Delhiwale: Door sutra

A dark wooden double door sits within a stately arch, iron studs dotting its panels, giving it a sense of ruggedness and longevity

A dark wooden double door sits within a stately arch, iron studs dotting its panels, giving it a sense of ruggedness and longevity. Some months ago, this old doorway in Old Delhi’s Lal Gali stood fully visible, with electric meters clustered on one side and cables passing through a hole above the frame. The traditional structure had made room for modern utilities.

This is a doorway not in Old Delhi. It is posh Vasant Vihar in South Delhi.

This afternoon, the same doorway is barely visible. Lengths of corrugated pipe lean against its shut doors, alongside construction materials. The electric meters have vanished. The house appears ready for reconstruction. The beautiful doorway might soon follow the meters.

Just how many of Delhi’s old doorways will survive such changes? These objects of rundown beauty are most often seen in the streets of Old Delhi, but they also survive in Mehrauli, Najafgarh and the older parts of Gurugram, such as Sadar Bazar and Jacobpura. Some of these doorways belong to grand havelis, others to houses and small shops, and a few to warehouses that might once have been mansions. Many doorways have outlived the courtyards they once led into. Often, the doorway is the only remaining grand part of an otherwise altered (and severely humbled) building.

One such doorway in Old Delhi stands inside a scalloped arch of exposed lakhori bricks. Its carved stone frame is beautifully bordered with twisting patterns.

Another doorway is so large that a man standing beside it with a glass of chai looks Lilliputian. Stranger still, an ordinary modern door stands directly above this doorway, as though the building was built to two different scales.

One grand doorway has lost its door to a rolling shutter, the kind found on a neighbourhood Mother Dairy booth. Its arched frame survives, flanked by carved panels and stone latticework.

The most bizarre doorway encountered during this tour is dotted with floral ornaments and star-shaped motifs. But a part of it comprises of unpainted plywood sheets in place of solid wood, perhaps compensating for a section of the original doorway that has been lost over time. The arrangement looks temporary, though in Purani Dilli temporary things tend to last for years.

Now let’s turn to a white darwaza set within a clean, round arch. This evening, a man in black stands before it, bending towards the lock. The doorway has no peeling plaster, dangling cable or damaged lakhori bricks. It is actually looking very tiptop. But then this is a doorway not in Old Delhi. It is posh Vasant Vihar in South Delhi. See photo.