Exploring Chandni Chowk: The Heart of Delhi 6, nguptatravelscrapbook.blogspot.com

Blog number 26  Chandni Chowk nguptatravelscrapbook.blogspot.com. 14.03.2021

Exploring Chandni Chowk: The heart of Delhi 6

Whoever has built a new city in Delhi has always lost it. The Pandavas, Prithviraj Chohan, Feroz shah Tuglaq, Shah Jahan.... They all built new cities, and they all lost them. We were no exception! William Dalrymple, well known British novelist.

The famous Red Fort  Chandni Chowk

Delhi is my first home, and my first love, having been born and brought up here. I feel very proud that my roots belong to a globally famous city, with its history spanning more than a Millenium. Delhi lures me back to its heart repeatedly like a magnet, over from London, which became my second home in my later years. I tread the streets of Delhi as a person possessed with a keen desire to explore it, to overhear about its legendary tales from elderly relatives and to safe keep that knowledge for my next generation if they want!  By the way, Delhi 6 represents the postal code of Old Delhi.

Chandni Chowk was built for Jahan Ara.

Throughout history, several grand empires have provided the bases on which the great civilizations have been built. Persian, Roman, Ming, Ottoman, and Mughal empires immediately come to mind. The human and material resources that came together under their aegis, particularly in the cities, led to rich cultural civilization. In its heydays, the Mughal dynasty's political and economic influences were felt far beyond its shores. Still, more importantly, its cultural impact has reverberated down the centuries, long after the empire itself came to an end in 1857. An essential part of the Mughal empire's legacy lies in its cities, and out of all these cities, Shahajanabad (Old Delhi) probably best describes its grandeur that comes to be associated with the word Moghul.

Jama Masjid

I was born in a hospital near Jama Masjid when my parents lived in Bazaar Sitaram of Old Delhi. After my birth, my parents relocated to Ansari Nagar in the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences South Delhi campus in a rented flat near my Mum's family, then residing in Lodi Road INA Colony. My father's extended family continued to live in Churi Wallan in Old Delhi, leading to frequent trips to their homes for social visits with my parents. These visits continued in my adult life, giving me a chance to walk thru the famous narrow and deeper lanes and cul de sacs of Chandni Chowk, reliving my memories all the time. 

I have strong recollections of my early childhood visiting old Delhi. Apart from visiting my relatives, my father took my siblings and me to attend the famous Independence Day celebrations at stately Red Fort ( a world heritage site) every Independence day (August 15 1947), following which we would board a tram, yes a tram! from Gauri Shankar Temple to Dariba Kalan and then walk to Churiwallan negotiating the crowd at every nook and corner. I discreetly remember the squealing and squeaking tonal noise of those open trams produced at each curve in the track, along with the ringing of its bells. I would describe how and when these trams were abolished in Delhi a bit further on my blog. 

Religious shrines along Chandni Chowk

As a child, I remember my father comprehending every street in Chandni Chowk and its alleyways flawlessly and precisely that he would practically run along his route. Simultaneously, we children trampled, following him in fright, lest we get lost amongst the dense clusters of crowds. It is a city that has flagged many misfortunes and disasters and has repeatedly risen from its ruins. Delhi has been sneered at, desired earnestly, decimated, worshipped, slaughtered and then rebuilt. Thru its modernity, one can still see all its avatars in the surviving monuments and layouts of streets and minarets and temples, mosques, and Gurudwaras.

A heaven on earth.

Delhi is now a metropolis sprawling beyond its borders, swallowing up villages and farmlands with heavy migration of workers from neighbouring states and facing worsening traffic and pollution. Once the sleepy and dull capital, mocked for decades by Bombayites and Caluttans, Delhi has emerged from its shadows. It is now India's dream town from being a city of Sultanates and kings, of Derwaishes and Sufis, of poets and courtesans, now also is a city of internet, free wi-fi, cybercafes, bohemian coffee houses, ultra-smart designer shops, underground metro, green e-vehicles, theatres, and a showstopper of international foodie scenes. It is the past, and it is the future, and incidentally, it is also my first home in my beloved motherland.

