still goin....

the trip through old delhi isnt over yet..... so... where was i???
oh yeah.. i forgot...
before getting to the kullewala n my house, we went to see the temple of Shri Chitragupt- the scribe of Yama, the god of death... he is the patron deity of Kayasthas.. infact accordibg to the stories that expalin formation of castes... Kayasthas emerged from the body of this divine scribe... which is why the traditional occupations of Kayasthas, n Mathurs have been accounting, bookkeeping, law etc..
okay... now.. we had lunch at Bagichi.. Bedmi-aloo..n raita(dahi- curd with boondi in it) .. the uhm.. 'traditional' dish of dilliwala mathurs... though Kadhi-chawal were missed..
after the lunch break we went hrough to the Haveli where the great Mirza Ghalib spent his last few years.. to get to this haveli we went through this little lane called the "patli gali"..so named.. coz the lane is only wide enough for one nice fat person to go through at one time... so when two of my frenz decided that they wanted to take a picture of our whole group walkin along like a nice bunch of schoolkids, we inevitably created a traffic jam coz there were a lot more ppl waiting for their turn to cross over to the other side... before Mirza ghalib's old home we came across the building which ahd houssed the hindustani Dawakhana... an oooooold hospital... since we didnt stop to read the plaque i cant tell u what happened to it...

all through the trip we talked of the cultural history of the area and the architechtural changes.... in the havelis that we visited, the bickwork was specially pointed out to us... the small, thinner bricks belonging to the Mughal era interspersed with the bigger, wider bricks introduced by the British... the houses also used slabs of sandstone for rooofing, and at the base of the walls, and the stairs..at johnny bahiya's house we saw how the terraces of almost all houses are linked or atleast close enough for anyone to jump over from one house to another... he was telling us how kids run all over the neighbourhood via the terraces chasing after kites..
coming back to my narrative...
from mirza ghalib's haveli we went to Ballimaran.. this is another quarter of chandni chowk.. the name comes from the oooooold time colony of the fishermen and boatmen who used to live here.. they werre called Balli- marne wale- coz they used ballis- sticks is bamboo to row their boats, so their quarters came to be known as Ballimaran.. though now there is no boatman or even a waterway anywhere near the palce... the name, like most of old delhi, is a carryover from the time of Shahjahanabad as the city where the Mughal kings lived...

one thing that was a discordant note in the entire trip was our entry into Ballimaran.. in the british period, the entire area was divided into Hindu and muslim areas, and before u get to ballimaran from the other side, there is a gate, a metal structure clearly delineating the Hindu and the Muslim sections.. painted saffron and white on the hindu side and Green on the muslim side.... it felt like all the things said bou unity and equality to us mean nothing... there was no visible change in the scenery, but there was a psychological difference in the atmosphere of the two sections.. plus there were a lot more burqa- clad women on this side...i felt like asking someone whether we were still in Delhi.. but then, that is the old delhi which hasnt changed much in the hundreds of years of its existance..

from Bllimaran we went to a place called Katra Neel, where a number of freedom fighters were shot during the civil disobedience movement in 1942.. paradoxically, the biggest Haveli there, calledd Chunnamal ki haveli is one that was given as reward to a family for helping the British during the 1857 revolt...
we saw the Haveli too.. it is a massive place, with 135 rooms and a front sitting room decorated with a mix of Roman china figurines, british style photographs and sketches and Mughal- Rajputana style carvings.. it felt as if we had walked to through the portals of time.. exept for the new photographs of the family that were kept on the mantlepiece.. the cieling had a canpy-covering of rajasthani-print cloth, and beautiful painted- glass chandeliers.... even as we admired the place, the unfairness of it was stark... the beautiful Haveli gifted to the traitor was the backdrop of the killing of freedom fighters...

thereon was a short drinks break where we sampled the famous Kanchewali botal, or Banta as it is also known as... it is lemon juice and water mixed with a special masala which gives it a lovely refreshing taste.. two drinks eachand all of us found enrgy enoughto walk all the way through Kinari bazaar to Dariba Kalan- the the jewellery market... all through the way we must have passed a few hundered sari shops... mostly bridal and wedding wear... n there was a whole long lane of footwear shops. we passed through the famous Paranthe wali gali- where there are shops selling.. paranthas(wat else) and other things to eat.. but already being stuffed, we passed them by... we walked past the Central Baptist Church, and the Gurudwara Seesganj, both within 50 meteres of each other.. and then.. exhausted by the loooooooong day... we had Rasgullas at Annapurna and then sat down at Haldiram's restaurant to realx.... Kavita, Bhavika n Bhumika all bought Samosas n Kachoris to take home... i got Rasgullas from Annapurna...
after about 10minutes of rest time, it being almost 6 PM, we piled into autos to go back home....
the trip had begun at 1030 AM.