The way we were.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Drawing room, bedroom, dining room, pooja room, kitchen, balcony… these are the angrezi words many of us Hindi-speakers employ to map the geography of our houses. The earlier terms—Hindustani terms—detailing the domestic interiors have fallen out of use. Perhaps because the language of our daily life has evolved with the times. Maybe also because we don’t live in the kinds of houses that existed a century ago. Thankfully, those terms haven’t been lost. They lie preserved in the memories of citizens of a certain age, and also in books, such as the Gazetteer of the Gurgaon District 1910. Published in a new edition by Daryaganj-based Aryan Books International, it has a page dedicated to those bhoole-bhisre terms—as recorded more than a hundred years ago in a district of the Delhi region that today is known as the Millennium City. Here’s our list—most of the terms have been fished out from the aforementioned book.

On the elements of a house

Paoli, or dehliz: The covered gateway to the house.
Aangan, or chauk: The open square, or yard, separating the main structure of the house from the gateway.
Dalan: The verandah on one side of the aangan, which directly leads into the main structure of the house. Marked by a row of arches called mehrab (see photo).
Kotha, or kothri: The rooms within the house; the former is big; the latter is much smaller, used as an attic to keep out-of-season clothes.
Bakhal, or bagar: Enclosure inside a room.
Chaubara: An upper-floor room with a verandah.
Tehkhana: The basement, used to while away the long afternoons during the summer months, when this portion of the house would be least hot.
Gharauchi: Stone tank to store water. Filled twice a day by the water carriers, who would bring the water in goatskin bags from the neighbourhood hand-pump.
Nemat Khana: Wooden cabinet with a jaali, or net, to keep leftover food and milk.
Nauhra: A separate walled enclosure in the house containing the cattle shed.

On household things
Khatola: Small beds for children.
Kothi: A large square mud receptacle for storing grain.
Kuthela: A smaller round receptacle for grain.
Ukli: A large mortar of wood, stone or earthenware with a wooden pestle called musal.
Sil batta: Stone for pounding vegetables or spices.
Khari: Basket of dry grass.
Bugcha: A dyed cloth to keep folded clothes.
Microwave: Oops, sorry, this term will appear only if you venture to write Gazetteer of the Gurgaon District 2025!