The city of Delhi consists of two components: Old Delhi, the historical town in the north; and New Delhi, the capital of India, in the south, built in the first part of the 20th century, also called the Lutyen's Delhi, as the capital of British India. Old Delhi is famous for its ancient culture and monuments and its overcrowded bazaars and gastronomic paths, old winding narrow passages, antique markets and traditional resident communities. Delhi is one of the high power ancient regions which has gained and improved cultural beauty throughout history, with different empires commanding it. The history of Delhi is as timeless as the Hindu epic of Mahabharata. The town was once known as Inderprastha, where Pandavas lived and built up an empire. In later history, Delhi has witnessed multiple political turmoils extending over seven to eight centuries ranging from Muhammed Ghori (1206 CE), invasion by Timur in 1398 CE, ending Lodi's empire, which gave way to Babur initiating the origin of The Moghul empire. The early Moghuls favoured Agra, adjacent to Delhi, as their capital, replacing it with Delhi as their hold and the capital in 1638 when the emperor Shah Jahan built a crescent-shaped walled, gated city named Shahjanabad on the west banks of the Yamuna river. Add the crescent picture here. The city's soil smells bloodsheds, sacrifices, and slaughtered killings under these empires, but Delhi's love persisted. The old Havelis ( mansions) and Minarets (towers) from the past stand silent, but their silence also speaks volumes for their past owners and people who lived there centuries back.

The crescent-shaped layout of Old Delhi

Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi) had more than ten gates in the walled city with Red Fort and Jama Masjid leading to the grand street of Chandni chowk heading to Fatehpuri Mosque at the other end. Some sections of this wall and gates have survived the times but are in ruins. I became very familiar with Delhi Gate, Ajmeri Gate, Turkman Gate, Lahori Gate, and Kashmiri Gate, having passed by these during my numerous journeys to Old Delhi and beyond. 

These gates connected the city to major highways or roads beyond. I often walked my way from Ajmeri Gate to Sita Ram Bazaar and then to Churiwallan in my younger years, frequently forgetting the complex lanes and the landmarks. Chandni Chowk's street was unusual, with famous shrines belonging to different religions coexisting, lending the street a genuine cultural harmony. Starting from the Red fort, the area has Jama Masjid, Sri Digambar Jain Lal Mandir, Hindu Gauri Shankar Temple, Christian Central Baptist Church, Sikh Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Muslim Fatehpuri Masjid dotting the landscape. 

The origin and history of Chandni Chowk

Chandni Chowk was set when the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan laid the foundation of Shahjahanabad, the capital of the city he ruled. It was initially formed as a square with a pool in its centre that shimmered in the moonlight, hence Chandni Chowk's name. The shops around the bazaar were arranged in a half-moon pattern around the square. Common lore says that Shah Jahan had Chandni Chowk built so that his daughter Jahan Ara could buy whatever she wanted without travelling to a distance. Chandni Chowk acted as a standard, commercial gathering place for traders and merchants of all industries who would flock to the capital from all around the country. In the early days, the bazaar was best known for its silver merchants. This portion of Chandni Chowk's history has sparked the debate that the market has been named after the silver trade; Chandi is the Hindi word for silver.

A section of Chandni Chowk

The numerous shops trading has long displaced the reflecting pool and the half-moon pattern of the shops in ready-made clothing, wedding outfits, gold and silver jewellery, antique market, decorative trimmings and laces, silver utensils, multiple and famous food vendors and everything possible. Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi) city never declined despite the collapse of the mighty Moghul empire post-1857 revolt. The focus shifted from being an administrative capital to being an area for trade and commerce with many large wholesale markets, while Lutyen's Delhi took shape. It isn't easy to describe the whole Old city in this blog with many visual marvels like Diwan-e -Aam, Diwan-e- Khas, Rang Mahal etc., belonging to stately Red Fort palace ( a world heritage site), Jama Masjid, and much more. Still, I would describe more about the Fort's extension in Chandni Chowk and its profound and almost unapproachable alleyways and its bazaars when I narrate about Dilwallon Ki Dilli in the following passage.

This was not always the case. 

Few cities in the world have seen their reputations and fortune fluctuate like Delhi's. According to cities poet Amir khusro, "Delhi was heaven on earth". But within two years of his death in 1325, Khusro's Delhi had been obliterated. The sultan of Delhi, Mohammed Tughlaq, furious with some insults, abandoned the city and destroyed it. Half a million inhabitants were sent away to new capital miles to the south. Several centuries and several calamities later, in the 1670s, with the Moghul empire at its peak, Delhi was briefly the most populous city in the world and one of the richest. Khusro's hyperbolic words were proudly inscribed on the emperor's chamber walls ( Red Fort). But just sixty years later, with the decline of the Moghul empire, a Persian emperor Nadir Shah plundered Delhi, killing up to 120,000 people in a single night of bloodshed, running off with his loot of the Kohinoor diamond and the famous Jewel studded emperor's Peacock throne.

