Stories about Delhi, or with a Delhi connection.
Delhi’s culinary melange ♦ Part of a Time Out Delhi food cover story, this is a short history of Delhi food, plus a guide to eating in the old city (published in 2008). Read the story as a PDF, find the text reproduced below, or download the PDF here. (Pairs well with this story on old Delhi …
Exploring Delhi’s religious landmarks ♦ Excerpt from a Time Out Delhi cover package from October 2008. Read the excerpt below, download it as a PDF, or read text of the individual stories on Old Delhi walks or Delhi’s cemeteries.
Exploring Delhi’s burial grounds. ♦ Delhi War Cemetery Headstones in neat lines mark the graves of mostly Christian soldiers (though we did find a Jewish doctor) who died during World War II, with the soldier’s number, rank and regimental seal engraved on it. A tall, colonnaded entrance plaza has, on one side, a book with …
The walled city oozes so much spiritual history, every gali could turn into a trail. Here are four roads less travelled ♦ Older Delhi The pre-Shahjahanabad tour. The walled city hides several sacred sites that predate Shahjahan’s imperial city. Four major ones are relatively close together and can be …
Capital Communities: Delhi’s Gujaratis aren’t all business. ♦ Gujaratis have a long history in Delhi, going back hundreds of years when Gujarati and Marwari traders stayed in the walled city, in the areas of Chandni Chowk and the Clock Market. With a monopoly on textiles and chemicals in Rang Bazaar, Gujaratis earned a reputation for …
The civilised life in Delhi. ♦ When I came to Delhi for an exchange semester at St Stephens College, I was housed with several other students in a posh apartment complex site built on the site of an old bungalow in Civil Lines. Though I spent only eight months there, I grew to love the …
There’s more to life with… ♦ Campa Cola was always a Delhi drink. Bombaywalas had Thums Up, we had Campa. If you pass by the Campa factory in Connaught Place, it looks like a representation of lndia’s dashed isolationist dreams. The windows are broken, the paint is peeling and the sign says “ama”. But if …
If you only have one night in Delhi… ♦ Delhi has a surprising amount of nightlife, but it can be difficult for a newcomer to dig beneath deserted city streets and Paharganj dens. Expats or upmarket tourists may never get beyond a stuffy hotel bar or an overpriced lounge, and even if you have guests …
Secret Delhi: Coronation Durbar Park ♦ North of Old Delhi, in a now-desolate field, lies an incredible historical junkyard. Coronation Durbar Park — named for the sumptuous durbars of 1877 and 1903, and for playing host to the coronation of King George V as Emperor of India in 1911 — is a dusty slice of …
Secret Delhi: Shalimar Bagh ♦ There is a scuffed-up, chipped and fractured jewel of a garden close to Delhi’s northern limits — Shalimar Bagh. Despite its slightly unkempt appearance, the garden has historical importance. It was here that Aurangzeb was first crowned emperor after deposing his father Shah Jahan in 1658. The garden itself was …