Delhiwale: Chai served with a crossword puzzle

Alimuddin, who sits during the first half of the day, is full of jokes and gossip, but he is also capable of sudden flashes of anger—which however dissipate within moments. Younger brother, Sirajuddin, is quieter by contrast and mostly communicates via his gentle smile, as if he was secretly amused at the ways of the world.

It’s like a crossword puzzle. Sirajuddin tea stall is one of the city’s most fascinating street-side chai stops. Its uniqueness is found in a shelf clamped onto the wall. This has wooden slabs running from top to bottom, and from left to right. This divides the shelf into an array of square-shaped spaces, making it look like the sort of crossword puzzles you often find in newspapers.

The stall was founded in 1977 in Old Delhi’s Turkman Gate bazaar by Muhammed Sirajuddin, who gave it his name. He lies buried in the Dilli Gate graveyard in ITO, and the little landmark is now run by his two sons. (Mayank Austen Soofi)

Except, of course, that instead of alphabet letters, the little boxes are casually crammed up with tea things. One box has ginger sprigs and a pink mug. Another has a kettle, whose chipped texture is so evocative of the everyday chai civilisation that an Anand Niketan aesthete might feel like stealing it for her drawing room display. An adjacent box is filled with tea glasses, along with white China cups, while the box below is stocked with a tiny metal trunk—possibly a cash box. A box on the top row is over-crowded with rusting metallic tea carriers that can hold several chai glasses together.

The stall was founded in 1977 in Old Delhi’s Turkman Gate bazaar by Muhammed Sirajuddin, who gave it his name. He lies buried in the Dilli Gate graveyard in ITO, and the little landmark is now run by his two sons. Alimuddin, who sits during the first half of the day, is full of jokes and gossip, but he is also capable of sudden flashes of anger—which however dissipate within moments. Younger brother, Sirajuddin, is quieter by contrast and mostly communicates via his gentle smile, as if he was secretly amused at the ways of the world.

“Everything about this chai stall was set up by our father, including this wooden shelf,” confirms Alimuddin. The brothers’ home is just a few steps away.

The stall has a couple of steps strung up beside it and one does see customers crowding upon them, enjoying their chai while watching the busy traffic of humans, goats, dogs, mules, cats and rats go by on the lively street.

The more prestigious seating, though, is just across the lane, under a tree, on a platform beside an unknown person’s marble grave. The tea shop regulars sit there all day long, chatting with each other, over endless cups of Sirajuddin’s milky chai. The stall also serves the usual chai snacks such as fen and ‘biskuts’. The place serves daily from 5am to 10pm though it used to be open till late into the night during the pre-corona days.

One rare afternoon, for some reason, the stall was found closed. The beautiful shelf was shut closed with a plain wooden lid. The sight was haunting.