Delhi's famous poet Mirza Ghalib proclaimed, "World is the body, and Delhi was its soul" in the mid-nineteenth century. But in the wake of the Great uprising or the mutiny of 1857, Ghalib witnessed his courtly Delhi fall apart as the triumphant and vengeful British army turned the streets of Old Delhi into a human slaughterhouse. Mirza Ghalib's Haveli can be visited in one of the famous lanes of Chandni Chowk, called Balli Maran.

Ghalib's Haveli in Balli Maran

After the mutiny, Delhi became a poetless, provincial backwater, a third rate city that stagnated for half a century. Other future megacities like Bombay and Calcutta flourished as the economics and administrative centres of British India, respectively. Bombay and Calcutta seemed modern, fashionable and forward-looking in front of Delhi. Those cities had seaports, mainly built as colonial creations and trading cities. Delhi became a fossil, an open-air museum of Indian history with no apparent future. Then in an unprecedented announcement, the visiting British King George V in 1911 CE declared that Delhi would replace Calcutta as India's Capital. Delhi had been rescued from uncertainty and turned into a building site for modern Lutyen's Delhi. 

Dilwallon Ki Dilli 

It is a common phrase on the tip of every Delhiite's tongue, meaning Delhi belongs to the people with hearts. The heart is Dil in the Hindi language.

Most residents agree with this claim, judging that India's capital, with a vibrant population of 20 million people, illustrates an eruption and celebration of life in their day-to-day lives. We need not dig deep to unearth this chaos; it is open and on display all the time, day and night. Delhi has the best of both worlds. One can plunge into the Moghul history or experience India's thriving cosmopolitanism and contemporary culture; Delhi is an obvious choice. Delhi appeals to food lovers, especially as the city adopted recipes and techniques from all over the country and worldwide, serving spicy and flavour-filled food in the streets and in the wealthy and renowned restaurants, diners and eateries. One of the oldest cities in India, it is undoubtedly a humming metro city; from countless commercial structures, busy airports, clogged traffic, outsized shopping malls, superb roadways, spaghetti junctions, criss-cross flyovers, high rise luxurious residential developments and many other reasons that it is known to be chaotic for.

The Parliament, Lutyen's Delhi

Traditions are carried out in Old Delhi from the times of Moghuls when Shahjahan built Shahjahanabad, as it was called. The Moghuls brought in the exotic architecture, artefacts, and minarets and, of course, the Mughlai cuisine. The same food carnival of those times happens at the back of Jama Masjid now. Chandni Chowk is another place that keeps traditions going, especially with silversmith market called Dariba Kalan, patronized by Jahanara, daughter of emperor Shah Jahan. There are samosas and chaat, Paranthewali Gali, and sweet delectables like Jalebis at Ghantewala, at the beginning of Dariba Kalan street, to name a few attractions.

Streets of Chandni Chowk

Writers, columnists, and bloggers write extensively on Delhi, in the form of before and after stories, then and now happenings, clicking street scenes, digging out library photos, commenting on them, and uploading their literati work on social web sites to their friends and folks.  

Food critics repeatedly write on Delhi cuisines with comments like Uske Haath Main Lazzat Hey ( there is magic in the hands) or Nani ki recipe hey (grandmother's recipe)! Delhi is the only place in India where one of the cuisines is named Mughlai cuisine, honouring the Moghuls! Writers collect stories at this minute through writing and photography for their acclaimed web sites and blogs. These experts may be roaming around in the city with their cameras and notebooks to track down this extraordinary existence in Delhi urban lives' seemingly mundane aspects. By exploring and documenting these streets, buildings, houses, cuisines, traditions, and Delhi people, their enthusiasm is also on trial to give this metropolis a trusted choice. It seizes the passing of time in this otherwise restless, dynamic city.

Concealed in the constricted alleys of old Delhi, Galli Churi Wallan used to be full of shops with glass bangles where I called on my extended family in my childhood. I wonder if a small but famous green temple still exists in a kind of long winding alley, turning to it so discreet and the street itself so ordinary that one needs to be very optimistic to imagine a thing of great virtue existing there. Narrow but tall wooden doors leading into a courtyard full of family members was unique. The door reminded me atop a coffee table. 

Karims Restaurant behind Jama Masjid is an institution of Kebabs. 

Karim's restaurant complex is tucked at the front of Galli Kebabian street, thus named because it was traditionally home to kebabs makers. 

