Delhi was pleasantly surprised by showers for a couple of days and we decided to carry on with our heritage walk at Lodi Garden since it is a comfortable terrain to walk in all seasons. The park has well laid out pavements all through our heritage trail. And we happened to be the only ones in the park, which is an unusual sight. The park is always full of people, joggers, people reading, children playing, lovers spending a quite time here.  ‘Lodi Garden’ happens to be a modern, post-independence name. (more…)

This heritage walk in old Delhi includes sampling some of the street food. We started our walking tour at one of the biggest and most popular mosques in Asia, Jama Masjid. It was built in mid-seventeenth century by the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan. It is built on a hillock, high above rest of the ground & gives an excellent view of the surrounding busy market streets. The trail follows the main street of Chawri Bazaar. (more…)

This Sunday, a cloudy but pleasant winter morning, our heritage walk was organized at Mehrauli Archaeological Park.  The Park has around 70 odd monuments, scattered around one of the oldest inhabited areas of Delhi, Mehrauli.  History of Mehrauli is many layered & covers a long time span. It was first ruled by a couple of Rajput rulers in 11^th and 12^th centuries and towards the end of the 12^th century, these were defeated by Turks from central Asia. The victors set up a dynasty which came to be called ‘slave’ kings. And then this area saw settlements throughout the ‘medieval’ period of Indian history & is now an urban village. (more…)

Hauz Khas village is both, one of the most well known, happening place and a neglected on at the same time. HKV as the popular jargon goes has become famous for its cafés & designer shops. But not many would know of the history of the area. It is true that the ruins here have become increasingly popular with photographers, musicians & people simple hanging around, still, there is much that is not quite well known. Our heritage walk in Hauz Khas focuses on lesser know aspects of this area’s history.  (more…)

This Sunday morning we marched out for a walking tour of the city of Shahjahanabad. The focus of the walk was the main street of Chandni Chowk, which runs perpendicular to the Red Fort. I started with a brief introduction about the history of what is today called old Delhi. The first landmarks of interest are two very old temples: the Digambar Jain Lal Mandir, the oldest Jain Temple of the city & adjacent to it was a Shaiva temple called Gauri Shankar Mandir. Braving the chaos and traffic we reached State Bank of India building which is built on the estate of Begam Samroo. (more…)