(Photos by Chhavi Sharma, team member, Delhi Heritage Walks and Alok Saxena, a regular at our walks)

The month of Ramzaan is a very exciting time in the old city: for locals and visitors alike. The noise, the lights, the crowds and chaos of the old city has to be seen to be believed. Add to it the excitement of Ramzaan and you have an electrifying atmosphere!

So this Friday we headed towards purani dilli for a food walk and to soak in the festive ambience of Ramzaan. For our very first food walk, we invited the noted food critic, Rahul Verma to take us around the lanes in old Delhi and sample its food. Our first stop was chaat at Ashok Chaat corner near Chawri Bazaar metro station. Continue Reading This Post

Chandni chowk, is like a second home to me. Yet every time one visits the old city there’s a freshness to it. 29^th was last of the Sundays’ that August could offer to us and it was like cherry on the cake when it’s designed for a visit to Chandni Chowk. A bunch of 11 people, some our regulars, others new, looked get-set-go for the walk. Walk started with Digambar Jain Lal Mandir followed by Gauri Shankar temple. Being a bunch of enthusiasts everyone wished to visit inside each of these places. However in a 2 hrs heritage walk it becomes difficult to do so. Still there were quite a few places we managed to explore. I tried to give maximum facts and details about the same. The group already looked very keen to know more as a lot of questions were being asked about the history of these landmarks.

This time, I decided to also focus on by-lanes of Chandni Chowk by by discussing various wholesale markets one can visit to on weekdays including for bicycles, electronics, spectacles, camera, saris etc. Continue Reading This Post

Pic by Rupa Gandhi, heritage walk enthusiast

CWG and Delhi’s monsoon are not on friendly terms. The more the CWG curse the rains, the more it pours. For the locals though it is a blessing. The trees and the buildings and the air have a clean look. The grass looks green and the monuments very very clean. This was our first impression as we took a heritage walk in Lodi Garden. The garden is a creation of the British, when they were trying to incorporate Delhi’s ruins in their plans of building a new capital for themselves. They called it Lady Willingdon Park; Lodi Garden is a post-independence name. The first stop on our heritage walk was Muhammad Shah Sayyid’s tomb. There were very few people about because of the rain and as the picture above shows the monuments looked nice and clean. The light coloured stone of the tomb presented a beautiful contrast with the lush green grass. The trail then leads along the butterfly conservatory to the Bara Gumbad complex. Built in the 15^th century, the Bada Gumbad probably acted as a gateway to the mosque, tomb and assembly hall to its north. Continue Reading This Post

The monuments in Hauz Khas are one of the most interesting sites in Delhi. Built around a reservoir the madrasa complex is impressive even as a ruin. Today’s heritage walk covered these monuments in Hauz Khas village and those in the Deer park. The Hauz Khas complex is in disarray these days because of undergoing conservation work. The complex is littered with stone chips, piles of cement & mounds of dug up earth. One hopes that this is wrapped up soon so that one can truly enjoy the scenery. The tank was originally constructed by Alauddin Khalji for his capital city, Siri. By the time Firuz Shah Tughluq assumed throne, the tank has silted up and people were cultivating on it. Contemporary accounts report that people has dug up private wells and were selling off water. Firuz Shah did what is he is best known for, restoration &repair of existing monuments and building water works for publics. He re-excavated the tank and built a madrasa along its edge. In the 14^th century, this madrasa would have been one of the centres of excellence for Islamic learning. Continue Reading This Post