Dilli, Delhi or The Capital.....
Whatever name you call it by, it is the same wonderful old megapolis. It has many more names, Shahjahanabad, Siri, Indraprastha, Chrirag Dilli , Tughlakabad. She is an old dowager, standing mute witness to the many onslaughts of greed and desperation, valour and forbearance, war and peace, building and plunder. She has perhaps seen the best of men and the worst of them through the ages. Kings and marauders have come here to conquer and pillage, many have stayed back to rule with compassion and some have just blundered their way through. But for Delhi its always been like the Brook…..’for men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever’. She has been the Queen of India since she was a young lady called Indraprastha, built by the Pandavas. Her palaces and forts, her wealth and culture, have always been the envy of the world. Her comely grace has attracted as many lechers as gentle lovers. She is at once the courtesan and the queen. Its up to the seeker to find her …..Her citizens call themselves Dilliwala or Delhite very proudly!
My grandfather moved to Dilli in the last century sometimes in the 1920s. That was a Dilli of the British Raj .And part of my family still lives there. So we have a long association with the city although the city has now come a long way from that Dilli. Today it is a bursting metropolis, a beehive of people and activity. Some say that Dilli has lost its old world charm, but then every one, including Delhi must move with the old man ‘Time’. Today the Delhi we know is the old Shahjahanabad, the Mughal Capital, Lutyen’s New Delhi and the satellite towns of Gurgaon, Shahibabad, Noida etc. In fact she has sprawled so much that even her most ardent citizen does not know her fully.
Shahjahanabd or the Old Delhi (as we know it now) is Red Fort with the dancing Jamuna flowing in the east, and the Chandni Chowk and Bazar in the west. Delhi fell into disreputable times when the first bid was made for Independence in 1857. Horrible things happened to her as things happen when people are at War. But the demography of Delhi changed after the struggle. Although rivers of blood flowed in the streets of Delhi, she recovered quickly and built her new sister ‘New Delhi’ under the watchful eyes of the British architect Lutyen.
Though she was being broken and built over and over, Delhi never lost her essence. The wide avenue of Chandni chowk, once had a channel of water and fountains running through it with tall trees lining its sides. The bazaars run off from it in galis and kuchas or lanes and bylanes from the main Chandni Chowk with each avenue specializing in one kind of merchandise. So we have the Kinari bazaar where you get everything for thr bride-to-be, and parathawali gali where you get mouthwatering Paranthas, and Khari Baoli where the spice wholesale trade prospers, the Nai Sarak which is the haunt of all book lovers and students and office stationary, the Dariba Kalan will lure you with glittering jewellery if you have a deep pocket, and interspersed with all of this, jammed in little known corners, home to food lovers are the super Kebab, chat and sweet shops serving the gourmets. Somewhere in these galis you will find the house or haveli of the famous poet Mirza Ghalib and other Mughal luminaries. In such a haveli once lived the family of Kamala Nehru and she was married to the illustrious Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru from here. There is never a dull moment in Old Dilli. She has so much to tell you if you have the time to listen. Today Chandni Chowk has lost its visual beauty because of intense commercial activity, but she has not lost a bit of her charm.
