The Walled City encyclopaedia.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

The informally named Gali Shyam Bhawan is very short. The roofed lane begins and ends as a passage, leading inward from the light and noise of Daryaganj in Old Delhi. As it stretches ahead, the lane darkens.

The lane’s entrance is marked by a stall selling religious posters. This blinding afternoon, Sonu’s display bears images of Ram Darbar, Radha Krishna and Shivji Bhagwan. Further in, where the lane grows dim and feels cut off from the rest of the city, stands its defining landmark, marked only by a tiny, almost invisible scrawl of blue ink on the chipped wall: “tea wala.”

Upender’s tea stall is richly detailed. The place is crammed with a stove, a giant kettle, a smaller kettle, a thermos, plus jars of chai-related supplies. The tea establishment was founded sixty years ago by Walled City native Naubat Ram, whose grandson handed it over to Upender 30 years ago.

This sweltering afternoon, Upender is seated on his chair, and appears asleep—see photo. Next instant, he opens his eyes, and gets up to prepare another round of chai for nearby shops. His chair’s backrest is a revelation; it is shaped after a leaf. Behind the chair lies a shelf packed with boxes of fen, mathhi, samosa wali mathhi and zeera biscuits, all supplied daily by a bakery in Kureji. Upender also keeps cat food for the gali’s billi.

But Gali Shyam Bhawan is not only about tea. There is also the Shyam Bhawan itself, the art deco building from which the gali takes its name. The street’s sheltering roof is, in fact, part of the building, which dates from early 1940s. Rising overhead, the multi-storey forms a dense arrangement of staircases, balconies, and doorways. One nameplate belongs to a “manufacturer of all kinds of tent and tailoring material.” Another doorway opens onto a steep staircase swallowed in darkness, broken only by a shaft of daylight filtering through a small opening in the wall. Otherwise at this hour, the building’s interiors are steeped in a cooling shade. The terrible heatwave raging outside feels like a distant memory.

After a few more turns and flights of stairs, an upper floor door leads into an amply furnished hall. This moment, a few folks are sitting on comfy sofas, smoking from long pipes. Popular with the Walled City’s young set, it is a hookah lounge.