Delhiwale: Chandni Chowk’s ground zero

In bustling Chandni Chowk, two plazas provide a unique respite from the chaos, offering a space for relaxation amidst the vibrant marketplace.

Watched by curious onlookers, a professional “influencer” in brocaded brown lehenga is boldly pacing about in circles, as a cameraman shoots her video. Some distance away, a professional “Goldman,” in gold colour from head to toe, is stilled into a statue, expecting donations from indifferent passers-by. Elsewhere, a couple is clicking a romantic selfie; a woman is frightened by a baby monkey; a little boy smears his milky kulfi all over his face.

The twin plazas serve precisely such a purpose. There is no other similar place in any Walled City bazar. (HT Photo)

These folks are spread across two adjoining plazas. These plazas are special. They give a totally different perspective to Chandni Chowk. The Old Delhi bazar is envisioned in our common imagination as an ultra-crowded avenue, crammed with shops and eateries, and landmarked with a wealth of iconic buildings and monuments. Indeed, the many-layered Chandni Chowk can be many things to many people, but nobody thinks of it as a place that is generous enough to accommodate an open space showcasing… well, nothing! Where a citizen, exhausted by all the commerce and tourism of Chandni Chowk, can relax the overwhelmed senses.

The twin plazas serve precisely such a crucial purpose. There is no similar place in any other Walled City bazar.

This humid afternoon, a shop assistant of a nearby wedding-lehenga boutique is standing in one of the plazas for a “sutta break.” He says he feels refreshed by looking at the birds. The man is referring to the grey pigeons soaring above the plazas, tracing a smooth arch in the air. After completing each flight, the birds land in the empty grounds of the adjacent Town Hall. They are gathered in massive numbers around the Town Hall’s statue of Swami Shraddhanand, the social reformer whose name is affixed to the road that goes past Old Delhi’s red light district. One bird is perched atop the statue’s head.

While the plazas’ red sandstone flooring exudes the aura of a hot desert landscape, each stone island has an oasis in the form of a leafy tree. In fact, this extremely humid day, scores of people are sheltering under their shade. Vendor Jai Shankar, who is hawking rice papad under the peepal tree, says that this pair of lounge-like spaces emerged some years ago during the area’s redevelopment project.

The papad-seller soon turns towards Nai Sadak, a street connecting the Chandni Chowk plazas with Chawri Bazar. That gali is a dense thicket of people, shops, stalls, rickshaws, scooters and hoardings. On stepping into its chaos, the spacious plazas left behind could as well be existing on a different planet.