In my opinion, the best way to explore Old Delhi is to roam its streets.
As a person who has been born and brought up in Purani Dilli, I see roaming the
city’s streets the finest way to know the city or any old city, for that matter.
I am sure there are countless travelers who are aware of this age-old
wisdom, ‘To know a city, roam its streets, meet its people, eats its food, visit
its loos’ and Old Delhi is no exception to this rule.
I will begin my point saying that what I extremely dislike about the place,
pollution and overpopulation, is the thing which makes me like Old Delhi
(Delhi-6) even more. Old Delhi is like a dish which keeps on getting these new
ingredients and it tries to accommodate everybody and strives for making it
work.
Old Delhi doesn’t prefer a specific kind of people, a specific kind of
religion or caste or creed, or any specific kind of specific. It’s open like
the god’s green earth and so to experience its true magic, you need to not just
see but walk on its crowded footpath and witness the religious diversity of the
place where India’s biggest mosque Jama Masjid, a massive 300+ year old Digambar
Jain mandir, a devotee-favorite Gauri Shankar temple, the legendary Sis Ganj
gurudwara and the towering Fatehpuri church, are all standing in one line even
in these polarizing times.
When eating Old Delhi’s food like a regular tourist, you will surely
explore the narrow lanes of the famous Gali Paranthe-wali or taste the famous
faluda and chaat-papdis’ at their popular designated places but if you walk
around a while in the chaotic arteries of this old heart, you may find a vendor
selling mouth-watering chola-bhaturas, hidden in plain-sight, just at the Town
Hall entrance or dine like a king while paying the cheapest price possible at a
dhaba just opposite Fatehpuri church. Why a tourist isn’t able to find these
gems; in my opinion, it is just because we always rush, we always look but
never see and never roam or explore anymore.
As far as Old Delhi is concerned, I can strongly vouch that if you walk
the city, you are bound to discover wonderful places and meet wonderful people
and learn a bit about our history. They say, ‘History is our key-hole to the
future’.
Old Delhi is life at its most primal, demanding you to be the fittest to
survive but it is also a city where life is at its fullest. Old Delhi is
nothing without its people and it asks them to experience its glory by not
clicking photographs of the pin-pointed places but to really see them.
In my opinion the legendary monuments, the exquisite buildings, the
sumptuous food and the ancient knowledge of Old Delhi are all saying to its visitors,
‘Embrace me like your home and I will embrace you not as a passing traveler but
as my returning own.’
