelan, one goes to Dilli Gate. The center of the intersection is most fascinating, ringed by a mishmash of sights, sounds and colours. It comprises of a chhole kulche stall administered by Umesh Kumar, a tall letter box unlocked daily by the postman at 4pm to pick up the post, veggie stalls of Arshad and Irfan respectively, a fruit-and-clothes stall owned by Taufeeq (the stall was founded 50 years ago by his father, the late Syed Ahmed), and a display counter of plastic bins administered by vendor Amit. Overlooking the intersection is

City Walk – Gali Lal Darwaza, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

A Walled City lane. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The yellow door headlines the saffron doorway, and the wall around is light blue. The sight dazzles the eye. It is one of the many compulsively clickable private doorways on this Walled City street, which is actually named after a doorway. Gali Lal Darwaza is entered, naturally,, through a lal darwaza, red doorway. This long lane near Bazar Sitaram goes past a series of residences and temples before ending into a… well, doorway. Here’s a severely truncated tour of Lal Darwaza darwazas. —An unusually tall wooden door graced by a sculpted Ganesh ji forms the portal to Jugal Bhawan, marked with the year 1953. —A doorway’s dark-wood door is arrayed out

City Neighbourhood – Gali Haveli Kallu Khawas, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

The world of a long lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] What to write about it? This is just a narrow lane remarkable only for looking too-too unremarkable. Its mouth at the bustling Chitli Qabar Bazar street is flanked by a bangle stall. Whatever, the gali seems short and dull, it must end some dozen steps ahead on reaching that facing wall. The lane reaches the wall, but doesn’t end there. It veers to the left, goes straight, turns sharply to the right, goes straight, to the right again, straight, to the left, finally ending into a panel of partly pink doorways. Contradicting the first impression, the entire path turns out to be dense with many sights and many sounds. Such

City Neighbourhood – Gali Pyaun Wali, Chawri Bazar

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Lane with a well and temple. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Maa Durga, Bhagwan Krishen with Radha ji, Devi Sita with Bhagwan Ram, and Hanuman ji… all these divinities are present, their portraits sanctifying the temple’s blue walls. The eyes though are first drawn to Shiv Bhagwan. The life-like statue’s right palm is bestowing a blessing, while the wrists are adorned with marigold malas. The eyes next wander down to something less common for a sanctum sanctorum. A blue hand-pump. It stands where a kuan is said to have existed. For centuries, that well diligently served this part of the Walled City, a passer-by says. Inevitably the place came to be identified as a general pyaun of drinking water for the

City Street – Gali Surkh Poshan, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

Red lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The fakeer’s deep-throated singing voice is wafting probingly along the weathered walls of the narrow cul-de-sac. The other much younger fakeer is silent, holding a small polythene thaila filled with surkh-red tomatoes. Both men are attired in white. Gali Surkh Poshan must have its share of dwellers, but nobody else can be seen this afternoon. No matter, the fakeer continues to sing with feeling. Dur hoon Medine se, Aur isliye udasi hain. (Being far from Medina, Is the cause for sadness.) Meanwhile, it is unbearably hot, but it is so outside the lane, where the lane merges into the open expanse of Gali Choori Walan. Within the cramped Surkh Poshan, it is like being in cool

City Neighbourhood – Brijmohan Marg, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

A lane in the Walled City. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Buildings evoke eras. With its arched doorway and carved balcony, a mansion of lakhori bricks in Gali Chooriwallan instantly transports the gazer to the late Mughal times. Some streets away within the same historic quarter, in Ganj Meer Khan, a multi-storey apartment complex resembles the contemporary aesthetics of the distant suburbia. While towards the eastern walls of the Walled City, here at Brijmohan Marg, these contemplative houses are indicative of… just which era? These buildings are neither as ornamental as havelis, nor as toneless as flats. Take this mansion of modern-day bricks. It doesn’t look old, it also doesn’t look new. The hulky facade is partitioned into equal halves

City Neighbourhood – Gali Andheri, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

The darkened street. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] No darkness tonight in Gali Andheri, not even a spot of it—though the name translates to ‘darkened street.’ The twisty long-winded Old Delhi lane is momentarily landscaped with unwieldily patches of white and orange luminosities. These lights are emanating out of scores of street lamps and house windows. Young Moosa, a Gali Andheri dweller, is standing at the street’s colourfully painted gateway, where it meets Pahari Bhojla’s crowded bazar. He informs that his street had no wayside lamps until about the turn of the century, and that it would return to total darkness each day after sundown. An eighth grade student, the boy naturally doesn’t have a lived experience of

City Neighbourhood- Gali Manihar Wali, Old Delhi

by The Delhi Walla - 0

A Walled City Lane. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] When the Walled City nostalgists muse about its early days, they refer to that long-ago time as “badshahi ke daur mein.” Indeed, it was “during the era of emperors” that almost all the Walled City galliyan and kuche acquired their names. These specific nouns richly tell of the past but rarely of the present, for the world has drastically altered in the historic quarter. The story goes that “badshahi ke daur mein” Gali Choori Walan used to be the street of choori traders. Today, not a single bangle store is here. Same ended up being the fateful kismet of a Choori Walan side-lane. Gali Manihar Wali used to house

City Neighbourhood – Laddu Ghati, Paharganj

by The Delhi Walla - 0

The laddu valley [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Lady with a dog. Gentleman with a chai kettle. A temple. A peepal tree as immense as Kipling’s jungle. A water pyau. And manning the entry of this introverted world are pomegranate seller Rajinder, ice-cream seller Lalji, marigold seller Ramesh Kumar, and aloo-tikki seller Chunnilal. This street is in a megapolis, but feels like a friendly small town, with its slow sequence of uneventful days. Such towns probably don’t exist for real, but the charmingly named Laddu Ghati—valley of laddu—does exude the ambiance of unrealistic havens. It lies in the backpackers’ district of Paharganj, but is free of cafés, lodges and backpackers—though a few rooms of next-door Hotel Relax overlook the street. Some

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