Bro’s bazar.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Jaan means life. Bhai means bro. So bhaijaan maybe implies a bro who is as dear as one’s own life.

Whatever, one of the most commonly heard words in Old Delhi streets is bhaijaan. The word is instinctively summoned to hail a friendly chap–or even any random male encountered on the street.

And here’s this little-known multi-storey in the Walled City called Bhaijaaan Market! The ground-floor is essentially a U-shaped corridor lined with shops and offices. The complex is located on a noisy street named after legendary scholar Syed Ahmad Khan. (This historic Walled City figure is too revered to be a mere Syed Bhaijaan; he is instead Sir Syed.)

Bhaijaan Market is fronted by the eye-catching M.R. Haircut Saloon. The barbershop’s colourful banner shows a grinning visage of the long-ago model Jas Arora. This afternoon, stylist Bobby is lazily slouched on the chair, feet up. Unable to dole out any gyan on the bhaijaan of Bhaijaan Market, he suggests trying luck with shopkeepers inside the market.

Inside lingers a slow-moving sense of peacefulness. The only attention-catching aspect in the corridor is the banner of Shaheen Collection boutique—“Where style meets modesty.” In Galaxy Framing nearby, colleagues Tauqeer and Umar are busy framing frames after frames (see photo). “Our workshop is 20 years old,” says one. “The market is forty years old,” says the other. They confirm the obvious: Bhaijaan Market indeed was set up by one Bhaijaan. But they have no clue about the market’s bhaijaan.

The market’s upper floor is less lively with only a very few shops. One bare establishment has nothing but a large desk. Four men in white kurta-pajamas are playing ludo on the desk. On being queried about Bhaijaan Market’s bhaijaan, the player shaking the dice irritatingly lifts his eyes, as if rudely awakened out of a slumber–“Bhaijaan gone.”

The complex also houses a few flats. A third-floor dweller is unable to recall the said Bhaijaan’s actual name, but says that a katra—housing yard of a community—existed on the site before it was purchased and “developed” by “Bhaijaan.”

Meanwhile, some streets away, in other parts of Purani Dilli, stand establishments with names like Chef Bhaijaans, Bhaijaan Kebabs, Bhaijaan Hotel, Bhaijaa… and so on.

And so concludes our dispatch, dear readerjaan.