The Walled City dictionary.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

See the small tiled platform at the centre of the chowk. A few flowers are scattered about it. Now, a citizen steps out from one of the lanes intersecting at the crossroad. He walks up to the platform, and bends down, reverently laying his right palm on the platform. He brings the palm to his forehead, as if partaking something of the platform’s divinity.

“Mata ki Chowki,” he explains, turning towards Chawri Bazar.

Old Delhi’s Chaurasi Ghanta Chowk however is not named after this platform, but after another sacred destination. That place is a full-fledged temple under a peepal tree, and stands steps away from the platform, across the lane from Banarasi Das Kachori Wale. Wedged between Jagdamba Jwellers and Dr Goyal’s Homeopathic Clinic (“Sugar is tested here”), Chaurasi Ghanta Mandir gives its extraordinary name to the ordinary seeming chowk.

The temple remains shuttered during a substantial part of the day. It throbs to pulsating life in the evening. Indeed, it happens to be the soul of the chowk, and it is truly unique; the uniqueness easily discernible from its name. The Shiv temple has chaurasi ghante, or 84 bells. It is said that all the 84 bells in the temple are linked together by a single chain, meaning that you may ring all the 84 bells by ringing just one bell. Inside, the bells claim the entirety of the prayer hall’s ceiling. Even so, they make a discreet presence. A visitor first notices the holy idols, not the bells.

One evening, the temple is packed with devotees. A woman is continually ringing a bell. In some time, a frail elderly man prepares to leave the mandir. With slow movements, he rings the solitary bell hanging low at the porch. This bell doesn’t seem to be part of the interlinked 84 bells. Whatever, on hearing its ringing sound, the man closes his eyes, and joins his palm. He does it almost unconsciously, as if greeting namaste to an invisible acquaintance. He then steps out into the crowded Chaurasi Ghanta Chowk, filled with the sound of chaurasi ghante.