Sunday, October 14, 2007

Mirza Ghalib, brought to you by Skeets

Ye to kaha ki unke aur humare zayke kaafi mel khate hain, par ye na kaha ki hum unki haveli ki kuch jhalakon ko qaid kar le aaye.

On one of my 'off' days, officially and mentally, I walked down Gali Qasim Jaan at Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, to have a dekko at Ghalib's Haveli. Nah, I am no fan of his, just general curiosity and search of solitude took me there. I reached Chandni Chowk by car, got off, hired a rickshaw (just for the fun of it), and reached Gali Qasim Jaan. The rickshaw-puller kept pedalling his (read our) way forward, and I remained mum, awestruck (as always) by the old world charm. Mouth open, eyeballs out like that of a frog's, whiskers up, Skeets must've made quite a picture. Haha. Heee. Gawddd. I have noticed this before, that when I go to places of particular interest, I tend to forget that I have a tongue, and that I can speak. If there are people with me, they think I am unfriendly, or perhaps plainly uninterested.

His last photograph

That day, thankfully I was alone. And as I rode past the narrow lanes of Ballimaran, a gong rung somewhere in my head and it struck me that I would have to ask for the directions. Lost in the rustic charm of that part of Dilli, I had reached way ahead of my destination. People were friendly enough to guide me and my rickshaw-puller to the Haveli. The Haveli, as I gathered from my 1-hour stay there, was where Mirza Ghalib stayed during the last phase of his life. What is interesting is that he stayed there as a 'tenant'. Only a part of the Haveli remains now, as it has undergone quite a bit of alteration and demolition since Mirza Ghalib's death. Thanks to the efforts of the Delhi Government, some portions of the Haveli have been turned into a Memorial in remembrance of the great Poet.

26 comments:

Unknown said...

You not a fan of Mr. Ghalib?? Sez who??

This post makes me wonder if you were a tourist in Delhi. On the same note, I guess one doesn't need to travel afar, there are places to be discovered in one's own backyard.

Peenuts said...

Nice hobby...roaming arnd in the streets of Delhi..dicovering new things....somethng which never occured 2 me when i ws there....but m making up 4 that here in Pune :)

Rendezvous said...

wel,i suppose i need to be in delhi soon as a tourist .. i ain't a fan of mirza ghalib sahib but then m sure that u will soon be one... it was really a nice blog.

keep blogging

photowannabe said...

Interesting travelogue of your own city. I enjoyed reading about it.
Thanks for visiting my blog and your kind comments. They are greatly appreciated. Come again anytime.

~ Deeps ~ said...

nice........goood that u went there...........i was in chawri bazaar yday.....checking out the ramlila procession and having good time at the street food festival the vendors spl put up in navratra at sitaram bazaar........yummy stuff...spl the mango and anaaar kulfi :)

Keshi said...

Interesting post!

Keshi.

Sidharth k Dhanda said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gonecase aka. Shutter Singh said...

Pehle Ghalib ki roti, ab Ghalib ka makaan, ab to kapda bacha hai bus, wo bechare ke paas hi rehne dena,hehe. Nice read, as usual :)

Juhi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Juhi said...

How sad that only a part of the haveli remains of such a legendary poet. I wish the Indian tourism ministry would put in more efforts to save such legacies...for what is past can only be preserved. It wnt come back to us again.

And your sojourn to Chandni Chowk reminds me of my recent visits there... it is always so difficult to find a place/address there and all those rickshaw rides...I wonder how these rikshewalas are able to maneuver their vehicles in such traffic and crowd! takes some skill!!

Sidharth k Dhanda said...

what u do is good .. :) .. and has power ..

i handle tech for a company ..

will connect with u when i visit delhi.

p.s. do check million dollar baby smile on my blog ..

more later,
Sidharth.

Rajeev said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RB said...

Cool stuff ya...I still need to visit the place.

~ ॐ ~ said...

interesting !!!

burf said...

havn't visited it till now

Reeta Skeeter said...

j: Nah am not. Says me! Yeah true.. there are so many places to be discovered in one's own backyard :)
===================================
peenuts: Pune is a great place to make up for that... I can bet my life on it :P
===================================
rohit jain: Ah thanks for dropping by. Happy Blogging!
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photowannabe: Thanks :) Happy Blogging!
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~deeps~: YEAH...sitaram bazaar..hmm interesting... am yet to visit the place...
===================================
keshi: Thanks ji :)
===================================
Sidharth k Dhanda: Thanks.. yeah will..
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gonecase: haanji ek dum.. wo unhi ke pass rahenge :P Thanks.
===================================
juhi: Yo girl...I agree. Well CC is best seen on foot, me thinks...
===================================
aarbee: Yeah do go! :)
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~||om||~ : hmm :)
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burf: Then I would say must go... small place that... but you might end up liking it...worth a visit.
===================================

Shubhodeep said...

interesting blog... liked the writings... keep it going!!!

will be back here for more... meanwhile hope to see u at my blog. sometime...

durjoy datta said...

intersting!
very interesting!

The Furobiker said...

i never went there :(

Subhadip said...

That's a nice thing to do.

Lakshmi said...

Nothing like old world charm and discovering yourself through them ..nice post

Łóòň Ġãĺ said...

u're getting obsessed with chandni chowk rt? ;p

Vineeta said...

"Ballimaran ki pecheeda benoor see galiyan.." or something to that effect- I can hear Gulzars voice in my head. No I too am not a die hard Ghalib fan, more due to the fact that my knowledge of Urdu is negligible :) I wish that were no the case. Beautiful post. I wish more people did what you did more often. Old ahmedabad had a similar effect on me. But for me it means silectly clicking a thousand photographs of the place.

Slogan Murugan said...

Just read 'The LAst Mughal'. And then seeing this is a treat :)

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