Delhiwale: This way to 15 August

Purani Dilli comes alive on Independence Day with tricolour festivities, rooftop celebrations, music, kites, and fireworks, embodying a vibrant jashn-e-azadi.

The Jama Masjid minarets rise into a cloudy August sky, a lone kite hovers near them, and tricolour flags sway in the damp monsoon breeze above an adjacent rooftop. It is a classic 15 August scene in Purani Dilli, photographed in the days leading to Independence Day.

(Mayank Austen Soofi)

Every Saturday, our “This way to” series takes a street of Old Delhi and chronicles its peculiarities. But today on 15 August, the streets will all wear the same colours, turning the focus to the Independence Day tradition of Purani Dilli.

The morning begins at the Red Fort. The Prime Minister delivers his speech, and the area around Jama Masjid goes under tight security, policemen stationed on rooftops.

Then the speech ends, and Old Delhi erupts. It is a “jashn-e-azadi” involving music, kites, fireworks, and crowds spilling across the rooftops.

Several days before 15 August, Purani Dilli begins turning tricolour. The cramped bazars show the orange, white and green of the tiranga. Stalls sell caps, bangles, dupattas, T-shirts, frocks, hairbands, ribbons and scarves in the three colours. Tricolour garlands hang from hooks. Fruit sellers place paper flags on their carts. In fancy eateries, chandeliers are decorated with clusters of orange, white and green balloons.

The tiranga keeps climbing, reaching balconies and windows, crossing one rooftop, then another. Some rooftops have one flag, some several. Even large plastic paani ki tankis are painted orange, white and green. One tricolour is fluttering above the rooftops, vivid against the grey sky, while on the horizon, beyond Old Delhi, a hazy high-rise emerges.

By 15 August, the lanes are filled with Old Delhiwale in tricolour kurtas and topis. Loudspeakers play old and new patriotic songs. By afternoon, the rooftops fill with young men, kites in their hands. “Deck music” blares. People dance. Festive cries rise from one rooftop and are answered with gusto from another.

After sundown, around 7pm, the fireworks start. Chinese lanterns slowly, shakily rise over the packed houses. On some rooftops, Independence Day parties are held, where someone bends down for a bite of samosa, then looks up to watch the aatishbazi sparkle in the sky.

Long after darkness settles, Purani Dilli is still astir with patriotic numbers. If you listen closely, you might make out the strains of Maa Tujhe Salaam.