Lutyens New Delhi was constructed after the British shifted their Capital from Kolkata to Delhi. Before this, the British Residents to the Mughal court had built beautiful bungalows near the Red Fort but because of the Independence War they wanted to live apart from the local residents fearing a back-lash. So Lutyen built the wondrous city, with wide avenues shaded by fruit trees, and lovely high ceiling bungalows with majestic Offices and a Palace for the Viceroy of India better and bigger than Queen Victoria’s Palace. The Centre of New Delhi is the Presidential Estate or Rashtrapati Bhavan standing on the Raisina Hill overlooking the Rajpath ,a long and straight road ending at the Martyrs memorial of the Wars called the India Gate, the proudest structure of the valour and courage in battle. Raj Path leads out flanked by majestic government offices known as North and South Blocks. It is from here that the elected leaders of the people of India rule and sway the Destiny of the largest Democracy of the world! And they debate our Destiny from the mighty Parliament House just beyond the North Block . The road here are laid out in military precision but are decked with the gentle hands of a lover. Beyond the Estate is the green lung of Delhi The Ridge. But a city is incomplete if there is no place for its citizens to meet, and shop and pray. So they built the Conaught Place, a stupendous round colonnaded commercial structure, with a fountain and garden in the Centre. The Army Brass played on its lawns and the gentry came and partook of refreshments and strolled around in the hot summer evenings. Canaught Place or Rajiv Chowk as we now know it was designed with shops downstairs and offices above. With time this has fallen to disrepute and sadly the shopping pleasure has gone out for the locals as more satellite markets have grown in other parts. But it still remains the tourist hub as no trip to Delhi is complete without shopping and night out in CP (as all Delhiites acronym it) !
Delhi is incomplete without its monuments. It has massive forts with tall and thick walls standing from centuries ago. The first was the Old Fort, the Siri Fort, the Tughlakabad fort, and the newest and the best the Red Fort, so called because it is built with red sandstone, by the Mughal Emperor Shahjehan. The Red Fort is so massive and built so beautifully it is a pity that it is not maintained better. Then of course being the city of Kings, Delhi has its fair-share of tombs. We have the predecessor of Taj Mahal in the Humayun’s tomb. It has a very well appointed garden and the remains of a village surrounding it. Then there are the Tombs of the Lodhi Sultans again surrounded by magnificent gardens, the Safdar-jung’s tomb (the only monument built in pink stone).The marvelous tall and majestic Qutub Minar, the Jantar Mantar (oldest astronomical clock and towers) and the newer monuments like the Trimurti Bhavan, Bahai Temple of worship. This new age marvel is designed like a lotus.
Like any city which prides its culture Delhi has Museums, art galleries, theater halls, newbie movie complexes, Malls and other places of entertainment. The National Art Gallery has a large collection of Indian Art and is a visual treat to visitors.
The life of Delhi is her people. The citizens old and new, once they step into Delhi they lose their heart to her. She is the Grand Dame, sure of her attractiveness and largesse. Indians and foreigners who came to live in Delhi are bound to her forever. There are mean streets in Delhi too. But where in the world can you find a city as large as Delhi without some mean streets? Delhi is not a city for the pedestrian and is often unsafe for foreigners and women. The distances are too enormous and the traffic and people can be chaotic and overwhelming even to the Delhites. So Delhi is best seen with an air-conditioned and chauffeured car…… or else the visitor may overlook the charms of the lovely lady because of the heat and dust! If you are not a Delhite don’t drive on her streets! When I drive I just go with the flow…. Even if it means that sometimes I must go ahead and turn back to reach my destination. There is neither lane nor sane driving……. It’s just a river of cars, buses, rickshaws, cycles and handcarts flowing on the streets….Delhi’s streets live in all the centuries together. The cows of Delhi’s streets never bother to give way to traffic; it is as if they have paid more road tax than the motorist.
Delhi’s many charms include the fantastic shopping experience. There is the Dilli Haat, a little India in rotation. So sometimes you have stalls of artists and craftsmen from one set of States and then they rotate to accommodate other States. They also celebrate traditional State festivals thereby sharing the cultural experiences. Then there are the local shopping complexes of South Extention, Lajpat Nagar, Khan Market, Rajouri Garden, etc all with varying snob values and prices and specialties. Add to that the latest Super markets and Malls and you are spoilt for choice. And all international brands are available at Indian prices….. so, if you are from the west, you will save! And add to this the shopping experience of traditional silk and embroidery from the Government run State Emporia, the Cottage Emporium and the Handloom House and you have a surplus of choice. The wildest shopping experience is probably in the underground Palika Bazar. This market was built to accommodate a few thousand people at the most. But at any given time it has no less than 30-40 thousand tourists and locals…… all haggling away to glory for the latest electronic gizmos. Although there have been bomb explosions inside it, yet people throng to it like a beehive ignoring the terrific heat and discomfort!
