City Walk – Lighted High-Rises, Barakhamba Road Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 31, 20250 Barakhamba Heights. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Nobody walks on Barakhamba Road for sightseeing. But everyone should, especially after sundown when the many high-rises of the central Delhi avenue sparkle with night lights. This evening, Indra Prakash and Narain Manzil are gleaming like mineral-rich crystalline stalagmites. It is however the building between these two that is sheathed in a brilliant splatter of multitudinous lights. The scene could be a Jackson Pollack painting—see photo. (The building in the centre is Hindustan Times House that actually stands on the road behind, on Kasturba Gandhi Marg.) Whatever, Barakhamba Road’s most iconic symbol has to be the Statesman House. 236 feet tall*, the sand-coloured tower crowns and consecrates almost every nook and corner of the
City Walk – Gali Loharan, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 26, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The man who writes poems is called a poet. The woman who writes poems is also called a poet. Sometimes she is referred to as poetess. The way a female actor is referred to as actress. Now, take the case of lohar and loharan. “Lohar” means blacksmith, the artisan who deals with metals. While “loharan” is considered to be the feminine equivalent of “lohar.” So is loharan a female blacksmith? Or, can it be that loharan refers to lohar’s wife? Since the word “lohar” is also identified with the wider community of blacksmiths, does “loharan” then refers to a female member of the community? By the way, loharan is also the name
City Walk – Patli Gali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 19, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A man in lungi is trudging through this long, narrow, and dark tunnel, here in Old Delhi. He is carrying a hefty load on his head. Since the load is so unwieldy, and the tunnel is so cramped, the man gets stuck midway. He twists this way and that, shifts the load on his head, and only then is he able to make his way towards the tunnel’s exit. The tunnel is otherwise utterly deserted and silent. As the eyes adjust to the darkness, the tunnel reveals itself to be an extremely cramped street lined on both sides with tall doorways. Each doorway opens into a spacious hall. Each hall has scores
City Walk – Gali Hakim Boali, Old Delhi Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 12, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Baoli, the step-well of yesteryears. Where the stone staircase gently descends towards underground water. Delhi’s most instagrammed step-well is Agrasen Ki Baoli, near Connaught Place. Then there is Gali Hakim Baoli. This Old Delhi street too has steps descending into an underground… cricket field! To start with, the gali in Daryaganj is short and cramped. Its name evokes two traditional support systems that were familiar to Delhiwale of an earlier era. When ill, citizens would go to a hakim, who would be the doctor saheb of the time. When stricken by summertime heat waves, citizens would go to a baoli, which would be the AC hall of the time. Today, Gali Hakim Baoli
City Walk – Katra Sheikh Ranjha, Old Delhi Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - October 5, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Heer & Ranjha are among the many star-crossed protagonists of our tragic love fables. But Katra Sheikh Ranjha in Old Delhi has nothing to do with love, passion or heartbreak. Unless you find romance in nuts and bolts. The lane teems with shops selling these mechanical fasteners. Take Ganpati House. It specialises in “all kinds of machine screws, nuts, bolts, self taping screws, spring washers, stainless steel screws and brass screws.” Such is the irony. Once the world had a Ranjha bursting with mohabbat-pyar. Today the world has a Sheikh Ranjha bursting with machine-parts. That said, the place has its own idiosyncratic poetry. A beautifully illustrated hoarding of Bhola Ram &
City Walk – Paper Market, Old Delhi Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - September 28, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Streets here are littered with the usual civic litter, but also with paper shavings. We know the source of the latter—the cramped shops packed with bundles of paper sheets. This is Old Delhi’s Paper Market. Yet, you cannot locate the name on the Walled City map. The place exists, and the place doesn’t exist. Paper Market is a generic name encompassing a number of lanes and alleys of Chawri Bazar, mostly centered around Barshahbulla Chowk. But there is no chosen street, or a collection of streets, that is formally labelled as the Paper Market. The fact is asserted by shopkeeper Ranveer Singh. The paper merchant explains he essentially trades in papers that are
City Walk – Gali Jane Austen Wali, Old Delhi Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - September 21, 2025September 22, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is Gali Jane Austen Wali. Sorry. Gali Jane Austen Wali doesn’t exist in Delhi. It certainly is not the name of this Old Delhi street. But then the gali’s actual name has nothing to do with its present. While its present has everything to do with Jane Austen. As you are aware, the great writer (its her 250th birth anniversary this year!) was obsessed with the theme of shaadi; all her six novels end with weddings. And here is this entire street devoted to shops for wedding cards. So, welcome to… Gali Jane Austen Wali! The narrow lane, near Chawri Bazar’s Shubh Murti Maa Chowk, is lined on both sides with card
City Walk – Sadak Prem Narayan, Old Delhi Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - September 14, 20250 The Walled City dictionary. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Nobody being accosted here is able to give any gyan on Prem Narayan of Old Delhi’s Sadak Prem Narayan. The gentleman at Junaid Bawarchi Khurram Bawarchi banquet kitchen explains his ignorance, saying “Prem Narayan was born before my time.” Next moment, he shares all that he knows on the subject: “Prem Narayan must have been somebody important.” He however gamely acknowledges the truth that the sadak, road, has too many dilapidated doorways, and too many dilapidated buildings. Sadak Prem Narayan starts from Gali Choori Wallan, and ends at Seetaram Bazar. The starting point is marked by a Greek, or Yunani, influence. Meaning: it is the site of Delhi Government’s Yunani Dawakhana and Sugar
City Hangout – Poet Wali Pahari, Old Delhi City Poetry Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - September 7, 20250 The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] What to do when a street has not one but two names? Naturally, it ought to be profiled twice, to present it in two different perspectives. It’s a hilly neighbourhood in the historic Walled City of Delhi—and it is the Poet Wali Pahari, the poet’s hill… my on-the-ground dispatch, please read! For the last four years, this page has been steadily building a dictionary of Old Delhi streets. Each week, I pick a Walled City gali, and track the story behind its unique name, along with exploring its contemporary life. Pahari Rajaan had its turn exactly three years ago. The name-story is simple. It is a pahari (hill) in Chitli Qabar Chowk that
City Hangout – Khas Bazar, Old Delhi Hangouts Walks by The Delhi Walla - August 17, 20250 The Walled City encyclopaedia. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This place is khas, special. In the olden times, it was in fact known as Khas Bazar. That Khas Bazar was completely destroyed by the British following the 1857 uprising. Even so, the zameen where Khas Bazar stood continues to exist. And in it its own way, this slice of land remains a khas portion of Old Delhi. The open space showcases a view of the Red Fort on one side, and of the Jama Masjid on the facing side. It also happens to be the only location in the Walled City that presents the front prospect of the grand mosque. This facet of the 17th century monument is the only facet