City Exploration – Park End Colony, Karkardooma
The Delhi walla‘s pretension in writing makes me want to lodge a bullet in his balls – Blogger Nimpipi, the woodchuck chucks
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Exodus from the Walled City.
[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]
The story goes that Old Delhi suffered just one exodus when Partition forced many Muslims to leave for Pakistan. But the slow flight since then seems to have gone unrecorded.
I have heard stories of genteel Old Delhi families leaving their Walled City mansions for Yamuna-paar addresses.
Isn’t that shocking?
How could you willfully renounce the thrill of living in Purani Dilli? So it is. I know the publisher of a legendary Urdu magazine who left his grand haveli near Jama Masjid for a bungalow in Noida’s Sector 21. From the historical quarters of Matia Mahal to the suburban sprawl of Noida!
Is romance dead?
To confirm the death of everything that is beautiful I’m now here in Karkardooma in East Delhi. Someone told me that a neighbourhood here called Park End consists entirely of Old Delhi gentry.
Really? It’s hard to imagine Mirza Ghalib’s brood in this part of the Capital. This is neither Old Delhi, nor New Delhi. No Pandava palace, no Mughal masjid, no British block.
Folks, this is new New Delhi. Here the Metro Rail construction is in full swing. Huge concrete slabs. Giant cranes. Commuters scurrying past like ants. The rush hour is not yet on, but Vikas Marg, already smelling of diesel, is getting more difficult to cross. I feel the dust settling on my lungs. But all is forgiven for I’m in search of a vanished city.
They say it is visible right from this crossing. I see a masjid. And mysterious it is. No minaret, no dome. The roof sloping and the gate shut.
Koi hai? Knock, knock. Imam sahib appears. He follows me into the prayer hall, and stays on the trail as I go up the spiral staircase. The view here is extraordinary through the green-tinted glass windows. Two ends of Metro tracks, about to touch. Imam sahib, now impatient, shoos me out.
“This is the first DDA-approved masjid in Delhi,” says 72-year-old Mr Muhammad Aslam, a retired Customs officer and former Delhi University football captain. DDA stands for Delhi Development Authority, the planning agency for the capital. Mr Aslam is taking a morning walk with neighbours – all, as I learned, came from Old Delhi.
In the beginning, there was a jungle in Karkardooma. In 1985, a certain Mr MM Zaidi, the principal of Anglo-Arabic Oriental College, at Ajmeri Gate, started a residential society here.
Back then the traffic was negligible, the air fresh and only one bus route – 201 from Kodiyapul to Ghazipur Dairy. Maybe that’s why the original inhabitants, all professor-advocate types, left the congestion of Old Delhi. “Our families were growing bigger and we wanted sukoon,” says Mr Aslam.
Is sukoon to be found in this smoggy slice of East Delhi?
“Oh, yes,” replies Aslam. “Here we have open space, large plots and lots of trees.” I look around. Such wilderness. Lots of gular trees whose leaves are much loved by goats.
No wonder, these men are happy with the choices they have made.
“Don’t you miss morning stalls selling niharis and payas?”, I ask.
“Yes, we do,” says Mr Aslam. “But in Old Delhi, we acutely missed DDA-approved bungalows.”
Got the point, sir.
Delhi’s first DDA mosque
View from the mosque window
More view
Happy & healthy in Trans-Yamuna
thought u might want to catch the graffiti on the wall outside kamala nursery close to khan market complex – ‘For white and rich indians only’
Bismillah-e-Rehmaan-e-RahimJanaab Mayank Austen Soofi.Salaam VaalikumYou are doing a Subhaan-allah Job of covering the real inhabitants of Delhi, the belivers of Allah. I always feel agitated to see snobbish White wannabee journalists cover the Page 3 Parties of the Rich & Famous Clean Shaven Kaafirs who booze and their women wear skimpy clothes. Anyways, they will all go to hellfire after they die coz they are not believers of Allah.May there be more and more Park Ends in Delhi instead of Greater Kailiash, Vasant Vihars & Lajpat Nagar. May the followers of Islam become the majority soon in India and may the city of Delhi be rid of all Kaafirs & Dhimmis and may all women dress up in Veils and may all men stop shaving.We give our full support to you and your blog Mayank, Delhi was an Islamic city till 1947 and will soon become an Islamic City again. I’m sure you Mayank will help us with the holocoust of all Kaafir Hindu, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and the worse of them all, the Jews.May Allah bless you Mayank till Judgment Day. You will surely get to make love with 72 ‘Haseen’ virgins in heaven.