A Dilliwala will know a lot about you if you tell them where you live. If you live on the ramparts of the Fort at Darya Gunj you are an old inhabitant of Delhi and you and your neighbours have lived there for many generation. You are either a Kayasth (ie the original Delhi inhabitant) or a Baniya (trader or businessman). If you live in Civil Lines, again in Old Delhi you were the original intelligentsia and avant grade citizens of Delhi. The Delhi University is located near here. Now you will see those glorious bungalows with big lawns mostly housing student PGs because their owners are not able to earn their living elsewhere. If you are living in Central Delhi, you are either rich as the Devil like the Jains, Mittals, Birlas…. or you work in a high post in the government and you have a housing provided by the GOI or you are a Minister of the Government. If you live in South Delhi, you are the newest and best of Delhi’s citizens, professional, smart, moneyed and what-have-you…. If you live in North and East Delhi……. your world is in another cosmic sphere outside New Delhi… snob value? Perhaps! In its many years of growth Delhi has swallowed all the villages that came its way. Some have integrated and become parts of Delhi and gained quite an attitude……….like Hauz Khas and Mehrauli. Some just remained dirty and uncared for like Ayah Nagar and Khanpur, Khazirabad and many others. But they have little gems hidden within them and no guide book will tell you about these except for a Delhi citizen, sometimes just a local resident will know about these places……..
I could go on for days talking about the city I love and live in. But for this time, suffice to say that I am in love with my city and the people and with its warts, moles and idiosyncrasies. I love you Delhi!
Whatever name you call it by, it is the same wonderful old megapolis. It has many more names, Shahjahanabad, Siri, Indraprastha, Chrirag Dilli , Tughlakabad. She is an old dowager, standing mute witness to the many onslaughts of greed and desperation, valour and forbearance, war and peace, building and plunder. She has perhaps seen the best of men and the worst of them through the ages. Kings and marauders have come here to conquer and pillage, many have stayed back to rule with compassion and some have just blundered their way through. But for Delhi its always been like the Brook…..’for men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever’. She has been the Queen of India since she was a young lady called Indraprastha, built by the Pandavas. Her palaces and forts, her wealth and culture, have always been the envy of the world. Her comely grace has attracted as many lechers as gentle lovers. She is at once the courtesan and the queen. Its up to the seeker to find her …..Her citizens call themselves Dilliwala or Delhite very proudly!
My grandfather moved to Dilli in the last century sometimes in the 1920s. That was a Dilli of the British Raj .And part of my family still lives there. So we have a long association with the city although the city has now come a long way from that Dilli. Today it is a bursting metropolis, a beehive of people and activity. Some say that Dilli has lost its old world charm, but then every one, including Delhi must move with the old man ‘Time’. Today the Delhi we know is the old Shahjahanabad, the Mughal Capital, Lutyen’s New Delhi and the satellite towns of Gurgaon, Shahibabad, Noida etc. In fact she has sprawled so much that even her most ardent citizen does not know her fully.
Shahjahanabd or the Old Delhi (as we know it now) is Red Fort with the dancing Jamuna flowing in the east, and the Chandni Chowk and Bazar in the west. Delhi fell into disreputable times when the first bid was made for Independence in 1857. Horrible things happened to her as things happen when people are at War. But the demography of Delhi changed after the struggle. Although rivers of blood flowed in the streets of Delhi, she recovered quickly and built her new sister ‘New Delhi’ under the watchful eyes of the British architect Lutyen.
