The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Poet Mirza Ghalib spent his life’s last decade in a haveli that has mostly vanished from the face of the earth. Some remains remain. The story of those remains being reduced to a coal store has long been part of Delhi’s literary folklore. Whatever, that historic house of literature stands in Gali Qasim Jan, one of the many narrow lanes that crisscross the Old Delhi neighbourhood of Ballimaran. Ballimaran is said to take its name from the ballis, the wooden poles that were used to anchor boats in the Yamuna. Another less convincing explanation also exists. A book on Delhi describes Ballimaran as the “lane of cat killers,” deriving the name from

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The dead-end street is narrow, cramped and dark. Late evening has settled over the place, but the darkness is not entirely because of the hour. At noon as well, daylight enters reluctantly. That is the peculiarity of Chatta Abdul Hakeem. There is a solid reason why the street stays dark even after the sunrise. It is short and tightly hemmed in on both sides. The main cause is the structure from which it takes its name: the chatta. In Old Delhi, a chatta is a bridge-like structure that connects buildings across a street. Usually covered and so very private, it links the upper storeys of the same house while hanging suspended above

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] No, he can’t be that one. The Altaf Hussain of Old Delhi’s Gali Altaf Hussain street cannot be the exiled Pakistani politician who lives in England. For one, the Pakistani Altaf was born after Partition, in the city of Karachi, and has nothing to do with our Delhi (his parents were originally from Agra). Dilli ka Altaf Hussain must be someone else—though no man accosted this afternoon in Gali Altaf Hussain and its vicinity is able to trace the antecedents of the mystery man. The clueless passers-by sportingly suggest that Altaf Hussain must have been an esteemed resident of the street in the early days of the centuries-old Walled City. He

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Batasha is an excessively sugary sweet, often offered in temples. Old Delhi has a street called Gali Batashe Wali, named for the many shops that would sell batashe. The Walled City has another street with a phonetically similar name. Curiously, nobody in Gali Batashan is able to explain what “Batashan” means. Nor is anyone willing to connect the word even remotely to the excessively sweet batasha. Situated in the heart of Chawri Bazar, the street begins as any narrow, Purani Dilli street, but soon reveals itself to be long and twisting, winding through a maze of corners, enclosed spaces, and sudden dead ends. It is full of beautiful gateways; one gateway is

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] There must be a tap somewhere. The cramped lane is, after all, called Gali Nal Wali. Yet no nal, or tap, shows up in this dark street in Old Delhi. At the entrance, two guesthouses flank the alley. One bears a large painting that briefly transports you to some town in Luxembourg or Netherlands—trams, elegant façades, buildings in a European style. The lane is wide at first, then narrows. It grows darker as the lane further constricts, the buildings on both sides blocking out the sky. As in many Old Delhi lanes, the gali is lined with arched doorways and slanting staircases—until you reach a building unlike the rest. The interior here is

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] One long, walled alley is painted blue; another, green; a third is divided between grey and white. In all of them, the paint curls and flakes from the walls. Katra Nizam ul Mulk sits in the heart of Old Delhi, yet feels spiritually removed from it. Consider its setting in Old Delhi’s street layout: here stands the iconic Jama Masjid. Facing it runs the main road of Urdu Bazar, daily choked with nightmarish traffic, so noisy, so chaotic that no peace survives near it. Along its edge lies a narrow alley, easy to miss and easy to dismiss. This is Katra Nizam ul Mulk. On steeping into the lane, it first tapers,

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] So quiet. Kucha Seth is one of Old Delhi’s more serene streets. It is also very deceptive. For without any warning, its tail end drops you into the chaos of hyperkinetic Dariba Kalan. Dariba! Daribe! Rings a bell?!—some of us of course have heard of Dariba Kalan from the blockbuster song “Kajra Re,” featuring the Bachchan family stars. The lyrics passingly mention the street, along with another Purani Dilli locality. Whatever the reference, pricey jewellers dominate this bazar lane, dealing in gold, silver, pearls… in fact, the street is said to derive its name, “Dariba,” from a Persian phrase meaning “priceless pearl.”* Priceless indeed is the hoarding of one jewellery shop. It carries

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Here’s the street of the well-moneyed. At least the street shows its wealth in name, if not explicitly so in appearance. For the word seth in Kucha Seth refers to a wealthy man; while kucha denotes a locality of people sharing an occupation. Indeed, quite a few building façades here look grave and dignified despite their dereliction, mutely insisting on the street’s former grandeur. This afternoon, a brown dog is sleeping peacefully beside one such building, sleep coming to him as easily as money comes to the well-moneyed. In all, the street is exceptionally photogenic. Every doorway makes you reach for your phone camera. One striking relic bears the inscription Shri Mahavir

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Some citizens relate Ballimaran to the blockbuster film song “Kajra Re,” featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, which mentions the Old Delhi ’hood in passing. But it is another Old Delhi ’hood that truly stands out when it comes to cinema. A full-fledged widely praised film is named after this very street—albeit with a slightly different spelling. Gali Guleiyan, starring Manoj Bajpayee, is set in the lanes of Purani Dilli. Spelled Gali Guliyan, the actual street is short and relatively quiet, marked by a sequence of old lovely doors and closely set facades. Outside the peak summer months, it hosts a steady stream of visitors, especially foreign tourists. Many arrive with guides. Some of these

The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] This must be the city’s most beautiful barbershop, though it has no name. Its stone portal is flanked by a trio of graceful arches, and stepping through them feels less like entering a place for a quick shave and more like walking into a monument meant for admiration. Gali Dharampura, as this lane is informally known, is among the most picturesque streets of Old Delhi. The lane feels curated, as though shaped by an aesthete determined to keep out the embarrassing aspects of the Walled City. It is oddly orderly, free from the usual intrusions of Old Delhi’s chaos—the noise, crowds, tangles of wires, and impossible traffic of bikes and rickshaws. Walking