Mr. QureshiIf you dont like what India is doing today where Page 3 Parties are being attended by clean shaven men and scantily clad women, you and your family along with your chamcha Pakistan Paindabad chanting Mayank Austen Soofi and his mentor Arundhati Roy are free to leave India and go to any other place of your liking. We have already sacrificed our land worth two countries for people like you who think they cannot live with Non-Muslims. You did not leave when you had a chance, now you have lost to right to crib about how we live.Your comment above is laughable and invokes disgust in me. In effect you are saying that you are not to be blamed if you become a terrorist one day.The Islamic invasions that India has vitnessed for over 900 years did more than destroy temples, gurudwaras, buddhist monestaries and architecture – they undid a complete civilization. What would happen if Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omer broke through all of America’s defenses, destroyed every building in NYC and rounded up and shot every scholar and student in each of the Ivy League universities? Would it not set American power and influence back a couple of generations – would it not shatter their creativity and pursuit of excellence?But that is exactly what happened in India. The destruction of Taxila and Nalanda – not to mention Vijaynagar – robbed India of all her human capital. It left us limping in the race amongst nations. Hence the term “wounded civilization” Islam is a totalitarian ideology. It literally means submission and that submission is to a man who lived in 7th century Arabia and who determined that all have to submit to the will of his god, Allah, and that he was the one who was entrusted with the task of conveying the wishes of his god for the rest of humanity for all times and all places. As an ideology, it is inimical to humanity’s primal drive: freedom from dictation from above. As far as it goes, Islam was a perfect instrument for winning in tribal conflicts of 8th and 9th century Arabia. But the world is temporally and spatially much bigger than 9th century Arabia. Islam’s ideology cannot win in a globalized world, a world where the fittest ideas survive in a battle of competiting ideas and ideologies. Any ideology that has to resort to violence to maintain itself merely demonstrates its weakness and its days are ultimately limited. Empirical and analytical evidence abounds with regard to the developmentally harmful effects of Islam. As an explanatory factor for underdevelopment and retarded growth, Islam is significant. Most of the Islamic majority economies (except for Turkey, Iran & Malaysia) are far behind in most indicators of human development. Even those Islamic states that have immense natural endowments such as oil and natural gas — and they earn hundreds of billions of dollars annually in exporting them — even they lag behind other states that are not so fortunately endowed. This is not conjecture or mere prejudice. Even a cursory reading of the present state of Islamic states reveals that fact.The Arab world, the Afghan world and most of North Africa & Central Asia, all overwhelmingly Islamic, have not contributed in any significant way to the modern world in terms of discovery, invention, production of art, advances in the sciences, cinema, music and humanities. It surely must be remarkable that Jews — vanishingly small in number relative to Muslims — have contributed astonishingly to technology, sciences, arts and humanities. Evidence is everywhere but just look at the number of Nobel prizes won by the Jews. Even most members of my community, the Sikhs mostly lead prosperous lives without any major criminal convictions.Look at most of the criminals and drug addicts in the UK, they used to be Jamaicans till the early 90s but now almost all of them are Pakistanis or Arabs, thanks to the overwhelming immigration.The prime minister of India, echoing the reports of many committees, has noted quite rightly that Muslims of India are on average poorer, less educated, less skilled and generally do poorly in many generally accepted indicators of social development compared to non-muslims in India. That is not a badge of honor even though it is apparently proudly worn by some to claim that they are discriminated against by non-muslims.The claim is that they are victims and therefore they are entitled to not only income transfers but also get a free pass for any transgression against basic human values. Not given to critical self-examination, the fault is always of the other. Proudly wearing the cloak of the victim, they cannot do any wrong. Predictably, after every act of Islamic terrorism, the so-called “intellectuals” and opinion-makers emerge with a ready-made explanation: Islamic terrorism is a response to poverty. That is an untenable explanation. India has a large number