Karim's near Jama Masjid

The iconic restaurant would always be crowded from early morning to late night, diners waiting for their turns to get a seat. It is one of old Delhi's most atmospheric streets, a narrow lane, crowded and cramped, with widened alleys for short distances, before conceding again. The planning permission committee did not exist and would never exist there!

Story of a culinary legend Madhur Jaffrey and my favourite food writer. 

Upon my arrival in London in 1978, at the age of 23, the first book I bought was a cookery book named An invitation to Indian Cooking by Madhur Jeffery.

 I learned more of her when BBC broadcasted the first Indian cookery show in 1983 in the UK presented by her. Originating from Old Delhi, Jaffrey's cookbook published in 1973 is Delhi's most loved iconic cookbook. With over 250 recipes, it introduced Delhi cuisine to the west. The NewYork times called it "The best Indian cookbook available in English". Sadly this book is seldom cited in the city book store, but I have kept my copy in my book stacks. Rooting from the region of Old Delhi, she traced the origins of Delhi cuisine to the royal kitchens of Red Fort. Madhur Jaffrey's cookbook made Indian cuisine superglobal.  

Lutyen's New Delhi

Modern looking Lutyen's New Delhi is quieter and full of mature green trees lining the broad and beautiful boulevards with very few high-rise buildings and minimal traffic. Lutyens Delhi consists of the famous Connaught Place, India Gate, Parliament building, Presidents Palace, Rajpath, and more heritage bungalows.

Rashtrapati Bhawan ( Presidential Palace) and The Rajpath

India Gate

These are the expensive buildings on the lush green side of Delhi with politicians, bureaucrats, and industrialists living in the British architect – Lutyen's Delhi. I once read that in most metropolis set up, the city's core temperature exceeds by several Fahrenheit compared to the periphery. In Delhi, this algorithm is reversed! Here, the core of Delhi, Lutyens Delhi, is a few degrees cooler than its peripheral zone.

Delhi's romance with trams

Tramcar in Delhi

Many are oblivious that many decades before Delhi's metro paved its way through the commoner's daily life, Delhi had a system of Electrical Trams. In The British Raj, Coronation Durbars were held in 1903 and 1911, initiating the tram transport system. By 1921 there was 15 km of track with 24 cars. The tram course closed in the year 1963. 

Trams In Chandni Chowk

Sunder Singh, an octagenarian residing in Chandni Chowk, recollects the peeling paint, dilapidated coaches, and the open carriages tram into which people would jump with cycles under their arms. "Trams offered neither comfort nor speed — it was just the poor man's transport, screeching away at every steep turn of the circular streets. For close to 70 years, the Chandni Chowk area was served by a tram system.  Delhi soon found the slow-moving tram an obstacle in a city where the population and automobiles increased at a galloping pace. Today, Kolkata remains the only city with trams for public transport. ( This text is obtained by courtesy of Wikipedia). Please check this web site for added history about Indian trams on www.tramz.com. 

Chandni Chowk: The Mughal City 

Growing up in Delhi had been one of the luxuries of my life. In the mid-17th century, the Mughal emperor Shahjahan, having built his masterpiece—the Taj Mahal, decided to shift his capital from Agra to Delhi. Here, Shahjahan built the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid; royal nobilities built their dens and Havelis in the area, now called Chandni chowk. 

 It has a distinct identity. In the present day, Chandni Chowk is one of Delhi's grandest, busiest shopping markets with hundreds and thousands of shops selling similar wedding attires at different prices, jewellery and other dress materials. I have described this place's history in a separate section, but here I would narrate the site, what exists here, and what is most unusual?

Chandni Chowk is dusty, chaotic, congested, but thriving with business. In case we lift our head and look towards the sky, we can only see the wires covered with dust, probably never to be untangled or ever mess with them! Many alleyways are known as Katra (Cul de sac), Kuchas( small areas) or Galli ( a narrow street). 

Kinari Bazaar merchandise

Chandni Chowk is subdivided into several smaller hamlets, known for selling a particular commodity. This adds to the market's peculiar charm and adds to the convenience of shopping in this massive bazaar. The famous examples are Dariba for silversmiths, Gali Paranthe wali for Paranthas (stuffed and fried bread), Ghantewalla for Indian sweets, Kinari bazaar for laces and trimmings, Maliwara for diamond Jewellery and so on including Karim's for delicious Kebabs in Kebab wali Galli ( see above)

One way to negotiate and enjoy these streets is to take a rickshaw ride whereby you are just above the crowd. In contrast, rickshaw man negotiates the crowded streets expertly and cleverly, leaving you to enjoy the spectacle of colourful bazaars at their best. Gali Paranthe walli is a pan alleyway cooking small fried bread called paranthas stuffed with a vegetable selection; I guess I have passed it but never ventured to try or sample their products. Several generations of families continue to cook Paranthas at this monumental spot, never thinking of an alternative business option. They get stereotyped!

