Starting this month, we are making the street food walk in old Delhi a regular feature of our calendar. Moreover, the route we have chosen is a combination of food stops & some hidden gems of history in old Delhi. Hence the title ‘Heritage Walk & Street Food’.  The group met at Jama Masjid, one of the most famous landmarks of Delhi & negotiated our way to Sitaram Bazaar, the end point for this heritage trail.  Getting there can be quite a task though. Delhi Metro has made the old city easily accessible, but once out of the metro, get ready to face the madness here. The nearest metro station is Chawri Bazaar & the road leading from Chawri Bazaar to Jama Masjid is perpetually jam packed. There are rickshaws, hand pulled carts, scooters, cars, dogs & a sea of humanity all trying to keep going. One wrong move & the traffic comes to a standstill!!  (more…)

If a Delhi-ite wants to experience a place which tells you stories about Delhi’s Islamic rule and present life, one must visit, Hauz Khas complex. Amidst of contradictions, once forming the outskirts of the city of Siri, known for its reservoir and monuments of 14^th century is now a fashion street & has come a long way. One of the most fascinating things about this place is we walk down through a busy road with shops and boutiques, this chaos and noise leads to a quite and different place, the Hauz Khas monument complex. The participants in our heritage walk are awestruck at the view when we stand on the parapet which over looks the tank; the first reaction I get to hear is “wow, what a view!” The credit of building this tank goes to Alauddin Khalji. (more…)

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…)

One of the oldest inhabited neighbourhoods in Delhi region, Mehrauli is a minefield of stories. It has been witness to the earliest capital cities of Delhi and has been continuously inhabited for almost a thousand years now, which makes it a great place to explore. Our heritage walk starts at the entrance to the Mehrauli Archaeological Park. The first group of monuments one comes across is a gateway and a recently excavated area which has a courtyard and rooms built around it. Balban’s tomb stands out amongst these ruins. (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…)