of poor Muslims. But then it also has a much larger non-muslim population which is in the same economically dire straits. Why aren’t these non-muslims using terrorism as an instrument of influencing public policy? Since Kashmir is a favorite example trotted out dutifully in the explanation of random Islamic violence in India, how does one explain the total lack of terrorism by non-muslims who were driven out of Kashmir and are huddled in pathetic refugee camps for decades? Why aren’t poor Biharis terrorising India in their attempt to secure economic justice from the rest? What about the dalits and the other downtrodden? Why?But as I said before, to me it appears that Muslims are as much the victims of Islam as the rest of the non-muslim world. (Some wit noted that Pakistan is a victim of Islamic terrorism; the first to die in a suicide bombing is a Pakistani.) I am not against Muslims for the simple reason that I have nothing againt random people I have never met. I can only like or dislike people for what they have done to me, not just because they subscribe to some ideas or ideology, however kooky and senseless it may be. Islam divides creation between two opposing and warring factions: the Muslims and non-muslims. I don’t. It is just unfortunate that I — a Kaafir coz I worship my Gurus and not Allah — am categorized as an enemy of Muslims, but I am not. As an average human being, I could not be bothered to go out seeking Muslims to kill. And that is the point: most non-muslims don’t wish any harm to Muslims merely because Muslims believe in Allah. But Islam does declare in no uncertain terms what Muslims are required to do to infidels. Hindus & Sikhs (such as yours truly) are not even classified as dhimmis — those who can buy protection from their Muslim overlords because they are the “people of the book.” I am to be killed outright if I refuse to submit to Islam.Islam is by all means a FAILED ideology, just like Communism, Fascism and Nazism. The surest sign that it is failing is that it resorts to mindless violence against humanity, just as Nazism, Fascism and Communism did and also the Khalistani movement by some brainwashed people in my community. Communism is on its death bed now and Nazism, Fascism & the Khalistani movement have been consigned to the dustbin of history and so will Islam — soon. PS: And now I would like to very politely suggest that all those who believe that they have read in what I have ever written that I am calling for violence against Muslims, that they should get their effing heads out of their collective behinds and read what I actually wrote. I am against Islam — an ideology — not Muslims — a collection of humans. If you cannot distinguish betwen the two, you should get yourself some remedial reading courses at your local high school. Furthermore, if you are misconstruing what I wrote as a diatribe against Muslims, perhaps it reveals your subconcious hatred of Muslims. Take a deep breath and ask yourself if you harbor ill-will against people merely because they are different. If you do, perhaps you subscribe to the Islamic doctri
ne of labeling people without justification.Being against islam is NOT tantamount to being against all muslims, just like being against narcotics is not tantamount to being against the drug-addict. It is infact helping the narcotic, and in this case the Muslim.
Great job Simranjeet. Vadiya jawaab diya hai. Why didn’t you mention that millions of people have been massacred, sorry butchered by Muslims in the world including the Pandits & Dogras in Kashmir. Same thing in Chechnya (Russia). Muslims are killing Muslims in Afghanistan beacuse there are not enough women which can be shared by all the Talibani mullahs. And I have some things to say: –Dear Indian Muslims, I sincerely appeal to you all, that if you really mean that you are an Indian first, then as a true Indian Muslim please do the following: –1. Ask the govt to stop the subsidy to Muslims for Haj trip. (It is a scam). Divert the funds for setting up education, housing and hospitals for common man. 2. Ask the govt to stop this Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants. Mumbai , Delhi & Kolkata are worst hit. 3. Ask you clerics not to make inflammatory speeches against Kaafirs & Dhimmis! 4. Stop saying ISLAM is the only best religion of the world and followers of other religions will face Hellfire! Please Respect other faiths!
Mr. Singh and Mr Bhasin,The guy is just posting with a muslim name, I can tell that from the incorrect usage of the Urdu/arabic words that he has included, just to sound like a muslim. I can tell that as I am myself a muslim, from Delhi.As is, the post is ridiculous and disgusting … at least the guy could have tried to get the lousy usage right 😉I guess the loser has just posted to incite responses as yours and may be more from other confused users.