One is bound to get exasperated, travelling in the Delhi Transport Corporation’s (DTC) not very well maintained buses, albeit they fulfilled a latent function for me!
This mode of transport came across as my very own telescope to the city and soon enough I found myself engrossed in the city’s splendor.
The Archaeological survey of India (ASI) unveils mind boggling facts, bound to fascinate anyone! One such titillating fact that has occupied much of my head since I read it, says that there are over 1300 monuments that Delhi boasted over the last couple of decades. However only 251 of them are currently acknowledged and taken under ASI’s surveillance.
From the seven cities that ornamented Delhi during the golden Mughal era to Lutyen’s meticulously designed streets and buildings, a lot maybe contemplated. Today the city is divided and called by the wind directions; also each part boasts its own existence of a kind.
The crimson coloured flowers appear like a velvet carpet through the footpath, they too have a story to unfold! The city planners deliberately planted the deciduous Semal trees so that the city never loses its charm in any of the four seasons! An intense planning and architecture of this kind, gives Delhi its grandeur. Today however the city is a labyrinth where historical tablets coexist with sky reached buildings. Such coexistence may run parallel to the epoch passed by. Cohabitation of the Hindu’s and Muslim’s whether through coercion conflict or consensus is nicely fabricated in the pillars, walls and domes of the Quwat Ul Islam mosque. A fine confluence of Hindu and Islamic architecture is seated in these old ruins in peace. However in parallel worlds, a contest is engaged in the Paltan wali masjid situated right in the opposite coordinates. The mosque and temple clash their doors as ardent devotees swear by their stand. Many dilapidated mosques have also been turned into schools in old Delhi; education it seems will lead the way.
In the other parts, threat is imposed in the name of development and the dichotomy of classes stand at a pedestal that faces history and modernisation. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) initiated talks for the replacement of the inhabitants of the Khwaja Mir Dard basti which is established right a few yards away from Connaught place, the shopping hub of elitist central Delhi. This is a place brimming with the long forgotten art and culture through the narrow lanes that look as complicated as a trigonometry problem. Belonging to the era bygone , poets musicians scholars who hailed from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have settled here in a land now owned by the Waqf board. At that time, the women courtesans pleased the Mughals, today the settlement is gripped in fear, as they live in a hope of retaining a land that always belonged to them. Similar is the tale of “Little Lhasa” a Tibetan settlement in the north of the Delhi, popularly known as Majnu Ka Tila where seriousness blows in the air. Political contentions with sate interference bring to light many such local to international areas of concern.
While in the other days, criminals and delinquents were beheaded for the ill doings, the “khooni darwaza” stood as a testament to their times. Today, the hanging of Afzal guru has raised many a questions on the concept capital punishment. It gives birth to a political thought, while many other crimes do go unnoticed.
However among all the evolvement similarities differences and stagnation one ubiquitous aspect that will be immortal is the quest for good food. The Mughals carry forth their legacy with certain panache. To soak in the culinary experience of the oriental times, head to The Karim’s, Daryaganj . It is believed to have been established in the 1900’s by the patrons of the kitchen of the royal family. This restaurant is a scintillating treat to the taste buds. Fret not, history still lives here through the aroma filled spices in the air a midst the lanes of old Delhi.