Dariba Kalan is full of Gold, silver and semiprecious stones jewellery shops. In heydays, this street was famously called Meena Bazaar, a more sophisticated and feminine title. In my later years, during every visit over from London, I have come here to look at the antique silver jewellery and other artefacts that I am a proud owner of a few pieces. Gold and diamonds are sold here in bulk with wholesale prices, equivalent to a grocery store crowd.  Kinari Bazar can display endless designs of trimmings and laces along with sewing threads, buttons and other attachments, a must-have for any fashion designers.

Fitted in the corners of these narrow alleyways are street food vendors who have become famous for selling only one speciality of food, be it savoury or a sweet delicacy. 

To try and taste the famous street- food of Chandni Chowk, it is worth mingling in the crowd, negotiating the human maze, for mouth-watering snacks served in disposable plates made of dried leaves woven together, along with bamboo spoons or in mud pots, back to basics, isn't it!

Paranthewali Galli

Walking through these narrow lanes, with tiny margins to spare, I could not help but notice that this place was a world in itself like it didn't know and didn't care that a world existed outside Chandni Chowk too. Buzzing with activity and nervous energy, it seemed like this place has never stopped to breathe, like a clock never stops for a second, like the sun can't set here, ever. Even in the cramped chaos and commotion, there is a method to the absolute madness- the tiny shops, the name boards, the goods on display, vehicles, cycle rickshaws, pedestrians all seem to be fighting for space and demanding their presence be felt. 

Chaos in Chandni Chowk

They do so without disturbing each other or trying to overpower the other; they seem to wriggle uncomfortably but coexist in harmony. Another striking feature of Chandni Chowk is the overhead wires, some strong and sturdy, while some thin and fragile, a bunch of them suspended by poles, running through a balcony, jumping across the narrow lane, attaching itself to another pole, hanging just above a shop, rising till the wall of a house, settling back to a pole. There is an order in this disorder!

Order in disorder

New Look of Chandni Chowk

Chandni Chowk has undergone a massive and much- needed transformation in the last few years. Much needed to let the streets breath again, release the streets free from overhanging, tangled telephone and electric wires, decrease the traffic, introduce electric rickshaws, and transform the main street of Chandni chowk into a pedestrianized area. 

The new-look of Chandni Chowk

This area is stretching from Red Fort to Fatehpuri Masjid; the pictures of the transformed Chandni Chowk have gone viral, leaving people awestruck. All the electric wiring will be moved underground; the 1.3 Km stretch will be a non-motorized zone from 9 Am to 9 Pm. It has been planned that all restorative work would be done keeping Moghul architecture in the place where possible. 

Smart looking Chandni Chowk

Delhi is also the literary capital of India.

Delhi is a land of writers who have profoundly contributed to the world of literature. Delhi has made strides in establishing a robust literary culture with its libraries, international book events and book festivals. Delhi is frequently in the literary limelight, with world-famous publishing houses making their permanent niches here.

The long list of Booker Prize holders no longer has an Indian touch. It has a dominant Indian presence, enlisting authors _ V S Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Aravind Adiga, Anita Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri and many more.

There is vast and never exhausting literature written on Delhi incorporating its past and present, the  British colonial rule, the Freedom struggle, the pre and post Independence era leading to more contemporary literature by the famous Vikram Seth, Chetan Bhagat, and Geeta Mehta etc. Favourite writers named Khushwant Singh, William Dalrymple and Mark Tuli's masterpieces can be counted as reference books on the history of Delhi, a literary treasure to cherish forever. 

Having travelled from the rich, luxurious history till today's practical, commercial era, Chandni Chowk has covered a long tireless journey; countless hidden stories, captivating experiences, everlasting hopes all silently placed in this enchanting and charming habitat. Lots have been said and shared about Chandni Chowk, yet it will always have a subtle, mysterious aura around it for every thirsty traveller to unravel. Those who write about Delhi tend to evoke a sadness about the lost past and a dreamy admiration of old empires. Less often, they deal with it as it is now, one of the largest and fastest-growing cities globally.   

Throughout history, the spotlight has always been on Delhi, and the legend still continues!

 I have added the pictures in this blog that have been obtained thru Wikipedia the most.