Though she was being broken and built over and over, Delhi never lost her essence. The wide avenue of Chandni chowk, once had a channel of water and fountains running through it with tall trees lining its sides. The bazaars run off from it in galis and kuchas or lanes and bylanes from the main Chandni Chowk with each avenue specializing in one kind of merchandise. So we have the Kinari bazaar where you get everything for thr bride-to-be, and parathawali gali where you get mouthwatering Paranthas, and Khari Baoli where the spice wholesale trade prospers, the Nai Sarak which is the haunt of all book lovers and students and office stationary, the Dariba Kalan will lure you with glittering jewellery if you have a deep pocket, and interspersed with all of this, jammed in little known corners, home to food lovers are the super Kebab, chat and sweet shops serving the gourmets. Somewhere in these galis you will find the house or haveli of the famous poet Mirza Ghalib and other Mughal luminaries. In such a haveli once lived the family of Kamala Nehru and she was married to the illustrious Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru from here. There is never a dull moment in Old Dilli. She has so much to tell you if you have the time to listen. Today Chandni Chowk has lost its visual beauty because of intense commercial activity, but she has not lost a bit of her charm.
Lutyens New Delhi was constructed after the British shifted their Capital from Kolkata to Delhi. Before this, the British Residents to the Mughal court had built beautiful bungalows near the Red Fort but because of the Independence War they wanted to live apart from the local residents fearing a back-lash. So Lutyen built the wondrous city, with wide avenues shaded by fruit trees, and lovely high ceiling bungalows with majestic Offices and a Palace for the Viceroy of India better and bigger than Queen Victoria’s Palace. The Centre of New Delhi is the Presidential Estate or Rashtrapati Bhavan standing on the Raisina Hill overlooking the Rajpath ,a long and straight road ending at the Martyrs memorial of the Wars called the India Gate, the proudest structure of the valour and courage in battle. Raj Path leads out flanked by majestic government offices known as North and South Blocks. It is from here that the elected leaders of the people of India rule and sway the Destiny of the largest Democracy of the world! And they debate our Destiny from the mighty Parliament House just beyond the North Block . The road here are laid out in military precision but are decked with the gentle hands of a lover. Beyond the Estate is the green lung of Delhi The Ridge. But a city is incomplete if there is no place for its citizens to meet, and shop and pray. So they built the Conaught Place, a stupendous round colonnaded commercial structure, with a fountain and garden in the Centre. The Army Brass played on its lawns and the gentry came and partook of refreshments and strolled around in the hot summer evenings. Canaught Place or Rajiv Chowk as we now know it was designed with shops downstairs and offices above. With time this has fallen to disrepute and sadly the shopping pleasure has gone out for the locals as more satellite markets have grown in other parts. But it still remains the tourist hub as no trip to Delhi is complete without shopping and night out in CP (as all Delhiites acronym it) !
Delhi is incomplete without its monuments. It has massive forts with tall and thick walls standing from centuries ago. The first was the Old Fort, the Siri Fort, the Tughlakabad fort, and the newest and the best the Red Fort, so called because it is built with red sandstone, by the Mughal Emperor Shahjehan. The Red Fort is so massive and built so beautifully it is a pity that it is not maintained better. Then of course being the city of Kings, Delhi has its fair-share of tombs. We have the predecessor of Taj Mahal in the Humayun’s tomb. It has a very well appointed garden and the remains of a village surrounding it. Then there are the Tombs of the Lodhi Sultans again surrounded by magnificent gardens, the Safdar-jung’s tomb (the only monument built in pink stone).The marvelous tall and majestic Qutub Minar, the Jantar Mantar (oldest astronomical clock and towers) and the newer monuments like the Trimurti Bhavan, Bahai Temple of worship. This new age marvel is designed like a lotus.
Like any city which prides its culture Delhi has Museums, art galleries, theater halls, newbie movie complexes, Malls and other places of entertainment. The National Art Gallery has a large collection of Indian Art and is a visual treat to visitors.
