It was a cloudy Sunday morning when I woke up just in time for my heritage walk. I had been very excited for a couple of days now, as this was going to be my 1^st walk as a leader. Confidence remained intact, partly being a Historian n partly because I BELONGED TO Place we were going to visit or say Chandni Chock resides in ME…

More or else everybody reached on time and met on the very first stop-Digambar Jain Lal temple. We have 8-9 stops in the Chandni Chowk heritage walk n I had to be thorough with each; its history and much more as one always expects intellectuals, educators, foreign delegates, inquisitive students ranging from class 5^th to university level to join us .Being a leader it becomes my utmost duty to be prompt to every question coming my way. Continue Reading This Post

Hauz Khas is one of the historic villages in Delhi region. And it has one of the most interesting monument complexes existing in India: the madrasa built by Firuz Shah Tughluq. ‘Hauz’ is a tank & ‘Khas’ is special or important. The name ‘Hauz Khas’ comes from the fact there existed a tank built by a king called Alauddin Khalji. The tank was originally named ‘Hauz i Alai’ after Alauddin Khalji, but later began to be called Hauz Khas. The tank still exists but in a much altered form. It now has a popular district park around it.

We started the heritage walk from the Kunzum travel café in Hauz Khas village. The monuments are located a few meters away. The madrasa is a large L-shaped building built along the tank. Once the water from the tank would have lapped at its walls; now the tank is much smaller. In fact, the Persian invader Timur, when he camped here before fighting the Delhi sultan, describes each side of the tank being more than a bow-shot long! The double storeyed madrasa is mostly in ruins now but one can imagine that it must have been a grand place. Contemporary accounts are full of praise for this complex. Continue Reading This Post

(pics by Nirmal Dayani, heritage walk enthusiast)

This heritage walk was special…we had four very young kids joining us at the Mehrauli Archaeological Park: Priyansh, Abeer, Vivaan and Ishaan. And for once, their questions outnumbered the answers available with Kanika, who was leading the walk!!!

We started at the gateway to Balban’s tomb. The area behind it was cleared recently in an archaeological excavation. Now we can see remains of a courtyard and a new rooms & graves towards the north. If one looks carefully, one can pick up shards of pottery scattered around the clearing! Balban’s tomb stands prominently against the skyline. It is in a ruined state and without a roof now, but initially would have been covered by a dome. Continue Reading This Post

Interesting Walk on a sultry evening…we were a multi-lingual and multi-national group, including two visitors from China and one from Italy. The major buildings in this garden are from the Sayyid and Lodi period. There also exist some late-Mughal structures…the garden created by the British and named after Lady Willingdon in 1936. It was renamed Lodi garden after Independence as most of the structures are from Lodi period. The walk started with an introduction about the garden. This site was originally the village of Khairpur…Britishers relocated the villagers. The first stop was Mohammad Shah’s tomb who was a ruler of Sayyid dynasty[1434-1444). This is a typical octangonal tomb…from here a path weaves along the the newly created butterfly sanctuary to Bara Gumbad…Bara Gumbad is a tall imposing building with no grave inside and there are conflicting theories about the function of the building…it is perhaps gateway to a grave of a important personon a large platform….west to the grave is a small but beautifully decorated mosque, & on the east is a pavilion that might have housed holy men/scholars/attendents attached to the mosque..to the north of this group of buildings is the Shish Gumad,a tomb of some unknown but probably important person. Continue Reading This Post

It was the morning of Delhi’s first monsoon showers…a welcome and much needed respite from Delhi’s summer. We were a bunch of 20 odd people who turned up for this heritage walk, excited by the prospect of exploring Delhi in the rains. Take a look at the pictures…we were conspicuous wandering around with our umbrellas and raincoats.

This heritage walk covers landmarks of the uprising of 1857. We began at Nicholson’s cemetery, near ISBT. This cemetery is named after a British officer, John Nicholson, who was instrumental in recapture of Delhi by the British. He was fatally wounded during the storming of Lahori gate and was buried here. He led a force of British, Pathan and Punjabi troops and his leadership skills were legendary. He was greatly revered by his troops. It is said that at his funeral, his men threw themselves on the ground and wept. They refused to fight any more and left for the hills from where they had come, picking up flowers from their beloved general’s grave. Continue Reading This Post