The trip to old delhi was a lot of fun... bout 20 of us squeezed into an auto n two cars... to get to the metro station.... n then frm the Chawri Bazaar station in 7 rickshws to the Indraprastha School for girls...
that's the oldest girls' school in Delhi... started in 1904 by a group of ppl including Annie Besant. it is in this really old... really beautiful haveli.. but we could'nt see a lot of it coz theere was repairwork goin on there... but it was nice being in the place where my grandmother studied... and the grandmothers, aunts etc of a lot of pll who went on this trip... it was mostly ppl frm my society n a coupla cousins etc.. the board there displaying the names of teb topppers in class 12th examz had the name of one of my Aunts... my cousin brother n sister were there n they were pretty excited at seeing her name there...
from there we went to this shop which sells typical Mathur accessories.. bindis, chunris, bangles etc that are used by brides n married women at all ritual occasions... it was fun.... plus our mothers had told almost all of us to get them bindis... shopping from the old traditional spot... from there we went through the myriad Galis.. lanes n bylanes.. of chandni chowk to a place called Kaccha Katra... where there was an old Mathur haveli which, at some point of time has housed a temple of Radha-Krishna moulded with gold and studded with diamonds.. the riches are now gone... but the temple remains... and the house now belongs to the family of the panditji who officiated at the temple... right next to that house was the house belonging to a cousin of my chachi.. my sister.. who was part of the group wanted to meet her cousin brother n her mausi... so we went.. n therein we discovered the crossties of relationships that abound between all mathur families of old delhi.... relationships of one family to another via bloood and marriage..... i cant possibly get into the details here coz i run the risk of writing on forever......
from there we went to a gali called Gali Kayasthan... which, till a few years after independence was an area with almost 100%kayastha population.... the city of old delhi was a city divided into zones... n we were looking at the areas which had beenn the quarters of the Kayastha families.. of which Mathurs are a branch...
in this gali we went to the house that belongs to a family which lives in our society... n the two scions of that family- Johnny bhaiya n Tanu ( formally Ashish n Abhishek) were acting as our tour-guides coz they were practically the only ones of our generation living in our society who had actually lived in old delhi.... the rest of us had only heard from parents and grandparents of the fun they had had running across the terraces n galis of Sheher.... these two had actually done it themselves.. and they have kept the ties strong by visiting the old house, where their grandmother and uncle still live... very frequently... the house is 4 stories high.. built as a block aorund a central courtyard.. which we saw, was pretty much the standard design of all houses that we went to.. we saw 4 of the havelis that still belong to Mathur families... my family's house included... where i have visited my relatives about 4-5v times in my entire 18 year old lifetime... we then went to this chaatshop that also specialises in making Kullas- i told u bout those in my last post i think... they're carved out potatoes stuffed with chanas, Anar seeds, mashed potato, dal n spices... loads of spices.. sprinkled with lemon juice, not for someone who cant take too much spice... they can make your mouth feel like its been set on fire...
after this we went to my house... er... the house belonging to my family.... its called Bagichi, n was at one point of time a nice big haveli spread across what is now an entire lane of shops.... most of the house has been sold or leased off to shops... saris n chaat etc is sold from rooms where my ancestors once slept n played... but we still have a nice large part left for the family.... cousins still live there... being about 130 odd years old.. this house is the joint property of my grandfather's generatin... i.e My grandpa and his brothers.. upto HIS second cousins... so if there is a family get together, there are about 80 odd family units who are part of this joint family...only 5 of those still live there... the rest of us have moved out and scattered all over...
walking through the lanes in a large group had its own charm... 20 of us... ages8- about 28.. walking along in the crowded streets.. n god they were CROWDED.. rickshaws and scooters and PEOPLE... the sheer numbers!!
i took a whole roll of pictures... mostly keeping the numbers as a subject... the people, the vehicles, the house, even the tangled masses of electrical wires....
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