The life of Delhi is her people. The citizens old and new, once they step into Delhi they lose their heart to her. She is the Grand Dame, sure of her attractiveness and largesse. Indians and foreigners who came to live in Delhi are bound to her forever. There are mean streets in Delhi too. But where in the world can you find a city as large as Delhi without some mean streets? Delhi is not a city for the pedestrian and is often unsafe for foreigners and women. The distances are too enormous and the traffic and people can be chaotic and overwhelming even to the Delhites. So Delhi is best seen with an air-conditioned and chauffeured car…… or else the visitor may overlook the charms of the lovely lady because of the heat and dust! If you are not a Delhite don’t drive on her streets! When I drive I just go with the flow…. Even if it means that sometimes I must go ahead and turn back to reach my destination. There is neither lane nor sane driving……. It’s just a river of cars, buses, rickshaws, cycles and handcarts flowing on the streets….Delhi’s streets live in all the centuries together. The cows of Delhi’s streets never bother to give way to traffic; it is as if they have paid more road tax than the motorist.
Delhi’s many charms include the fantastic shopping experience. There is the Dilli Haat, a little India in rotation. So sometimes you have stalls of artists and craftsmen from one set of States and then they rotate to accommodate other States. They also celebrate traditional State festivals thereby sharing the cultural experiences. Then there are the local shopping complexes of South Extention, Lajpat Nagar, Khan Market, Rajouri Garden, etc all with varying snob values and prices and specialties. Add to that the latest Super markets and Malls and you are spoilt for choice. And all international brands are available at Indian prices….. so, if you are from the west, you will save! And add to this the shopping experience of traditional silk and embroidery from the Government run State Emporia, the Cottage Emporium and the Handloom House and you have a surplus of choice. The wildest shopping experience is probably in the underground Palika Bazar. This market was built to accommodate a few thousand people at the most. But at any given time it has no less than 30-40 thousand tourists and locals…… all haggling away to glory for the latest electronic gizmos. Although there have been bomb explosions inside it, yet people throng to it like a beehive ignoring the terrific heat and discomfort!
A Dilliwala will know a lot about you if you tell them where you live. If you live on the ramparts of the Fort at Darya Gunj you are an old inhabitant of Delhi and you and your neighbours have lived there for many generation. You are either a Kayasth (ie the original Delhi inhabitant) or a Baniya (trader or businessman). If you live in Civil Lines, again in Old Delhi you were the original intelligentsia and avant grade citizens of Delhi. The Delhi University is located near here. Now you will see those glorious bungalows with big lawns mostly housing student PGs because their owners are not able to earn their living elsewhere. If you are living in Central Delhi, you are either rich as the Devil like the Jains, Mittals, Birlas…. or you work in a high post in the government and you have a housing provided by the GOI or you are a Minister of the Government. If you live in South Delhi, you are the newest and best of Delhi’s citizens, professional, smart, moneyed and what-have-you…. If you live in North and East Delhi……. your world is in another cosmic sphere outside New Delhi… snob value? Perhaps! In its many years of growth Delhi has swallowed all the villages that came its way. Some have integrated and become parts of Delhi and gained quite an attitude……….like Hauz Khas and Mehrauli. Some just remained dirty and uncared for like Ayah Nagar and Khanpur, Khazirabad and many others. But they have little gems hidden within them and no guide book will tell you about these except for a Delhi citizen, sometimes just a local resident will know about these places……..
I could go on for days talking about the city I love and live in. But for this time, suffice to say that I am in love with my city and the people and with its warts, moles and idiosyncrasies. I love you Delhi!
posted by jayashree at
5:38 AM
3 Comments:
Great. Like the all inclusive information.Your narrative style and flow is nice. Your love for the city shows through.I loved reading it.
Again it's me-I didn't know you were such a Dilliwali.You have such a nice flair for writing.
I would suggest give a bit more info on your some particular interest or rememberance of the place-it's just what I felt would make it more personal.
Looking forward to reading a lot more.
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