(photos by Monica Wohlrab, a participant in old Delhi food walk)

Our heritage walk in old Delhi covers the main street of Chandni Chowk. Starting from outside the Red Fort we cover a distance of about 2 kms till the famous spice market in Khari Baoli. On the way are some well known & some not so well known landmarks which are of historical interest. In most cases, even though the landmarks are old, the buildings standing to commemorate them can be quite modern. (more…)

Set of pictures by Farhiz Karanjawala, a regular at our heritage walks

It is a truism that the city never sleeps. Not only is it always alive, it is constantly changing. People who live in an area, in our case old Delhi, have been constantly working & reworking their lives & in turn the life of the city. Which means that purani dilli has layers of pasts which need careful exploration & observation. A fun way to do this is walking through its lanes. Our heritage walk this Sunday was focused on the main street of Chandni Chowk. This is not to say that the rest of the old Delhi is not of interest. (more…)

Not many would know that women of the royal family of Mughals were instrumental in building of the city of Shahjahanabad. Today it is old Delhi for us, know for the Red Fort & Jama Masjid & all credit goes to Shahjahan.  But patronage of architecture seemed to run in the family. There are many historic buildings in old Delhi built by women of the family & our heritage walk in Chandni Chowk highlighted some of these. Our heritage trail begins are the Digamber Jain Lal Mandir, the famous Jain temple opposite Red Fort. The temple shrine is as old as the city itself & now it is the best known landmark in the old city, know also for the charitable bird hospital in its premises. (more…)