Delhiwale: This way to Gali Godoya

Intro: As part of the Walled City encyclopaediaLakshmi is standing at her doorway, talking

Intro: As part of the Walled City encyclopaedia

Lakshmi is at home, in a courtyard at the farthest end of Gali Godoya in Old Delhi. (HT Photo)

Lakshmi is standing at her doorway, talking. This is her break between two shifts. She cooks vegetarian food twice a day in a large mansion not far from here. Her mother-in-law worked there before her. After she died, Lakshmi took her place.

For now, Lakshmi is at home, in a courtyard at the farthest end of Gali Godoya in Old Delhi. She explains that this is a katra, a courtyard ringed with residences. In earlier times, she says, people of the same profession lived in a katra. Not anymore.

Lakshmi is affable and talks easily to someone she’s meeting for the first time. This evening, her husband is sitting a few feet away on the courtyard floor, mending their grandchild’s toy. He is retired. He used to work at a sanitary fittings shop in nearby Chawri Bazar. Their son does similar work. Lakshmi works as a cook, but she does not cook at home; her daughter-in-law takes care of the cooking.

An elderly woman in a red sari enters the courtyard from the passage outside, greets everyone with a “Ram Ram,” and disappears into one of the houses. Their interiors can be glimpsed through half-open doors. In one doorway, a young man in shorts and banian is standing beside a gas stove, making chai in a long-handled pan.

Lakshmi waves an arm towards a hulking building beside the courtyard. This is the large mansion where she works. It faces Chawri Bazar. She says film shoots often take place inside. Although part of the mansion overlooks Lakshmi’s courtyard, there is no shortcut to her workplace. To get there, she must leave her gali, walk through Gali Chooriwallan, reach Chawri Bazar, and enter the mansion through its main entrance.

Last Saturday, the ‘This way to’ series reached its 222nd Old Delhi street. The series aims to chronicle every street in the historic Walled City, recording its present and whatever can be found of its past. Yet street number 223 begins with a mystery. Nobody here knows the meaning of their gali’s name. One of Lakshmi’s neighbours offers a suggestion: Perhaps Godoya comes from goad, she says, the Hindi word for lap. Whatever its meaning, Gali Godoya ends in this courtyard. From here, the gali makes its way out through a series of turnings before opening into Gali Chooriwallan.

But Lakshmi’s break is about to end. She adjusts her white dupatta about her shoulders and puts the strap of her small cream-coloured bag across her body. She crosses the courtyard, follows the turns of the street, and emerges from Gali Godoya, walking towards work.