Last Sunday morning was an attempt to explore and discover Chandni Chowk neighborhood which has seen a history of more than three hundred years. We started our heritage trail at Digambar Jain Lal Mandir which is the oldest Jain temple of old Delhi. What is today old Delhi for us was Shahjahanabad, the capital established by the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan & it remained the capital till 1857. (more…)

There are many a heritage trails in old Delhi area. What is today the old city for us, was the capital city of Mughal empire, called Shahjahanabad. Built in the middle of the 17the century, it is full of old buildings, traditional food shops, traditional crafts & professions which are dying out. This walking tour combines sites of monumental heritage with food stops.  Hence the title ‘Heritage Walk & Street Food’.  (more…)

This walking tour combines some sites of historical interest with food stops. Our starting point was Jama Masjid, the main congregation mosque built by Emperor Shah Jahan & is still an active mosque. It is one of the biggest in South Asia, the other competing mosques being the Badshahi Masjid in Lahore & the Taj ul Masajid in Bhopal. However, much of the grandeur & beauty of the mosque is lost because of poor maintenance; (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 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…)